Fabada Asturiana

3 hours 5 mins

6 people

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

3 hours

Total Time

3 hours 5 mins

Fabada Asturiana or simply Fabada is a traditional bean stew from Asturias.

The dish is made from large butter beans called fabes and a selection of smoked Asturian meats like chorizo, morcilla and pancetta. Preparing an authentic fabada asturiana is easy, my recipe shows you how to prepare it and cook it in five easy steps. The secret to the best fabada asturiana is to ‘scare’ the fabes during cooking by pouring cold water. Thee cold water reduces the temperature of the liquid, slowing the hydration of the beans and stopping the starch from expanding inside the fabes and breaking the outer skin.

Ingredients
Method

500g fabes beans
2 pieces of Asturian smoked chorizo
2 pieces of Asturian smoked morcilla
2 pieces of Asturian smoked pancetta
1 large pinch of saffron
Salt to taste

Start by soaking the fabes in cold water for 12 hours.
In a large pan or casserole dish, place the fabes and just cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and skim any impurities from the surface. Add the chorizo, morcilla and pancetta pieces and cook on a very low heat for 1.5 and 3 hours, depending on the quality and age of the fabes.
After 30 minutes of cooking, add the saffron threads mixed with some of the hot liquid from the fabada. Make sure you don’t stir the fabada with a spoon, this will break the fabes, instead shake the pan clockwise to move the beans gently.
You will need to ‘scare’ the fabes two times during cooking by adding 150ml of cold water. The cold water reduces the temperature of the fabada and prevents the fabes skin from breaking.

Ingredients

500g fabes beans
2 pieces of Asturian smoked chorizo
2 pieces of Asturian smoked morcilla
2 pieces of Asturian smoked pancetta
1 large pinch of saffron
Salt to taste

Method

Start by soaking the fabes in cold water for 12 hours.
In a large pan or casserole dish, place the fabes and just cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and skim any impurities from the surface. Add the chorizo, morcilla and pancetta pieces and cook on a very low heat for 1.5 and 3 hours, depending on the quality and age of the fabes.
After 30 minutes of cooking, add the saffron threads mixed with some of the hot liquid from the fabada. Make sure you don’t stir the fabada with a spoon, this will break the fabes, instead shake the pan clockwise to move the beans gently.
You will need to ‘scare’ the fabes two times during cooking by adding 150ml of cold water. The cold water reduces the temperature of the fabada and prevents the fabes skin from breaking.

Add To Basket

Molineta Spanish Saffron 0.5g
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£3.95
Luna Beberide Mencia 2018
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£10.01
Basco Fresh Cooking Chorizo Picante 350g
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£3.50
Casa Noguera Smoked Pancetta Piece

£11.50
On Offer

Montes Dried Fabes Beans

£14.50
£12.75
Montanegra Morcilla Iberica
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£3.95

Chef's Profile

Javier De La Hormaza

Javier is a Basque born, trained chef and hospitality professional, owner of Basco Fine Foods, a Spanish food and drink importer based in Yorkshire. He regularly runs client food and drink events around the country and he is a course tutor at Hartingtons of Bakewell cookery school. Javier's passion lies on bringing quality Spanish ingredients and recipes to as many people as possible.

Twitter: @bascofinefoods
Instagram: @mrbasco