Ingredients
½ lb. uncooked garbanzo beans, dried (also called chickpeas)
1 ham bone
1 beef bone
2 quarts water
1 tablespoon salt
¼ lb. salt pork, cut in thin strips
1 onion, finely chopped
1 chorizo (Spanish sausage), sliced in thin rounds
2 potatoes, peeled and cut in quarters
Pinch of saffron
½ teaspoon paprika
Preparation
Wash garbanzo beans. Soak overnight with 1 tablespoon salt in enough water to cover beans. Drain the salted water from the beans. Place beans in 4-quart soup kettle; add 2 quarts of water and ham and beef bones. Cook for 45 minutes over low heat, skimming foam from the top. fry salt pork slowly in a skilled. Add chopped onion and sauté lightly. Add to beans along with potatoes, paprika, and saffron. Add salt to taste. When potatoes are tender, remove from heat and add chorizo. Serve hot in deep soup bowls. Serves 4.
How the Columbia’s Spanish Bean Soup was created.*
Casimiro Hernandez Senior founded Columbia Restaurant in Tampa’s Historic Ybor City in 1905. He was of Spanish ancestry, and was very knowledgeable about Spanish cuisine. He took the classic cocido madrileno, a boiled Spanish equivalent of French pot-au-feu. Cocido was traditionally served in two steps, first the broth, then the main course of meats, garbanzo, and potatoes. He came up with the idea that all should be served together. That’s what became Spanish Bean Soup. It’s from Tampa. You cannot order Spanish Bean Soup in Spain. They don’t know what it is. Today Spanish Bean Soup is a favorite dish found in all six Columbia Restaurants located in Florida. This was created circa 1910.
Source: The Columbia Restaurant Spanish Cookbook, by Adela Hernandez Gonzmart and Ferdie Pacheco; 1995. University Press of Florida.
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