Fabada Asturiana

Fabada Asturiana

Recipes with Chorizo

The great bean stew of Asturias: large white fabes beans cooked low and slow with chorizo, morcilla (blood sausage), and lacón (cured pork shoulder) until the beans are creamy and the broth thick with rendered pork fat. A dish for cold, rainy days, which Asturias has in abundance.

Prep Time

12 hours (soaking)

Cook Time

3 hours

Servings

6

Difficulty

Medium

Ingredients

  • 500g dried fabes de la Granja (or large white lima beans)
  • 2 fresh cooking chorizos
  • 2 morcillas (blood sausages)
  • 200g lacón or salt pork
  • 100g tocino (cured pork belly)
  • 1 onion, halved
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Pinch of saffron threads
  • 1 tsp sweet pimentón
  • Salt

Steps

1

Soak the beans overnight in cold water. Soak the lacón and tocino in a separate bowl of cold water to remove excess salt.

2

Drain the beans and place in a large pot. Add lacón, tocino, halved onion, garlic, and bay leaf. Cover with fresh cold water by 5cm. Bring to a boil over high heat.

3

Skim any foam from the surface. Reduce heat to the lowest possible simmer. Add the chorizos and morcillas. The liquid should barely move, just an occasional bubble.

4

Cook for 2.5-3 hours at the gentlest simmer. Add saffron and pimentón in the last 30 minutes. If beans start to stick out of the liquid, add a splash of cold water (this also helps the beans cook more evenly, the "susto" technique).

5

Remove the meats and sausages. Slice the lacón and tocino, cut the chorizos and morcillas into thick pieces. Discard onion and bay leaf. Season the beans with salt. Serve the beans in wide bowls with the sliced meats arranged on top.

Tips

The key to fabada is patience. The beans must cook at the barest simmer for hours. Any vigorous boiling will break the bean skins. Traditional Asturian cooks add cold water twice during cooking (the "susto" or "scare") to help the beans absorb liquid evenly. Rest the finished fabada for 15 minutes before serving.