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Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Recipes / Stock, Broth & Soups / Soup Recipes / Soup Recipes For Dinner / Traditional Spanish Bean Soup

Traditional Spanish Bean Soup

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

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Traditional recipe for Spanish bean soup with a base of soaked legumes, vegetables, and meat stock perfectly blended with chopped chorizo.

Spanish bean soup in a bowl with wooden spoons

A local hotspot in my hometown to enjoy traditional food is the Tampa Bay History Center.

The museum cafe is a mini version of the hugely famous Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City.

Ybor City is the historical Spanish neighborhood just north of downtown Tampa that is home to many shops and restaurants along with at least one remaining cigar factory.

It’s also where I shop every week at an urban farm to obtain locally-grown, seasonal produce.

The recipe below for Spanish bean soup on the cafe placemats immediately caught my eye while enjoying a quick lunch on a family outing.

Everything about it was traditional from soaking the beans overnight to using beef and ham bones to make the soup broth. Alternatively, you can use meat stock as the base.

Even lard is used to fry the onion and bacon!

I thought I would share this recipe with you as it is simple and fast to make and one of the most delicious blends of meats, beans, and broth you will ever try.

If you live in Tampa or will be visiting soon, go and check this place out! 

If you are in a hurry, it doesn’t seem that you need to gain entrance to the museum itself to sit down and enjoy a quick lunch.

spanish bean soup in a bowl
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Traditional Spanish Bean Soup Recipe

Traditional recipe for Spanish bean soup that nourishes with properly prepared legumes, vegetables, and a meat stock base blended with chopped chorizo.

Course Main Course
Cuisine Spanish
Keyword gluten free, healthy, nourishing, traditional
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Soak Time 8 hours
Total Time 9 hours 5 minutes
Servings 8
Calories 361 kcal
Author Sarah Pope

Ingredients

  • 1 cup dried chickpeas
  • filtered water
  • 1 pound potatoes preferably organic
  • 4 ounces bacon preferably grassfed
  • 4 links chorizo Spanish sausage
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 1 beef bone
  • 1 ham bone
  • 2 Tbsp lard preferably pastured
  • 1 pinch saffron
  • 1 Tbsp sea salt

Instructions

  1. Soak dried chickpeas overnight in a large bowl or pot with a tablespoon of sea salt dissolved in sufficient filtered water to cover. Use 2 cups of these presoaked chickpeas if preferred.

  2. Drain the water from the chickpeas and rinse in clean filtered water. Place chickpeas and bones in a large pot with 2 quarts of fresh, filtered water (or meat stock if omitting the bones). Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, and simmer for 45 minutes on low heat.

  3. Immediately after starting to cook the chickpeas, fry the bacon and onion in lard until the onion is caramelized. Add the bacon, onion, potatoes, and saffron to the pot with the simmering beans and bones.

  4. When the potatoes are soft, remove the pot of soup from the heat and add chorizo cut into 1/2-inch thick medallions.

  5. Remove the bones from the soup, add sea salt to taste, and serve at the table with an optional dollop of homemade creme fraiche.

Recipe Notes

Substitute lentils for the chickpeas for a GAPS diet friendly version.

 

Nutrition Facts
Traditional Spanish Bean Soup Recipe
Amount Per Serving (1 cup)
Calories 361 Calories from Fat 189
% Daily Value*
Fat 21g32%
Saturated Fat 9g45%
Polyunsaturated Fat 2g
Monounsaturated Fat 10g
Cholesterol 56mg19%
Potassium 564mg16%
Carbohydrates 26g9%
Fiber 5g20%
Protein 17g34%
Vitamin C 5mg6%
Calcium 43mg4%
Iron 5mg28%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Spanish bean soup in white bowl on table
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Category: Dairy Free Recipes, Gluten Free Recipes, Legume Recipes, Pork Recipes, Soup Recipes For Dinner
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: Amazon #1 bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

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Reader Interactions

Comments (29)

  1. Kari H.

    May 15, 2024 at 7:17 pm

    This looks delicious!
    Do you know what this soup is called in the Spanish language?

    Reply
    • Sarah Pope

      May 16, 2024 at 9:51 am

      Great question! I have no idea!

  2. Michelle

    May 15, 2024 at 11:24 am

    Why does the picture show lentil soup with sliced hot dogs but the recipe calls for garbanzo beans and chorizo?

    Reply
    • Sarah Pope

      May 16, 2024 at 10:02 am

      Per the recipe notes, lentils may be substituted for chickpeas for a GAPS friendly version. My husband has been on GAPS for many years and still cannot tolerate most legumes (only lentils, split peas and navy beans allowed on GAPS). This is my personal tweak only for my family’s needs … it was not on the restaurant menu as described in the post.

  3. Emily

    Mar 31, 2012 at 11:49 am

    I second the recommendation for the Mitsitam Cafe at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. Most of the museums along the national mall have ok food, but this one goes above and beyond. It’s also great for people with food allergies as everything is labeled for common allergens (corn, gluten, dairy, etc) and most of the food is cooked at stations where you can actually ask questions of the chefs. I also recommend the cafe at the Sculpture Garden, which has nice salads, though they aren’t all organic so you have to choose carefully. The area around the national mall is otherwise a desert of hot dog stands and Starbucks, so we’re thankful for these two good options!

    Reply
  4. lisa

    Mar 25, 2012 at 9:53 pm

    Is Columbias the same one in central Florida, Orlando Celebration, and St. Augustine? I made the soup tonight and it was a big hit! I had all the ingredients which made me happy! Thanks for the post.
    Lisa

    Reply
  5. cindy

    Mar 25, 2012 at 8:20 pm

    You may want to remind everyone that all these ingredients should be organic in nature otherwise they are subject to GM contamination and de-natured nutrients.

    Reply
  6. Girl With Curl

    Mar 24, 2012 at 3:32 pm

    I plan to visit the History Center soon especially knowing that there is a bowl of delicious bean soup waiting for me there.

    Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, OK also has WONDERFUL food in it’s cafe…buffalo, hand-made pasta, amazing desserts, etc that change with the season. It’s a little more than you would normally spend at a museum restaurant – but worth the price for the quality. It’s not at all what I was expecting when I visited with family. It also had a great view!

    Reply
    • Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist

      Mar 24, 2012 at 5:16 pm

      The museum is awesome too. Not a boring, left brained approach to museum displays with word heavy placards everywhere next to the exhibits, but living breathing exhibits that hit you from all 5 senses with personal guides asking for observations and pointing out very interesting cool stuff the whole way through. . I highly recommend it.

  7. Amy

    Mar 24, 2012 at 3:31 pm

    SFMOMA here in San Francisco has a lovely cafe. They even serve stew type dishes in winter all with ethically raised meats. They do sometimes serve potato chips but at least they have made them, themselves!

    Reply
  8. Cheryl DeShon

    Mar 24, 2012 at 1:37 pm

    Add the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (Kansas City) and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, KS). The on-site award-winning culinary school at Johnson County Community College prepares and serves wonderful lunches. And The Nelson-Atkins Art Museum, an exceptional experience, also serves ‘real’ food, on the lighter side. Check them out: http://www.nermanmuseum.org/ , http://www.kemperart.org/ , http://www.nelson-atkins.org/ .

    Reply
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