Dried broad beans, skinned after overnight soaking, go into the slow cooker with potato, onion, garlic, cumin, and vegetable stock. A lemon and a stick blender finish the pot. One batch serves 6 and takes 3 hours on HIGH.

Broad beans keep their outer skins after soaking, and those skins come off before anything goes in the pot. Skinned beans break down fully during the cook and blend into a smooth, even purée. Left on, the tough outer membrane breaks into fragments that stay gritty regardless of blending time.

The broad beans go through a 10-minute rolling boil on the hob before the slow cooker. Dried beans contain lectins that need direct high heat to neutralise. The slow cooker never reaches the temperature required for that step, so the stovetop boil is not optional here.

Slow Cooker Moroccan Broad Bean Soup

Recipe by Shili MohamedCourse: SoupsCuisine: MoroccanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

3

hours 

15

minutes

Calories

340

kcal

Slow Cooker Moroccan Broad Bean Soup by Katy Holder. Broad beans with cumin, coriander, paprika, lemon, and potato. Vegan, blended smooth, serves 6 in 3 hours

Ingredients

• Sauté

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 large brown onion, finely chopped

• 4 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 tsp ground cumin

• 1 tsp ground coriander

• ½ tsp sweet paprika

• Slow Cooker

• 570g (3 cups) dried broad beans, soaked overnight, skins removed

• 1 litre (4 cups) water

• 500ml (2 cups) vegetable stock

• 1 large potato, peeled and cut into large chunks

• Finish

• Zest and juice of 1 lemon

• To Serve

• Chopped fresh coriander

• Extra paprika

• Extra virgin olive oil

• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

• Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, cumin, ground coriander, and paprika. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes until the onion has softened.
• Add the skinned broad beans and 1 litre of water to the saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil and cook for 10 minutes. Transfer the contents to the slow cooker.
• Add the vegetable stock and potato chunks to the slow cooker. Stir, cover, and cook on HIGH for 3 hours, until the beans and potato are fully tender.
• Use a stick blender to blend the soup directly in the slow cooker. Add the lemon zest and juice while blending. Stir in a splash of water if the soup is too thick.
• Season with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls and garnish each with chopped coriander, a pinch of paprika, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

FAQs

Why does the skin need to come off each broad bean before cooking?

The outer skin of a broad bean is tough and stays gritty through blending, leaving rough flecks in the finished soup. For a 570g batch, removing the skins takes about 10 minutes and makes the difference between a smooth purée and a grainy one. Squeeze from the stem end and the bean pops out cleanly.

Why does the lemon go in during blending rather than at the start of cooking?

Adding lemon at the start and cooking it for 3 hours destroys most of the volatile compounds that give fresh lemon its brightness. Heat converts them into bitterness, leaving the soup tasting flat and slightly sharp from the rind. Adding the zest and juice during blending keeps the citrus forward and clean in the finished bowl.

Why does the potato go into the slow cooker rather than the sauté pan?

The potato is cut into large chunks and needs the full 3-hour cook to soften completely. Added to the sauté pan, those pieces would need 20 to 30 minutes over heat and would prevent the spices from cooking evenly. The slow cooker handles that work passively while the aromatics do their job at the start.

What other slow cooker soup works well for a second vegetarian night in the same week?

A pureed soup in a different flavour direction covers a second night without any overlap with the broad beans. A pea and mint soup on this site gives a lighter, spring-register bowl at the opposite end of the flavour range. Together the two build a vegetarian soup rotation with strong contrast across one week.

What if a more substantial meal with meat suits the week better than a vegetarian soup?

Broad bean soup is vegetarian and light; a protein-based dish in a neighbouring culinary tradition covers different ground. A spicy African chicken stew on this site takes the same warm spice notes into a meat-forward bowl. Together the two cover the same broad flavour palette from opposite sides of the slow cooker range.