ETL: Bulgarian Bean Soup - "Zrial bob"

This dish is the most popular Bulgarian dish. All Bulgarian women and probably 95% of the Bulgarian male population know how to cook "bob". The recipe is so wildly popular, so I would never think of posting it, if Marulka did not ask me to do so. She needed to refresh and re-validate the recipe she remembered from her childhood.

So here is my version:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of beans
• 1 tbsp dry mint
• 1 tbsp dry savory (chubritza)
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
• 1 whole dry chili pepper
• 1 bunch savory of special type, known in Bulgaria as "rogata chubritza" ( optional )
• 2-3 carrots
• 1 onion
• 2-3 sweet peppers or 1 bell pepper of any color
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• salt to taste
•  fresh mint and parsley to garnish

Step 1. For good digestion soak the beans overnight. You can use any kind of beans you like. I used cannelloni.

Step2. Add the beans to the pot and cover them with water. Turn the stove on high heat to get the water boiling. Then discard the water, and repeat the same procedure 2 more times. Discarding the boiling water makes the beans easier to digest.
Step 3. Add water to the pot, approximately 1.5 inch above the beans.
Step 4. Add all of the ingredients without the salt.  Putting the salt at the beginning,  increases the cooking time.

Step 5. Cover the pot with the lid and cook the soup at low heat for about 3 hours, or until the beans become soft.

Step 6. Add salt and fresh mint and parsley. The soup goes well with "shopska salad". Look at the recipe posted by Slaninka.