🇱🇺 Luxembourg
BouneschluppLuxembourgish green bean soup
A Luxembourgish soup of green beans, potatoes, onion and smoked bacon, bound with a butter and flour roux and finished with cream, seasoned with nutmeg or summer savory.
Origin and history
Luxembourg City's tourist office calls bouneschlupp a staple of Luxembourgish home cooking that reflects the country's rural roots, and one Luxembourg cook calls it the most popular Luxembourgish soup. Paperjam describes it as a national dish also found in Saarland, Lorraine and the Gaume and Arelerland regions of Belgium. The sources give no date or origin story; they agree on green beans, potatoes and smoked pork.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 servings
- Total time
- 45 min
- Hands-on
- 25 min
Ingredients
- 500 g1.1 lb green beans (French beans), trimmed and cut in bite-sized pieces; frozen works too
- 150 g5 oz smoked bacon, diced
- 2 floury potatoes, peeled, diced in 1 cm / 1/2 in cubes
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 1 litre4 1/4 cups meat or vegetable stock, hot
- 1 tsp dried summer savory (Bounekräitchen), optional but traditional
- 1 bay leaf
- 100 mlscant 1/2 cup cream
- salt, pepper and nutmeg, to taste
Method
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1. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat and soften the chopped onion for about 4 minutes.
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2. Add the diced bacon and fry until golden.
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3. Stir in the flour and cook for about a minute, stirring, to make a pale roux.
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4. Pour in the hot stock a little at a time, stirring so no lumps form.
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5. Add the potatoes, fresh beans, bay leaf and savory; add frozen beans after the potatoes have simmered 10 minutes.
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6. Simmer, covered, 20 to 25 minutes, until the beans and potatoes are tender.
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7. Remove the bay leaf, stir in the cream and season with salt, pepper and a grating of nutmeg.
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8. Serve hot, with bread.
Notes
- The bacon-and-roux version here follows the Luxembourg City tourist office; the bay leaf and summer savory (Bounekräitchen) come from Anne's Kitchen, a Luxembourg cook, whose version uses Mettwurscht instead of bacon.
- Mettwurscht, the local smoked pork sausage, is the other classic addition. Anne's Kitchen slices it into the pot for the last 5 minutes; the Kachen brown version simmers it separately and adds it to each plate so it keeps its flavour.
- Some cooks thicken with a roux and some do not: Anne's Kitchen keeps the broth light with cream at the end, while the Kachen brown bouneschlupp browns flour in a dry pan for a darker, thicker soup.
- Regional and household versions may add carrot, leek, celery, milk, cream or extra meat (Paperjam). Paperjam says it is traditionally served with gromperekichelcher (potato fritters) and sour cream.
- If you have no savory, a pinch of thyme is a reasonable stand-in. Add the cream when reheating.
Adapted from Luxembourg City Tourist Office, Bouneschlupp, Anne's Kitchen (Luxembourg), Classic Bouneschlupp, Kachen.lu (Tasty), Brown bouneschlupp, and Paperjam (Delano), Discovering top 10 Luxembourg foods.
At the festivals
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