Asturian white bean fabada soup is boiled for 1.5 hours. Soak the beans overnight to soften them up. Or boil it for a couple of minutes, remove from the burner and leave for an hour.
How to cook fabada
Products
White beans – 200 grams
Smoked chorizo sausage – 200 grams
Smoked morcilla sausage – 200 grams
Smoked pork belly – 100 grams
Onions – 1 head
Olive oil – 3 tablespoons
Garlic – 4 cloves
A pinch of dried saffron
Coarse salt – 1 tablespoon
How to cook fabada
1. Soak dried white beans in cool water for 7-8 hours (the water should cover the beans with a margin of a couple of centimeters).
2. Peel the onion and garlic.
3. Drain the water in which the beans were soaked, pour new cool water and add the whole pork belly and chorizo sausage, onion, garlic cloves to the same pan.
4. After boiling, remove the foam, pour in olive oil and cook over low heat for 30 minutes.
5. Grind dried saffron in a mortar or metal bowl with coarse salt, pour a couple of spoons of broth.
6. After two minutes, pour the saffron infusion into a saucepan, add a glass of cool water, put a whole morsilla and cook for another half hour.
7. Remove onions, garlic, a ladle of beans, smoked meats from the soup. Discard the onion and garlic, mash the beans and return to the pot, stir the soup, cover and leave for another half hour.
8. Cut the sausage into circles, the brisket into cubes, arrange on plates, pour over the finished soup. Serve fabada with fresh white bread and cider.
Tasty Facts
The name Fabada comes from the Asturian word fabes, which means beans, the main ingredient of the soup. This is a traditional dish of the Spanish province of Asturias. This mountainous region is located in the northern part of Spain off the coast of the Bay of Biscay. The province still bears the title of Principality of Asturias and has its own language.
– The close location of the mountains and diverse vegetation allow local residents to develop cattle breeding and pig breeding. Thanks to this, the cuisine of Asturias always contains meat in its various types, not excluding a large number of sausages.
– Chorizo and morcillo, which are traditionally used in Fabada soup, savory pork sausages. The spicy aroma and reddish-orange color of the chorizo comes from paprika, which is abundantly added to the minced meat. Morcilla is a blood sausage made from pork blood, meat, fat, rice and onions.
– You can replace Spanish delicacies with more familiar and affordable Bavarian and hunting sausages or any other raw smoked pork sausages, including those with the addition of paprika.