Chef Isabel
Berza Gaditana
Berza gaditana is Cádiz spoon food: chickpeas and white beans with the green the season gives, plus chorizo, morcilla, and pork, simmered until the broth turns thick and honest.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Menudo a la Andaluza
Created by
Menudo a la andaluza is Andalusian spoon food: clean tripe, chickpeas, cured pork, and pimenton cooked low until the callos turn tender and the broth grips the spoon.
Soups & Stews
Spanish
Comfort Food
One Pot
Make Ahead
35 min
Active Time
3 hr 15 min cook•3 hr 50 min total
Yield6 servings
Menudo a la andaluza belongs to Andalucía, especially the west, where tripe is cooked with chickpeas, chorizo, morcilla, pimenton, and a warm hand with cumin. This is not Madrid's callos, thick with its own habits and no chickpeas by rule. Here the garbanzo matters. It makes the pot a full meal, the kind of cocina de cuchara, spoon food, that feeds a table without ceremony.
The method that decides it is the first cooking of the tripe. Clean it well, blanch it, then simmer it gently until it gives under the knife but still has shape. If you rush it, it stays rubbery. If you boil it hard, the broth goes rough and greasy. Gentle cooking is all. The sofrito, the slow onion and tomato base, comes after and gives the stew its dark sweetness.
If you are far from Spain, buy properly cleaned honeycomb tripe from a good butcher or a trusted Latin market, and use Spanish-style chorizo if true Andalusian chorizo is not there. For morcilla, choose a firm onion blood sausage if you can find it; if not, leave it out rather than use a sweet or crumbly one that falls apart and takes over the pot. Canned chickpeas are allowed here. Pésalo, no lo adivines, and rinse them well.
This stew is better the next day. The pimenton settles, the gelatin tightens the broth, and the chickpeas taste as if they were always meant to be there. My Margin beside this recipe says only: low flame, clean tripe, no hurry. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.
Menudo a la andaluza belongs to the old Andalusian habit of using the whole animal well, turning tripe, trotters, cured sausage, and chickpeas into a serious pot for market days and winter tables. In Sevilla, Cadiz, and nearby towns, the dish often appears as callos con garbanzos or menudo, with cumin and pimenton marking it apart from the callos of Madrid. The chickpea is not decoration here; it is the Andalusian signature that makes the stew a meal.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
cleaned beef honeycomb tripe
Quantity
1kg
cut into 4cm pieces
cooked chickpeas
Quantity
250g
drained and rinsed
pig's trotter or beef foot (optional)
Quantity
1 trotter or 250g beef foot
split
Spanish chorizo
Quantity
150g
cut into thick slices
firm morcilla, preferably onion morcilla
Quantity
150g
left whole until the end
jamon serrano or cured pancetta
Quantity
100g
diced
onion
Quantity
1 large
finely chopped
green pepper
Quantity
1
finely chopped
garlic
Quantity
4 cloves
finely chopped
ripe tomatoes or canned crushed tomato
Quantity
250g fresh or 200g canned
grated if fresh
extra virgin olive oil
Quantity
60ml
sweet pimenton de la Vera
Quantity
2 teaspoons
hot pimenton (optional)
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
ground cumin
Quantity
1 teaspoon
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
cloves
Quantity
2
bay leaf
Quantity
1
dry white wine or fino sherry
Quantity
120ml
water or light meat stock
Quantity
1.5 litres
plus more as needed
vinagre de Jerez (optional)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
salt
Quantity
to taste
fresh hierbabuena leaves (optional)
Quantity
a few leaves
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| cleaned beef honeycomb tripecut into 4cm pieces | 1kg |
| cooked chickpeasdrained and rinsed | 250g |
| pig's trotter or beef foot (optional)split | 1 trotter or 250g beef foot |
| Spanish chorizocut into thick slices | 150g |
| firm morcilla, preferably onion morcillaleft whole until the end | 150g |
| jamon serrano or cured pancettadiced | 100g |
| onionfinely chopped | 1 large |
| green pepperfinely chopped | 1 |
| garlicfinely chopped | 4 cloves |
| ripe tomatoes or canned crushed tomatograted if fresh | 250g fresh or 200g canned |
| extra virgin olive oil | 60ml |
| sweet pimenton de la Vera | 2 teaspoons |
| hot pimenton (optional) | 1/2 teaspoon |
| ground cumin | 1 teaspoon |
| freshly ground black pepper | 1/2 teaspoon |
| cloves | 2 |
| bay leaf | 1 |
| dry white wine or fino sherry | 120ml |
| water or light meat stockplus more as needed | 1.5 litres |
| vinagre de Jerez (optional) | 1 tablespoon |
| salt | to taste |
| fresh hierbabuena leaves (optional) | a few leaves |
Equipment Needed
- •Large heavy pot or olla, 6 litres
- •Wide cazuela or Dutch oven
- •Skimmer
- •Fine sieve
Instructions
- 1
Rinse and blanch
Rinse the cleaned tripe under cold running water, rubbing it well between your hands. Put it in a large pot, cover with cold water, bring to a boil, and boil for 5 minutes. Drain, rinse the pot, and rinse the tripe again. This first blanch is not fussiness; it gives you a clean broth instead of a muddy one.
