We first encountered this in Teruel, one of the most famous sites of the Spanish Civil War. It is filling and delicious, a meal in itself, especially with bread and rosé wine. If you can't get spicy chorizo -- the small variety, less than about an inch/25mm in diameter, rather than the large-diameter, thinly-sliced variety -- you can use almost any other variety of cooked sausage such as diced garlic sausage. You can even use British bangers that have been grilled and then left to go cold. Or buy 4 inches/10cm of the large-diameter chorizo, uncut, and dice that.
Quantities and proportions are utterly variable, depending on how much you make, whether it's a main meal or a starter, and whether you like the emphasis to be on the soupy side (the stock) or the solid side (the chorizo and vegetables). The proportions given are no more than a starting point: the point is that it's a great combination, no matter how you do it. Obviously we recommend making a test batch for yourself before you try it out on guests.
It's extremely economical and the actual preparation time isn't long: well under half an hour. Once the preparation and frying are over it can safely be left unattended until 10-15 minutes before you serve it up.
Ingredients
|
Stock (meat or vegetable) |
1 to 2 litres |
2 to 4 pints |
May be extended with water, white wine, stock cubes... |
|
Chickpeas (Garbanzos) canned |
300 to 600 g |
8 to 18 oz |
Or soak and boil them yourself. They must be cooked before you add them to the soup. |
|
Potatoes |
200 to 800 g |
6 to 20 oz. |
Optional |
|
Onion |
1 to 4 |
Optional |
|
|
Chorizo |
100 to 400 g |
4 to 12 oz |
Or, as noted, any other cooked sausage |
|
Spinach or nettles |
100 to 500g |
4 to 18 oz |
Fresh or (in the case of spinach) frozen |
|
Olive oil |
1 to 3 tablespoons |
Extra Virgin is best. Or you can use any other oil. |
|
|
Garlic |
1 clove to 1 head |
Optional |
|
|
Salt and pepper |
To taste |
Preferably fresh ground black pepper and sea salt |
Method
Drain and rinse the chickpeas.
Peel the potatoes (if you decide to use them -- we recommend it) and dice them finely: about 6mm (1/4 inch) cubes. Without the potatoes, reduce the olive oil to the minimum.
Peel and dice the onion. We mostly leave the onion out.
Cut the chorizo into slices about 1/4 inch (6mm) thick. If you like smaller chunks, slice the sausage lengthways beforehand in half, or in quarters. Divide the cut sausage into two equal portions.
If you are using fresh nettles -- and the flavour justifies it! -- use fresh young leaves, stripped from the stem. Wear gloves while picking and preparing. Once they are cooked, they will cease to sting but have a wonderful spicy flavour.
Peel and coarsely chop the garlic. Again it's optional. We use it sometimes, and not others. With bland British bangers, it's far more useful than with a spicy chorizo.
Set the potatoes and onions to frying very slowly in the olive oil in the bottom of a large, heavy casserole. You can do this while you are preparing the rest of the ingredients. When they are golden, add one half of the chorizo or other sausage and fry until it loses some of its fat (obviously the fattiness of the chorizo affects how much olive oil you will need). Add the diced garlic and fry gently for another minute or two.
If you are not using potato or onion, just fry the chorizo gently for a couple of minutes and then add the diced garlic before frying (still gently) for for another minute or two. Or three.
If you don't have a large, heavy casserole, fry the potatoes, etc., in a frying pan and transfer to a big soup pan.
Add the stock, the drained chickpeas (garbanzos) and the other half of the chorizo or other sausage (this gives you two different textures and flavours of chorizo or sausage). Bring to the boil, and immediately reduce to a simmer.
Simmer for anything from 15 minutes to 2 hours, depending on how much you want the potato to break up. About 10 minutes before serving, add the spinach or nettles. If you're using frozen spinach, add it a bit earlier and turn the heat up in order to melt it. Season with salt and pepper to taste. You shouldn't need much salt as the sausage will supply quite a lot. We like it with ridiculously large amounts of pepper.
Go back to the list of articles
or to the Home Page
or support the site with a small donation.
© 2008 Roger W. Hicks