The smell of bean is spread in 51-year-old Hasmik’s kitchen. While the bean is being cooked, she starts kneading dough in a bowl making something commonly known as “tail soup”. She says it is one of her family’s favorite dishes.

“Tail soup” is made of red or black beans, which Armenian housewives usually use in winter. When the bean is cooked, dough cut into long columns is added to it. Many prefer eating the soup with garlic.

“If a family is large, you may use half a kilo of red bean, and cook it with two liters of water,” Hasmik Hovhannisyan says, adding that a half-teaspoon of salt should be put in the water.

An egg, a glass of water, and a cup of flour are put on the table of the kitchen. Hasmik breaks the egg into the bowl, then adds the water, the flour, and some salt and starts kneading the dough with both hands until the mixture becomes stiff. Then she makes two small dough balls and puts them aside.

“It is necessary to give the dough a rest,” she says.

Hasmik lives in Yerevan, but is from Akhuryan village, Shirak province. She says that the dish is widely spread in Gyumri, Shirak province, and it is considered to be a soup invented by Gyumri people.

Why is it called “tail soup” and not “bean soup”?

Hasmik says that she’d better show why.

The rolling-pin, sat in one corner of the kitchen, appears in her hands. Hasmik spills some flour on the table, puts one of the dough balls on it and starts rolling the dough quickly. The rolling-pin does its work in her hands, moving to the right and then to the left. After fully opening the dough ball, Hasmik puts the rolling-pin aside and this time takes a knife.

“We cut the dough so that to get long and thin columns, and then we once again spill some flour on the cut dough and this time we cut it horizontally,” says Hasmik, simultaneously explaining and showing the process. “We try to use flour all the time, so that the small pieces of the dough do not stick to one another.”

She puts the small pieces of the dough on a tray, and then she brings it to the pan, where the beans are almost cooked. Hamisk says that when adding the dough pieces to the bean soup it is necessary to mix it all the time so that they do not stick to each other.

She adds the dough pieces by one hand and mixes the soup by the other hand. She says that the fire must be very low.

“Now we switch to the next action – preparing stewed onion. We cut two onions into small pieces, and put it into a frying-pan, where we have poured some oil in advance,” Hasmik says.

She mixes the stewed onion with a small wooden ladle, when it is ready she adds half a tablespoon of cayenne pepper and some black pepper to it. She says, that the latter must be added depending on taste. Then she adds two tablespoons of the soup’s juice to the stewed onion, and continues mixing it.

“We take some juice from the soup, add a tablespoon of flour to it and start mixing. When we get a homogeneous mass (the stewed onion with soup juice and flour), we add it to the bean soup. Then we add some parsley and coriander cut into small pieces beforehand. You may also add some savory and khmeli-suneli (Georgian spice),” Hasmik says.

Very often when in winter Armenian housewives do not have fresh greens at hand, they use dried greens. In summer you may see different types of greens spread on newspapers and put in different corners of a house (this is the way housewives dry greens). When fully dried, they keep the greens in cloth bags. Dried greens give wonderful taste and flavor to dishes in winter.

Boiling the soup for several minutes, Hasmik turns the gas fire off. She raises the lid of the pan, and showing the small pieces of the dough, finally demonstrates how the dish gets its name. “Look here, they are real white tails, this is the reason why it is called ‘tail soup,’” she explains.

When the bowls are filled with tail soup, previously mashed garlic, wine and salty cucumbers appear on the table.

“You may add some garlic depending on taste, the same about salty cucumbers, but semi-dry wine is simply necessary for feeling the real taste of the ‘tail soup’ completely,” Hasmik advises.

The following ingredients are necessary to prepare bean soup (‘tail soup’)

500 grams bean

1 egg

A glass of water

1 cup of flour

2 onions

½ tablespoon cayenne pepper

Black pepper and khmeli-suneli depending on taste

150 grams oil

Garlic depending on taste

To cook bean soup it is necessary to:

Cook 500 grams red or black beans in two liters of water. Add half a tablespoon of salt when it is boiling. While the bean is cooked, prepare the dough. Break an egg into a bowl, beat it, then add a glass of water, some salt and keep on beating. Add a cup of flour, if the dough is not stiff enough, you may add some more flour and start kneading the dough with hands making it stiff.

Make two small dough balls to rest for some ten minutes. Then spill some flour on the table and start rolling the balls with a rolling-pin. Spilling some flour on it, cut the dough vertically then horizontally. Add the dough pieces to the bean soup and mix all the time, so that they do not stick to each other. The fire must be very low.

Prepare stewed onion, using 150 grams oil and two onions (cutting it into small pieces). Mix it adding half a tablespoon cayenne pepper, and some black pepper depending on taste. Add a mixture prepared with two tablespoons of soup juice and a tablespoon of flour to the stewed onion and then the mass – to the soup. Cook it for some five minutes and add some coriander and parsley cut into small pieces and some khmeli-suneli depending on taste.

Serve with garlic and salted cucumbers.