Chef Isabel
Aguaillo de la Sierra de Cadiz
Aguaillo is from the Sierra de Cadiz: cold water, stale bread, garlic, oil and vinegar, closer to a field drink than a bowl of soup, and sharp enough to wake you in the heat.
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Olla de la Plana
Created by
Castellón's winter olla is cocina de cuchara from La Plana: white beans, chard, cardoon, calabaza, and roots, with pork only as a whisper. Keep the simmer low and the vegetables in order.
Soups & Stews
Spanish
Comfort Food
One Pot
Budget Friendly
35 min
Active Time
2 hr 30 min cook•11 hr 5 min total
Yield6 servings
Olla de la Plana is Castellón's winter pot, from the flat coastal comarcas of La Plana, and it is cocina de cuchara, spoon food: white beans, chard, cardoon, calabaza, turnip, potato, and just enough pork bone to remember the larder. It is not a cocido with vegetables tucked around the meat. Here the calabaza and the legumes lead, and the pork keeps quiet.
The method that decides it is order. The beans cook first at a low tremble until almost tender; then the cardoon, stems, roots, potato, and calabaza go in; the chard leaves wait until the end. Add everything at once and you get a pot where every vegetable has surrendered. Add it in order and each one keeps its place while the pumpkin softens enough to give the broth body.
If you can't find cardoon where you are, use the thick white stems of chard and add a few artichoke hearts near the end. It won't have the same faint bitter edge, but it will still point toward Castellón instead of becoming just bean soup. Use dried white beans if you can, soaked overnight. Cannellini or great northern beans will do. No hace falta haber pisado España. If the squash is sweet and the oil is good, siempre sale, si lo sigues.
The note in my Margin for this olla is plain: don't let the pork take the pot. A little bone seasons. Sausages drag it somewhere else.
Olla de la Plana belongs to La Plana Alta and La Plana Baixa, the fertile coastal plain around Castellón where winter gardens supplied chard, cardoon, pumpkin, turnip, and potatoes alongside dried beans from the pantry. It sits in the Valencian family of ollas and olletas, thrifty spoon dishes in which a bone or a scrap of salted pork seasons the water but does not rule the pot. Its character is the cold-weather huerta: vegetables and legumes carrying the meal, with saffron and pimentón giving colour rather than richness bought from meat.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried white beans
Quantity
300g
soaked overnight
small salted pork bone or ham bone (optional)
Quantity
100g
rinsed
cold water
Quantity
2.2 litres, plus hot water as needed
cardoon stalks
Quantity
250g
strings removed, cut into 4cm pieces
Swiss chard
Quantity
300g
stems sliced, leaves chopped separately
calabaza or sweet winter squash
Quantity
400g
peeled and cut into 3cm chunks
potatoes
Quantity
300g
peeled and cut into 3cm chunks
turnip
Quantity
180g
peeled and cut into 2cm chunks
chirivía or parsnip
Quantity
120g
peeled and cut into thick pieces
onion
Quantity
150g
finely chopped
garlic
Quantity
2 cloves
finely chopped
ripe tomato
Quantity
180g
grated, or use 150g canned crushed tomato
extra virgin olive oil
Quantity
60ml, plus more to finish
sweet pimentón
Quantity
1 teaspoon
saffron threads
Quantity
1 pinch
fine sea salt
Quantity
8g, plus more to taste
lemon (optional)
Quantity
1
halved, for the cardoon water
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried white beanssoaked overnight | 300g |
| small salted pork bone or ham bone (optional)rinsed | 100g |
| cold water | 2.2 litres, plus hot water as needed |
| cardoon stalksstrings removed, cut into 4cm pieces | 250g |
| Swiss chardstems sliced, leaves chopped separately | 300g |
| calabaza or sweet winter squashpeeled and cut into 3cm chunks | 400g |
| potatoespeeled and cut into 3cm chunks | 300g |
| turnippeeled and cut into 2cm chunks | 180g |
| chirivía or parsnippeeled and cut into thick pieces | 120g |
| onionfinely chopped | 150g |
| garlicfinely chopped | 2 cloves |
| ripe tomatograted, or use 150g canned crushed tomato | 180g |
| extra virgin olive oil | 60ml, plus more to finish |
| sweet pimentón | 1 teaspoon |
| saffron threads | 1 pinch |
| fine sea salt | 8g, plus more to taste |
| lemon (optional)halved, for the cardoon water | 1 |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 5 to 6 litre olla or Dutch oven
- •Small frying pan for the sofrito
- •Skimming spoon
- •Paring knife or vegetable peeler for cardoon strings
Instructions
- 1
Soak the beans
The night before, cover the white beans with plenty of cold water and leave them to soak 8 to 12 hours. If you're using a salted pork bone, rinse it well; if it is very salty, soak it separately in cold water for a few hours. Drain the beans before cooking. Pésalo, no lo adivines: old beans and unmeasured water are where good ollas go thin or chalky.
