Soak your dry beans overnight. Cook the beans ahead of time. Great northern beans takes about 22-25 min to cook in a pressure cooker. Rinse the beans and set aside.

Coarsely ground cumin seeds, coriander seeds, dill seeds, mustard seeds using a pestle in a mortar. Toast them in a big sauce pan until aromatic. Heat up 1 Tsp of lard, butter or olive oil in the same pan. Once melted, add diced onion, mushroom and tomatoes. Sautee until the onion become translucent. This is the moment to add tomato paste, chili powder, and paprika. Stir to mix.

Add rib stock (or any stock handy) into the sauce pan. Dump in all the ribs. If you pre-cooked the ribs, you may add cooked bean together at this time. Otherwise add ribs first and simmer for about 1 hour or until tender before adding cooked beans.

Season the soup with salt, fish sauce and black pepper to taste. Sprinkle some fresh basil in a bowl.