A comforting, rustic soup born in the South West of France: Garbure

Hearty, meaty and stuffed with vegetables, including white beans and cabbage, garbure is a soul-satisfying French tradition. Recipe below.

WINTER WEATHER BRINGS OUT THE SOUP LOVER IN EVERYONE. And for us, that means a world of soups to explore. Marion recently discovered garbure, a hearty traditional favorite in the South West region of France—think Toulouse, Bordeaux, Gascony, the Pyrénées along France’s border with Spain. It generally features white beans and savoy cabbage, but it’s not a bean soup or cabbage soup.

As with most traditional dishes, there are many variations on garbure. Some feature duck confit as the meat, but many use smoky pork such as ham hocks. Most add carrots, potatoes, leeks and turnips. Many cooks add stale bread to the soup, both extending the soup and using up bread before it ages out of the system. And often, garbure is served as two courses—first, the broth and vegetables, and then the meat, served as a main course with perhaps cornichons or a salad.

Garbure is a slow-cooked soup. There are beans to soak (we used a quick-soak method we’ll share in the recipe) and the smoked hock cooks a few hours, imparting its smoky flavor to the broth and vegetables, and becoming fork-shredding tender. Like most soups, garbure is even more delicious a day or two after it is cooked. And finally, we’re more likely to cook something we know how to pronounce. So here’s how to say garbure.

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Garbure

Hearty, meaty and stuffed with vegetables, including white beans and cabbage, garbure is a soul-satisfying French tradition.

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine French

Servings 6 to 8

Ingredients

• 12 ounces dried white beans (see Kitchen Notes)
• 2 pounds or so smoked ham hock (1 large or 2 smaller)
• 1 large onion, peeled
• 8 – 10 whole cloves
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme (or 4-5 fresh thyme sprigs)
• 3 1/2 tablespoons butter (or duck fat, if you have it)
• 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced on a diagonal
• 1 large turnip, peeled and cubed
• 1 leek, the white and pale green parts only, cut into 1/2-inch half rounds
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 – 4 cups shredded savoy cabbage (see Kitchen Notes)
• 3 – 4 Russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

• Soak the beans. Soak them in cold water overnight. Or use this quick-soak method. In a large pot, combine beans and cold water (6 cups water for each pound of beans—we used 4-1/2 cups for our 12 ounces of beans). Bring to a boil and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off heat, cover pot and soak beans for at least an hour).
• Start the broth. Poke the cloves into the peeled whole onion. Put the onion, the ham hock, bay leaves and thyme into a large Dutch oven or stock pot. Add 3 to 3-1/2 quarts of water to the pot, enough to cover the ham hock (or very nearly—you can turn the hock occasionally as it cooks). Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.
• Meanwhile, as you near the end of that hour of broth cooking, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat, then cook the carrots, turnip, leek and minced garlic for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring frequently to avoid overbrowning the leek.
• Add the vegetables and the drained white beans to the broth, and simmer for 1 hour, covered.
• Next, add the shredded savoy cabbage and simmer for 30 minutes, covered.
• Stir in the potatoes and simmer at least another 30 minutes, until they are quite tender. When you add the potatoes to the pot, you can cover it or leave it uncovered, depending on how much liquid remains—we chose to let the broth cook down a bit.
• Transfer the hock from the broth to a cutting board. Let it cool slightly, then remove and discard the outer skin and fat. Remove the now very tender meat from the bones and, working with two forks, shred it. You can also use a sharp knife, but the forks method shreds it beautifully and is so satisfying to do. Return the meat to the pot.
• Discard the bay leaves. Remove the cloved onion from the pot. Discard the cloves, chop the onion and add it back to the pot.
• Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper (the smoked hock will add plenty of salt, so season accordingly). At this point, your garbure is ready to serve. But if you can, let it rest a day in the fridge to let the flavors combine and mellow. Your patience will be rewarded. When you serve it, give it a good stir with your ladle as you dish it up, making sure everyone gets plenty of the vegetables and meaty goodness.

Kitchen Notes

What kind of white beans? Grown in the South West region of France, Tarbais beans are the traditional bean to use. But they’re hard to find in many places outside the region. We used Great Northern beans. You can also use Navy or Cannellini beans. But do use dried beans, not canned.

Savoy cabbage. First, do seek this variety out—it is more delicate in flavor and texture than standard green cabbage. Second, when you buy it, you’ll get more than you need. You need about 1/2 pound and the smallest one we could find this time was 2 pounds. We’ve already used some of our extra for a quick shredded cabbage salad with clementine orange segments and a vinaigrette dressing. You can also use some to make Marion’s creamy Savoy Cabbage Potato Soup.