Chef Isabel
Cigrons a la Catalana
Cigrons a la Catalana are Catalonia's chickpeas cooked in a dark sofregit, loosened with their own broth, then thickened with almond-garlic picada while pine nuts and raisins give the sweet Catalan note.
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Puchero de Hinojos Granadino
Created by
Puchero de Hinojos is Granada Alpujarra spoon food: chickpeas, white beans, wild fennel, pork, and morcilla, with the fennel scalded first when tough so its bitterness seasons the pot instead of ruling it.
Soups & Stews
Spanish
Comfort Food
One Pot
Special Occasion
30 min
Active Time
2 hr 45 min cook•3 hr 15 min total
Yield6 servings
Puchero de Hinojos is Granadino, from the Alpujarra and the inland kitchens of Granada, and it belongs to the old cocina de cuchara, spoon food. Chickpeas, white beans, wild fennel, pork from the larder, and morcilla. What makes it this dish and not just another puchero is the hinojo silvestre, the wild fennel, with its green aniseed edge and a little bitterness from the hills.
The method that decides it is simple: scald the fennel first if the stalks are thick or fierce. A few minutes in boiling water, then that water goes down the sink. You keep the fragrance and lose the harshness. Young tender shoots can go straight in, but old fennel needs taming. After that, the pot asks for patience: soaked legumes, a low simmer, potatoes near the end, and the morcilla only in the last minutes so it gives flavor without bursting into the broth.
If you are far from Granada, no hace falta haber pisado España. Use the feathery tops and tender stems from cultivated fennel, add a little sliced bulb, and if the smell is weak, tie a teaspoon of fennel seed in cloth and pull it out before serving. It will be sweeter and less wild, and you should know that. Still, with good beans, proper morcilla, and a steady simmer, it comes out.
The Margin beside my recipe says only this: "hinojo duro, escaldar," tough fennel, scald it. That is the sort of note that saves a cook. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.
Puchero de hinojos belongs to Granada's inland Andalucía, especially the Alpujarra and the nearby valleys, where wild fennel grows along field edges, paths, and irrigation channels after rain. The dish comes from the same household logic as many Andaluz pucheros: dried legumes for body, pork from the matanza for depth, and a gathered green to mark the season. Scalding the fennel is not decoration but practice, because young shoots are sweet and aromatic while older stalks can turn the whole pot bitter if they are not blanched first.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried chickpeas
Quantity
250g
soaked overnight
dried small white beans
Quantity
150g
soaked overnight
wild fennel shoots and tender stems
Quantity
350g
washed and cut into 4cm lengths
pork ribs or pork shoulder
Quantity
250g
cut into large pieces
tocino fresco or thick unsmoked panceta
Quantity
150g
in one piece
cured ham bone or salted pork bone
Quantity
1, about 250g
rinsed
onion
Quantity
1 small
peeled, left whole
garlic
Quantity
2 cloves
peeled, left whole
bay leaf
Quantity
1
cold water
Quantity
2.2 litres, plus hot water as needed
waxy potatoes
Quantity
400g
peeled and cracked into chunks
Spanish round rice
Quantity
80g
morcilla de cebolla or morcilla granadina
Quantity
1, about 180g
salt
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried chickpeassoaked overnight | 250g |
| dried small white beanssoaked overnight | 150g |
| wild fennel shoots and tender stemswashed and cut into 4cm lengths | 350g |
| pork ribs or pork shouldercut into large pieces | 250g |
| tocino fresco or thick unsmoked pancetain one piece | 150g |
| cured ham bone or salted pork bonerinsed | 1, about 250g |
| onionpeeled, left whole | 1 small |
| garlicpeeled, left whole | 2 cloves |
| bay leaf | 1 |
| cold water | 2.2 litres, plus hot water as needed |
| waxy potatoespeeled and cracked into chunks | 400g |
| Spanish round rice | 80g |
| morcilla de cebolla or morcilla granadina | 1, about 180g |
| salt | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 5 to 6 litre pot or olla
- •Skimming spoon
- •Colander
- •Small pot for scalding the fennel
Instructions
- 1
Soak the legumes
The night before, soak the chickpeas and white beans separately in plenty of cold water. Drain them before cooking. Pésalo, no lo adivines: the balance matters here, because chickpeas give the pot firmness and the white beans soften the broth.
