Miso bean soup

I already mentioned in the recipe for a meatless miso soup that it is a similar culinary tradition to Polish sourdough żurek. The base for Polish sourdough is wheat or other grains, while miso uses soybeans with the addition of grains, usually rice. However, in both cases, we use the same process: one of the most amazing and important fermentation processes in cooking.

INGREDIENTS:
1 onion (100 g)
500g cooked red beans.

2-3 small bell peppers (400 g)
3 cloves of garlic
1 sweet potato (250 g)
100 g miso
50 g rapeseed oil (5 tablespoons)
1/4 teaspoon of ground juniper
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1 teaspoon of sugar
salt

PREPARATION:
Cut the onion into slices.
Quarter the bell peppers, remove the seeds and membranes. Cut into strips ACROSS.
Crush or finely chop the garlic and set aside. Remember: after crushing, let the garlic sit for a few minutes to fully reveal its health properties.
Dice the sweet potato.
In a pot, heat the oil and add the onion. Fry the onion over medium heat, stirring until it starts to turn golden and slightly brown. Add the bell pepper and continue frying, stirring for a few more minutes until the pepper is clearly browned. Add garlic and spices and fry for 2-3 minutes.
Add sweet potatoes, tomatoes, 1/2 liter of water, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook for 5-10 minutes until the sweet potatoes begin to soften but still remain al dente.
Dissolve miso in 1/2 liter of boiled water.
Add beans, dissolved miso, and sugar to the soup. Bring to a boil and remove from heat.
Optionally, at the end, you can add any greens you have, such as cilantro, parsley, fresh herbs, juniper, thyme, etc.

WARRANTIES:
I have a weakness for sweet potatoes. And although I try to choose local products more and more often (for several reasons), sweet potatoes rule. But you can use potatoes, carrots, and other root vegetables for this soup. Another vegetable that I love and is local this time is parsnip.

We can grate the vegetables (not sweet potatoes and potatoes) and sauté them briefly with onion, pepper, and spices. This is a method worth remembering and using to enhance the taste from Asian cuisine, through short frying in hot vegetable oil and/or spices.

We can also add mushrooms, fresh or dried, which will add even more umami, sautéed tofu or other vegan protein. Instead of sweet potatoes, we can use rice. Soups have the characteristic that their recipes can be easily modified by using what we have on hand.

REMARKS:
It's good to use peppers in different colors. The more colors, the better. Evolutionarily, we are shaped in such a way that we tend to enjoy foods that have more colors, flavors, and textures.

SERVICE:
We serve it classically. With bread, croutons, or a spoonful of cold, salted yogurt, sprinkled with greens, herbs, seeds/nuts.

The importance of the Neolithic revolution, the transition to cultivation and breeding, the discovery of fire and cooking food is often emphasized, but the fermentation process remains somewhat unnoticed. At the household and even restaurant level, it is currently not very present. Just a few decades ago, pickling beets, cabbage, fermenting wine were quite common household skills and activities, not only in rural areas. Today we know that pickling and fermentation (well, maybe not necessarily alcohol) are beneficial processes for our health. And they're delicious because the fermentation process often produces an umami flavor.