Got soup?

It’s 90 degrees outside, but I am craving soup. I think it’s the Hawaiian in me. After all, it’s always 80 something degrees there and everywhere you go in the islands, you’ll find soup: Japanese miso and noodle soups, Chinese oxtail and won ton soups and Portuguese calo verde (a green kale and potato soup) and bean soups. Just about every restaurant back home serves soup, they sell it frozen in the supermarket and you can even get ‘saimin’ (a noodle soup which is a favourite of children) at the local McDonald’s.

This love of soup is a legacy of our Hawaiian ancestors, most of whom toiled on the plantations which were the cornerstone of the Hawaiian economy until the last part of this century. It makes sense if you think about it: soup was the perfect food for plantation families. It was inexpensive, it made good use of leftovers, it didn’t require constant tending (important for women with large families and homes to take care of), it was a filling, hearty meal suited for labourers and it stayed warm and ready, perfect for families with workers on differing shifts.

Many of my ancestors lived and worked on Hawaii’s plantations. Portuguese immigrants brought to the islands to work on the sugar plantations in the late 1800's, they were machinists, truck drivers, and store clerks. My grandmother was born on the Waipahu Sugar Plantation (now “Plantation Village,” 26 carefully restored/replicated structures which now serve to illustrate the lifestyle and culture of the 400,000 immigrant plantation workers) which is not 10 miles from where I lived when we were stationed at Hickam Air Force Base. (My grandmother and father actually lived near “Hickam Field” during the bombing of Pearl Harbor.)

As a small child, I remember watching my great-grandmother making soup in my grandmother’s kitchen during her visits, fascinated by the melodic sing song cadence of her voice. (English and Hawaiian are the official languages in Hawaii, but many of the locals speak pidgin, at least to each other, and have a much more musical quality to their phrasing when they do speak “regular English.”) Now my sister and I both make soup for our families regularly. We both use the same basic recipe our great-grandmother used (a twentieth century adaptation of her mother’s recipe), but with variations that produce totally different results.

One thing that is exactly the same, however, is the love that goes into the making of it and the link it provides to our Portuguese ancestors and the Hawaiian culture they helped shape.

Basic Recipe for Portuguese Bean Soup
4 cans Bean with Bacon soup
2 cups beef broth
1 can kidney beans, drained
3 potatoes, cubed
1 bunch watercress leaves, chopped
1 Portuguese sausage, cut in half then sliced into pieces
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon onion powder

Combine soup, beef broth and water in large soup pot. Set on medium heat; add potato, watercress, kidney beans, soy sauce and onion powder and heat through. Once heated, turn heat to low and simmer for a few hours. When potatoes are cooked through, add sausage and simmer another hour or so. Turn off heat, let soup cool a bit then place, tightly covered, in refrigerator for at least 24 hours. (Yes, you can serve it right away, but it is even better if you let it sit.) The next day, warm soup through and serve plain or over sticky white (i.e., asian style) rice.

There are a million variations on this recipe, all of them good. My sister omits the potatoes and sausage and substitutes shredded cabbage for the watercress; she also prefers her soup thinner and adds more water. Some people prefer to use elbow macaroni instead of potatoes, others add diced carrots or onions to their soup. Sometimes chicken stock is used instead of beef broth. If Portuguese sausage is unavailable, kielbasa or chorizo may be used instead. (In other words, do exactly as my ancestors on the plantation did when making this soup: use what you like and what is available and just keep tasting and adjusting and you’ll end up with something wonderful.)