- 2
Trim the cardoon
Pull the strings from the cardoon stalks the way you would from celery, cut the stalks into 4cm pieces, and drop them into cold water with the lemon squeezed in so they don't darken. Boil them in fresh salted water for 10 minutes, then drain. Separate the chard stems from the leaves; the stems cook with the roots, the leaves wait until the end.
If you have jarred Spanish cardoon, drain it and skip the blanching. Add it with the chard leaves near the end, since it is already tender. - 3
Start the olla
Put the drained beans in a heavy 5 to 6 litre olla with 2.2 litres cold water and the optional pork bone. Bring to a steady boil for 10 minutes, skimming the grey foam, then lower the heat until the surface barely trembles. Cook 60 to 75 minutes, until the beans are almost tender but not collapsing. Keep the water just covering them; add hot water if the level drops.
Do not stir hard with a spoon. Shake the pot by its handles now and then, or lift gently from the bottom, so the beans stay whole. - 4
Make the sofrito
While the beans cook, warm the olive oil in a small pan and add the onion with a pinch of the salt. Cook low and slow for 15 to 18 minutes, until dark gold and soft. Add the garlic for 1 minute, then the grated tomato, and cook 10 to 12 minutes more until the tomato is thick and the oil shows at the edges. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the pimentón and saffron. This sofrito, the slow onion and tomato base, is what keeps a vegetable olla from tasting watery.
- 5
Add vegetables
When the beans are almost tender, stir in the sofrito, the drained cardoon, chard stems, calabaza, potatoes, turnip, chirivía, and the remaining salt. Bring the pot back to a gentle simmer and cook 25 to 30 minutes, until the potato is tender and the calabaza is soft at the edges. The broth should be loose but not thin, golden from the squash and saffron, with a little green-gold oil on the surface.
- 6
Finish greens
Add the chopped chard leaves and cook 6 to 8 minutes, just until they turn deep green and soften into the pot. Taste for salt. If you want the broth thicker, press a few beans and a piece of calabaza against the side of the olla and stir them back in gently. Don't make a puree of it. This is a pot of beans and winter vegetables, not cream soup.
- 7
Rest and serve
Take out the pork bone, picking off any small tender scraps if there are any, and return them to the pot. Let the olla rest off the heat for 10 to 15 minutes so the broth settles and the vegetables stop fighting the spoon. Serve in deep bowls with a thread of olive oil. Bread on the table, nothing fancy.
Chef Tips
- •Use dried white beans with good turnover, not a bag that has sat for years. Cannellini or great northern beans work if you can't find Spanish alubia blanca; the broth will be a little less creamy, but the dish will still hold.
- •Cardoon is the proper winter vegetable here. If you can't get it, use extra chard stems and add 150g drained artichoke hearts in the last 10 minutes. Celery is easier to find, yes, but it makes the broth sweeter and greener, not the same.
- •Choose a sweet winter squash with dense flesh, like calabaza, butternut, kabocha, or red kuri. Avoid watery carving pumpkin. The squash is not decoration; it gives the olla its colour and body.
- •Keep the pork small. A bone or a scrap of salted pork is enough. Chorizo, morcilla, and a heavy hand with meat pull this away from La Plana and toward another pot entirely.
- •Some Castellón homes add a small handful of short-grain rice near the end. If you do, use 60g rice and add it for the last 18 minutes with 300ml hot water. Eat that version the same day, because rice keeps drinking the broth.
- •This olla is better after a quiet rest, and good the next day. Reheat it gently with a splash of water. Boil it hard and the beans split, and then you've made work for yourself for no reason.
Advance Preparation
- •Soak the beans 8 to 12 hours ahead in plenty of cold water.
- •The cardoon can be trimmed and blanched a day ahead; keep it covered in the refrigerator once cooled.
- •The finished olla keeps 2 to 3 days in the refrigerator. Reheat gently and loosen with water as needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 670g)
Calories
395 calories
Total Fat
13 g
Saturated Fat
2 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
11 g
Cholesterol
5 mg
Sodium
840 mg
Total Carbohydrates
58 g
Dietary Fiber
14 g
Sugars
8 g
Protein
16 g
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