Soups & stews recipes
Cocidos, fabada and the cold soups of the south.
15 recipes
Ajoblanco
A chilled Malagueño soup of blanched almonds, garlic and bread bound with good olive oil and sharpened with vinegar, often called white gazpacho. Older than the tomato itself in Andalusia, it is pure, cooling and unexpectedly elegant.
Caldo Gallego
Galicia's warming winter soup of white beans, potatoes and leafy greens, enriched with cured pork fat and often chorizo. Born of rainy farm kitchens, it is honest, filling and made to hold off the Atlantic cold.
Callos a la Madrileña
Madrid's beloved tripe stew, braised low and slow with chorizo, morcilla and pork snout in a thick, paprika-red sauce. A nose-to-tail classic of the city's old taverns, it is deeply gelatinous and always better the next day.
Cocido Madrileño
Madrid's great chickpea-and-meat stew is a whole meal in one pot, served in three courses from the same broth: first a noodle soup, then the chickpeas and vegetables, then the meats. It is unhurried, generous winter cooking at its most iconic.
Escudella i Carn d'Olla
Catalonia's great boiled dinner is a two-part feast: a rich broth cooked with meats and vegetables, floated with a giant meatball called the pilota, then the meats and pasta served after. It is the traditional heart of a Catalan Christmas table.
Fabada Asturiana
Asturias' mighty mountain stew simmers plump white fabes beans with chorizo, morcilla and pork until the broth turns silky and smoky. It is deep winter food, rich and unhurried, meant to be eaten slowly with bread and cider.
Gazpacho Andaluz — the 15-minute cold soup
Andalusia’s cold tomato soup: ripe tomatoes, olive oil and sherry vinegar blended silky. No cooking — the only rule is ripe produce and a long chill.
Gazpacho Manchego
Despite its name, this is a hearty hot game stew from the plains of La Mancha, thickened with torn pieces of unleavened flatbread that cook right in the pot. It is shepherds' food: filling, rustic and built to be shared straight from the pan.
Lentejas Estofadas
The lentil stew that simmers in kitchens across Spain, a humble plato de cuchara that turns cheap ingredients into deep, savoury comfort. It rewards slow cooking and tastes even better reheated the next day.
Marmitako
A Basque fishermen's stew of tuna and potatoes, born aboard the boats and named after the pot it cooked in. The trick that defines it is breaking rather than slicing the potatoes, so their starch thickens the broth into something rich and rounded.
Porrusalda
Porrusalda is a humble Basque soup of leeks and potatoes simmered in a light broth, its name literally meaning leek broth. Frugal and warming, it is peasant cooking at its best, sometimes enriched with a piece of salt cod or a little pumpkin.
Potaje de Garbanzos
Potaje de garbanzos is a comforting Spanish chickpea stew, most famous in its meatless Lenten form with salt cod and spinach. Born of the Catholic fasting calendar, the potaje de vigilia proves that abstinence can still be deeply satisfying.
Pote Gallego
Pote gallego is the hearty Galician cousin of caldo gallego, a thick pot of white beans, potatoes, turnip greens and cured pork. It is cold-weather fuel from Spain's rainy northwest, dense and restorative, built around the pig and the greens of the huerta.
Salmorejo — Córdoba’s silkiest tomato cream
Thicker and richer than gazpacho: tomatoes, bread, garlic and olive oil blended to a velvet cream, topped with jamón and egg. Five ingredients, no stove.
Sopa de Ajo
Sopa de ajo is Castilian thrift turned into comfort: yesterday's bread revived in a smoky, garlicky broth and crowned with an egg that poaches right in the pot. It is warming, cheap and deeply satisfying.
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