Galician white bean soup recipe - caldo gallego

The traditional white bean soup prepared in Galicia, Spain with their local ham (lacon), local lard or bacon (unto) green vegetables (grelos) and potatoes (cachelos), ask for "Caldo Gallego" or "Pote Gallego" if you visit the region. Grelos are a kind of turnip green and as such they have a bitter taste. Grelos can be substituted by other vegetable, if not available, a favorite is cabagge. Lacon, Galician ham, can be very salty and often has to be soaked in water for long hours to wash the salt away.

Galician white bean soup recipe

This is the Galician white bean soup recipe more popular over Spain, because of its simplicity -Caldo gallego can become more sophisticated with the addition of chorizo or other meats- and we use it because it will be easier to find these ingredients out of Galicia.

Ingredients

Procedure

1. Wash the beans, cover with cold water and soak for 8 hours or overnight.
2. Drain, discarding the soaking water. Put the beans into a large soup or stock pot and add 2 quarts (8 cups or 2 l) water -beans should be covered- and bring to a boil. When the liquid starts boiling, add the ham and bacon. Reduce heat and simmer for about 1¼ hours. Add more cold water if required.
3. Add paprika, olive oil, potatoes and cabbage. Simmer for 30 minutes or until beans are tender. Don't add salt before testing first, the ham usually brings a strong flavor. Season.
4. Dice the ham discarding the bone, if you are going to serve the ham with the soup, and serve very hot.

Cooking Tips

• Preparing this soup with a pressure cooker is a breeze. Just put all the ingredients together and cover with water -about an inch over the solid ingredients. Beans usually take about 25 minutes once the pressure cooking has kicked in, but it depends on the model. Follow the manufacturers instructions.
• Use 2 cans (Net WT 15 oz) white beans of any kind. Drain and wash the beans, use cooked ham or serrano ham -you can skip bacon. Cover the beans with water and bring to boil, add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer until the potetoes and cabagge are cooked, about 20-30 minutes. Adjust salt.