Bean and Chorizo Soup

"Fabada" or "Judias pintas" is one of my favorite Spanish dishes. I have been trying to recreate this hearty stew since coming to live in the US without much luck. They key to the tasty thick soup are a variety of pig products that I can't find here (chorizo, morcilla, tocino). I have tried adding things that look similar here (like Anduille sausage or Portuguese chorizo) but nothing quite measures up.

Today's attempt, though it didn't have exactly the same taste or texture as the original (the Mexican chorizo is nothing like the Spanish one, and yes, I'm biassed), was delicious and easy to make, here it goes in case you want to try it...

BEAN AND CHORIZO SOUP
Ingredients:

• 1 small onion
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• minced garlic from a jar or fresh
• 4 small cans (16oz) of beans, any variety (I used 2 cans of red kidney beans + 2 cans of small navy beans)
• 2 Mexican chorizo sausages
• Paprika
• Salt + pepper
• 1 small can of fire roasted diced tomatoes

How to:

1. Drizzle some olive oil on a pan and sautee the garlic, onions and green pepper together.
2. When the onion starts to look golden, add a bit of water, to soften the onion and make the mixture more "soupy".
3. Once the onion and the pepper look light brown and thoroughly cooked, add the can of fire roasted tomatoes.
4. Let simmer for 10 minutes or so, then puree it with a hand blender or similar.
5. Put the pureed onions, pepper and garlic back into the pan and add the beans (don't rinse them, add the contents of the can, including the liquid) and simmer.
6. In a separate pan, fry the chorizo sausage meat with a bit of olive oil (you need to take the filling out of the casing first, don't fry them in the casing!). It will kind of look like dark brown/red ground beef when fried.
7. Add the fried chorizo meat to the stew and simmer for a bit. The longer the better, but a few minutes is enough to flavor the whole stew.
8. Add salt, pepper and paprika to taste.

This soup also freezes great, so make an extra batch for another day.

NB. The chorizo is pretty spicy. If you have kids (mine are 4 and 2 and they loved this dish), add the chorizo to whoever wants it after serving the stew.