If the tripe smells strong after blanching, blanch it once more in fresh water. Good tripe smells mild and clean after this step. - 2
Simmer the tripe
Return the tripe to the clean pot with the pig's trotter or beef foot, the bay leaf, the cloves, and enough water or light stock to cover by 3cm. Bring it up slowly, then lower the heat to a quiet tremble and cook for 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours, until the tripe is tender when pierced but not falling apart. Skim the surface now and then. A hard boil makes the broth greasy and the tripe tough at the edges.
- 3
Build the sofrito
While the tripe cooks, warm the olive oil in a heavy cazuela or wide pot. Add the onion, green pepper, and a pinch of salt, and cook low for 18 to 22 minutes, stirring often, until the onion is dark gold and sweet. Add the garlic for 2 minutes, then the grated tomato, and cook until the oil shows at the edges and the tomato has lost its raw smell. This slow sofrito is where the sweetness comes from; rush it and the whole stew tastes thinner.
- 4
Bloom the spices
Add the diced jamon or cured pancetta to the sofrito and let it give up a little fat. Pull the pot off the heat, stir in the sweet pimenton, hot pimenton if using, cumin, and black pepper, then return it to low heat for only a few seconds. Add the wine or fino and scrape the bottom of the pot. Pimenton burns fast, and burnt pimenton turns bitter, so do not leave it alone here.
- 5
Join the pot
Lift the tripe and trotter from their cooking liquid and add them to the sofrito pot. Strain in enough of the cooking liquid to cover everything by 2cm. Add the chorizo and simmer gently for 35 minutes, uncovered, until the sauce begins to thicken and the pimenton oil gathers in small red pools at the rim.
- 6
Add chickpeas
Stir in the cooked chickpeas and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes more, still low and steady, so the chickpeas take the flavour without breaking. If the stew gets too thick before the chickpeas are seasoned through, add a ladle of the reserved cooking liquid or water. Taste before salting; the chorizo, morcilla, and jamon may have done half the work already.
- 7
Finish and rest
Add the whole morcilla for the last 10 minutes so it warms through without bursting. Lift it out, slice it thickly, and return the slices to the pot. Add the sherry vinegar if the stew tastes heavy, and a few hierbabuena leaves if you like that Andalusian lift. Rest the pot off the heat for 15 minutes before serving. The broth should be glossy, brick-red, and spoon-thick.
- 8
Serve plainly
Serve in deep bowls with tripe, chickpeas, chorizo, and morcilla in every portion. Put bread on the table, because this is not a stew that leaves clean bowls behind. If you made it yesterday, better. Reheat it slowly and loosen with a splash of water if the gelatin has set firm in the cold.
Chef Tips
- •Buy honeycomb tripe that has already been cleaned by the butcher, but still rinse and blanch it yourself. Pre-cleaned does not mean ready for the pot. Nadie nace sabiendo, but everyone can learn to smell when tripe is clean.
- •For chickpeas, dried ones soaked overnight give the best texture, but good canned chickpeas are a fair kitchen shortcut here. Rinse them well and add them late so they do not collapse.
- •Use Spanish chorizo, the cured kind seasoned with pimenton, not soft fresh sausage. For morcilla, choose a firm onion morcilla if possible. If the only blood sausage you can find is sweet, very soft, or heavily spiced in another direction, leave it out.
- •The trotter or beef foot is optional, but it gives the broth body. Without it, the stew will still taste right, only a little less sticky on the spoon.
- •Menudo improves overnight. Chill it, lift off any hard fat you do not want, and reheat it gently. Do not boil it hard on the second day or the morcilla and chickpeas will suffer for your impatience.
- •Serve with fino, manzanilla, or a simple young red. Mostly, serve with bread. Andalucía is practical about sauce.
Advance Preparation
- •The tripe can be blanched and simmered until tender one day ahead. Keep it covered in its strained cooking liquid in the refrigerator.
- •If using dried chickpeas, soak 125g overnight in plenty of cold water, then cook until tender before starting the stew.
- •The finished stew is best made a day ahead. Reheat slowly over low heat and loosen with water or reserved cooking liquid as needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 455g)
Calories
570 calories
Total Fat
35 g
Saturated Fat
11 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
21 g
Cholesterol
205 mg
Sodium
1260 mg
Total Carbohydrates
18 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
4 g
Protein
45 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Pucheros, Ollas y Escudellas del Levante, Sur e Islas
Browse the full collection
Chef Isabel
Brou Menorquí (Menorcan Cocido Broth)
Brou menorquí is Menorca's Wednesday cocido, a quiet two-turn pot: pale broth with small pasta first, then chickpeas, potatoes, cabbage, and meats cooked low enough to stay clear.
Chef Isabel
Cocido con Pelotas Murciano
Cocido con pelotas is Murcia and the Vega Baja at Christmas: chickpeas and winter meats in a clear broth, with big mint-scented meatballs that decide the whole pot.
Chef Isabel
Cocido Extremeño
Cocido extremeño is Extremadura in a pot: chickpeas, gallina, ibérico tocino, chorizo and morcilla, with almost no vegetable. The clean broth is the point, so simmer low and add the sausages late.