Sopa de Frijoles (El Salvador Bean Soup) — Traditional Recipe & Guide

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This Sopa de Frijoles (Spanish for “Bean Soup”) recipe is a hearty, savory bean soup from El Salvador enjoyed as a daily comfort dish and staple.

Below you’ll find a straightforward way to prepare Sopa de Frijoles at home — plus my tips, cultural notes, and serving suggestions.

bowl of Salvadoran sopa de frijoles, or bean soup in English

Bowl: Handmade by SageEdenPottery in OKC

Ingredients:

1 pound small red beans, dry
1/4 white or yellow onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp salt
10 cups water
Optional toppings: pico de gallo, avocado, cooked rice, hard boiled egg, crema Salvadoreña

Step-by-Step Instructions

Bring dry beans, water, garlic, onion, and salt to a boil in a large pot.
Once it reaches boiling, turn the heat down to 4 (or a little less than medium heat) and leave it for about 2 hours until the beans are tender. Around 45 minutes – 1 hour in, add 4 additional cups of water as needed.
After about 2 hours, the beans should be tender. Give the soup a taste and add additional salt to taste!
Add 1/4 – 1/2 cup of beans to each bowl followed by the broth. Top with Pico de Gallo, Cooked Rice, Hard Boiled Egg, Crema Salvadoreña (or sour cream)

Side Note: Find Keisha’s family recipe above. I made a few modifications starting with the beans. I couldn’t get the small red beans via Instacart so I got pink beans.

How to Make Salvadoran Sopa de Frijoles (Step-by-Step Photos)

Come cook with me!

For my visual friends, here’s a photo Cook Along of this bean soup recipe.

Rinse the beans

Saute onions and garlic

I went ahead and sautéed the onion and garlic a bit before adding the rinsed beans to the pot.

Add the beans

Add water to the pot

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer

Simmer for a couple of hours. This is a great meal to make while multi-tasking near by as it needs plenty of time to simmer.

What’s the difference between boiling and simmering?

Boil – rapid and consistent bubbling as shown above, typically achieved at a high temperature
Simmer – smaller and more gentle bubbling at a lower temperature

Stir and taste test

Every now and again I gave it a stir and a taste to test for seasoning and texture.

Enjoy!

To finish the soup you can add any toppings you like. Traditional toppings are listed in the recipe above, but I actually added a bit of fried salami and some cheddar cheese. lol

What Makes This Sopa de Frijoles Unique

Unlike Mexican frijoles negros or Cuban black bean soup, Salvadoran Sopa de Frijoles uses lighter beans and is often served with fresh toppings like crema, pico de gallo, and avocado.

Reader Story & Salvadoran Cooking Tips

A huge thanks to Keisha from Kansas, USA for submitting this family recipe for Salvadoran Sopa De Frijoles (bean soup)!

This recipe was passed down to her from her mother-in-law and sister-in-law.
How cool is that?!

Salvadoran Sopa de Frijoles is traditionally cooked over an open flame with a clay pot. You can imagine how much flavor that imparts.

Keisha nicely explains the difference as being “like cooking a steak in your kitchen or on the grill…. Either way, it’s still pretty tasty!”

Final Thoughts on This Recipe:

This soup is easy and hearty and very affordable. It reignited my confidence in cooking beans from dry instead of using cans, which is a huge win in my book!

I also love that you can mix things up with this recipe by adding whatever topping you’re in the mood for or whatever ingredients need used up in your fridge.

It would be cool to try it cooked in an authentic clay bean pot, too.

Thanks so much to Keisha for sharing this family recipe!