- 2
Scald the fennel
Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the wild fennel. If the stems are thick, boil them for 5 minutes, then drain and throw away that bitter water. If the shoots are very young and tender, 2 minutes is enough. This is the step that decides the dish: the fennel should taste green and clean, not medicinal.
If using cultivated fennel, use the fronds and tender stems, plus 150g thinly sliced bulb. Scald it for only 2 minutes; cultivated fennel is sweeter and softer than wild hinojos. - 3
Start the pot
Put the drained white beans in a heavy pot with the pork, tocino, ham bone, onion, garlic, bay leaf, and 2.2 litres cold water. Bring it up slowly over medium heat, skimming the grey foam as it rises. When the water is hot and moving, add the drained chickpeas. Chickpeas prefer to enter hot water; white beans are happier from cold. One pot can respect both.
- 4
Simmer low
Lower the heat and keep the pot at a quiet tremble, not a boil, for about 1 hour 45 minutes, until the chickpeas and beans are nearly tender. Add hot water if the level drops below the legumes. Do not salt yet, especially if the ham bone is doing its work.
- 5
Add fennel and potatoes
Add the scalded fennel and the cracked potatoes. Simmer gently for 20 minutes, until the potatoes begin to soften and the broth smells clearly of fennel. Taste now and add salt little by little. The broth should be savory, but remember the morcilla is still coming.
- 6
Finish with rice
Stir in the round rice and cook for 16 to 18 minutes, keeping the simmer low and steady. The rice should thicken the pot slightly without turning it into paste. If it tightens too much, loosen it with a small ladle of hot water.
- 7
Warm the morcilla
Lay the morcilla on top of the stew for the last 10 to 12 minutes. Do not let it boil hard and do not poke at it with a spoon, or it will split and cloud the broth. It should warm through and give a little of itself to the pot while staying whole enough to slice.
- 8
Rest and serve
Lift out the ham bone, onion, garlic, tocino, pork, and morcilla. Discard the bone and bay leaf. Slice the morcilla and tocino, cut the pork into serving pieces, and return what you like to the pot or serve it beside the bowls as pringá, the meat from the stew. Let the puchero rest 10 minutes, then serve it thick, green-gold, and spoonable.
Chef Tips
- •Wild fennel is the point of the dish. Look for tender green shoots before they turn woody. If the stalks are tough, scald them and discard the water. Skip that and the bitterness takes over.
- •No wild hinojos where you are? Use cultivated fennel fronds and tender stems, plus a little bulb, and tie 1 teaspoon fennel seed in cheesecloth if the aroma is weak. It will be sweeter and less mountain-wild, but it will still make a proper pot.
- •Use Spanish morcilla de cebolla if you can find it. A very peppery blood sausage from another tradition changes the dish sharply, so choose the mildest one available and add it only at the end.
- •If you use canned legumes, use 2 drained 400g cans chickpeas and 1 drained 400g can white beans. Simmer the pork broth first for 1 hour 30 minutes, then add the canned legumes with the fennel and potatoes. It works, but the broth will have less body.
- •This stew thickens as it sits because of the rice and potatoes. Reheat gently with a little water, not stock, so you do not crowd the fennel flavor you worked to keep clean.
Advance Preparation
- •Soak the chickpeas and white beans separately overnight in plenty of cold water.
- •Wash and scald the fennel up to 24 hours ahead; drain it well, cool it, and keep it covered in the refrigerator.
- •For the best make-ahead version, cook the legumes, pork, and fennel the day before, then add the potatoes, rice, and morcilla when reheating to serve.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 560g)
Calories
735 calories
Total Fat
35 g
Saturated Fat
12 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
20 g
Cholesterol
85 mg
Sodium
1280 mg
Total Carbohydrates
73 g
Dietary Fiber
15 g
Sugars
5 g
Protein
34 g
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