Louise Hagler’s Blog

Three Sisters Inspiration

December 18, 2009

In my quest for developing tasty, affordable, and healthful vegan meals for an upcoming book, I found inspiration from the traditional Native American companion crops of beans, corn, and squash. Known as the three sisters, these three crops were and still are grown together, with the corn providing poles for the beans, the beans providing nitrogen for the soil, and the squash vines mulching the ground. The corn and beans together provide complete protein, the squash vitamins A and C, and all together plenty of fiber. Add some dark leafy greens like kale or collards for folate plus more protein, calcium, and vitamins A, C, and K. These original people really had it figured out well before government commodities came along.

The three sisters growing together in Guatemala.

This is a quick and easy soup (or stew made with less water) using canned beans and hominy plus leftover baked squash. Originally, tepary beans were probably used with hominy or corn cooked in lime. For this recipe, any kind of beans and corn will do. Canned beans are the quickest, but a bit pricier than dried beans if you are trying to stay within a budget. If you want to start with dried beans, soak ¾ cup of either white, pinto, or kidney beans overnight and either pressure cook or cook on the stovetop until tender but not falling apart. Alternatively, canned hominy can be replaced by frozen or canned sweet corn. The greens can be replaced with cabbage, but when I tried this, I ended up adding a large amount of parsley to get some more color into the soup. We must have color.

Along with the greens, the three sisters’ friend is also chiles. I like to add some “heat” to winter soups and stews. For color, I used a minced red jalapeno I had frozen from the summer garden, but dried cracked red pepper would do just as well.

For the final fusion, instead of using vegetable broth in the soup, I added chickpea miso to the bowl of soup. Any flavor of miso will work, but the lighter ones will maintain the rich golden color of the both. The miso I use is unpasteurized and still alive, so I put a teaspoon or so in the bottom of the soup bowl, pour the boiling soup into the bowl and stir to dissolve the miso while the soup is cooling down enough to eat. Do not stir the miso into the boiling soup as it will destroy the healthful benefits of this live food.

Three Sisters Soup with Greens and Miso

THREE SISTERS SOUP PLUS GREENS AND MISO

Yield: 10 cups

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ¾ cup chopped onion (1/2 a medium onion)
• 1 tablespoon minced jalapeno, red or green or 1 teaspoon cracked red pepper
• 6 cups water
• 1-15.5 ounce can (1.5 cups) Great Northern, Kidney, or Pinto beans, rinsed and drained
• 1-15.5 ounce can (1.5 cups) hominy, rinsed and drained OR 1.5 cups frozen corn kernels
• 2 cups cooked cubed winter squash
• 1 bunch (5 ounces) chopped dark leafy greens (or more…)
• Salt to taste or miso

In a soup pot, sauté the onion and jalapeño (or cracked red pepper) in the olive oil until they are soft. Add the water and bring it to a boil. Rinse and drain the beans and hominy or corn. Peel and chop the squash. Clean and chop the greens. Add the beans, hominy, and squash to the boiling water, cover and let them simmer until they are fully heated. Add the greens and let the soup simmer only two or three minutes until the greens turn bright green. If you are using salt, stir it into the soup to taste and serve. If you are using miso in place of salt, ladle the unsalted soup immediately into soup bowls with 1 to 2 teaspoons of miso in the bottom of the bowl. Stir to dissolve the miso and serve.

¡Buen Provecho!

Filed under: Soup, Vegetables

Tags: beans, corn, Soup, squash, three sisters, vegan