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| Potaje is a slow-cooked Spanish dish, not exactly a soup nor a stew, containing legumes and vegetables, often with sausage or other cured meats. Potaje is different from cocido, another one-pot meal with legumes, because with potaje the broth is not separated to serve as a first course. This version of potaje, using canned chickpeas, is quick to prepare. |
Icy winds from snowy northern Spain are whipping across the south. Winter is here, ahead of schedule (ski stations are open). I’ve pulled out the woolen sweaters and I want, right now, a big pot of soup, a potaje, the Andalusian comida de cuchara—spoon food—chock full of vegetables, legumes, and sausage.
But with high electricity costs, I balk at slow-cooking the soup pot for a couple of hours! My alternative, a shortcut to potaje, is every bit as heart-warming as the original.
Chickpeas and other dried legumes take one to two hours to cook from scratch. Using a jar or can of cooked chickpeas and thinly sliced cutlets of pork in place of chunks of pork or beef shin that need long cooking, I have my potaje ready to eat in 35 minutes.
While I’ll make no excuses for cutting corners—I wanted hot soup now—in actuality I didn’t save money with the potaje-express.
• The jar of chickpeas (570 grams/2 cups) cost €1.27. The electricity for 30 minutes using 2000- watt induction cooking (lowest afternoon rate* was €0.13/kWh) cost €0.065. Total for chickpeas and energy: €1.33. The soup was ready for lunch.
• 250 grams dried chickpeas to make 2 cups cooked cost €0.55. The electricity for 2 hours (€0.13/kWh) cost €0.26. Total chickpeas and energy for slow-cooked potaje €0.81. The soup was ready for the next day's lunch. (If I cook a large quantity of chickpeas at the same time and freeze them in 2-cup portions, I save on the next potaje.)
Thinly sliced pork cutlets cook quickly. Pork chops could be used instead of cutlets; after cooking, cut the meat off the bones. Spareribs cut into 2-inch chunks, a turkey leg or two, chicken thighs are other possibilities. For a vegetarian potaje—even faster—omit meat and sausages and increase olive oil to ¼ cup.
Likewise with vegetables, swap out the ones you have available. If made with chard stems and chunks of pumpkin, the potaje is known as berza. The nomenclature has always confused me because “berza” actually means “cabbage” but it doesn’t contain cabbage. The soup that has cabbage isn’t berza but potaje de coles. Which, by the way, is excellent with kale instead of cabbage. Beans or lentils can be substituted for chickpeas.
If you want a thicker, creamier soup, shortly before serving, puree some of the chickpeas and potatoes in a blender and stir the slurry back into the pot. Some versions of potaje include a whole onion, green pepper, and tomato. At the end of cooking time, they are skimmed out, pureed, and returned to the pot. Sometimes a sofrito of onion, garlic, and tomato fried in olive oil is added.
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| A heart-warming meal-in-a-pot, chock full of legumes, vegetables, pieces of meat, and sausage. |
Andalusian Vegetable Soup with Chickpeas and Sausage
Potaje Andaluz
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| Potaje is done when cabbage and carrots are cooked. |
Serves 6.
8-10 cups water
1 tablespoon salt + more if needed
8 ounces pork shoulder cutlets
1 ½ ounce tocino (salt pork), pancetta, or bacon
4-5 whole, peeled carrots
1 small onion
2 cloves
1 stalk celery
1 bay leaf
8 ounces chorizo sausage
2 cups cooked and drained chickpeas (1-pound jar)
2 potatoes (14 ounces), peeled and quartered
18-24 ounces chopped cabbage (about ¼ of head)
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon sweet pimentón de la Vera (smoked paprika)
8 ounces morcilla sausage
Sprigs of mint to serve
Bring pot of water with 1 tablespoon of salt to a boil. Add the pork cutlets, tocino, carrots, onion stuck with cloves, celery, and bay leaf to the pot. Lower heat to medium and cook 10 minutes.
Add the chorizo, chickpeas, potatoes, and cabbage. In a small bowl combine the oil with the pepper, cumin, and pimentón. Stir in some of the water from the pot to mix. Stir the spices into the pot. Cook 10 minutes longer. Pierce the morcillas in several places with a skewer (to prevent steam from building up and causing the sausages to burst) and add them to the pot. Raise the heat to a boil, then lower heat and cook until cabbage and potatoes are tender, 10 to 15 minutes more. Skim the meat, tocino, sausages, carrots, and potatoes out of the potaje. Use kitchen scissors to cut them into bite-size chunks. Return them to the pot. Discard bay leaf, onion and cloves, and celery. Let the soup settle 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with sprigs of mint.
*More about saving on the electric bill What to Cook When the Electric Bill Soars . Interestingly, since I wrote that in 2021, the most economical rates in Spain now are usually from 2 to 3 in the afternoon, instead of in the middle of the night. That's because more and more of Spain's power is generated by solar.
More versions of potaje, both slow and fast.
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