Mountain stew recipe

Mountain stew, an ideal spoon dish to eat in winter, as it is a very forceful dish. This is a traditional dish from Cantabria and consists of a stew of beans with vegetables and meat, very tasty and perfect to serve as a single dish.

As we said, the ingredients of the mountain stew are mainly white beans, but also cabbage, which can be replaced with kale leaves if you can’t find it, and pieces of marinated meat, such as chorizo, bacon and black pudding. In some areas they add ear or nose. Stay with us and discover how to make mountain stew, the authentic recipe from Cantabria.

Ingredients to make Mountain Stew:

300 grams of white beans

3 collard or cabbage leaves
1 piece of onion
1 piece of green pepper

1 sausage
1 black pudding
2 pieces of marinated rib

1 piece of fresh rib
3 potatoes
1 piece of marinated bacon

2 tablespoons sweet paprika
1 pinch of salt

How to make Mountain Stew:

To prepare the mountain stew, the first thing you should do is prepare the ingredients. The day before, put the beans to soak and leave them for about 12 hours. When cooking the dish, drain them well.

Tip: To save time, you have the option of preparing the mountain stew with canned beans.
Place the beans in a large pan with the peeled and chopped onion, the chopped pepper, the ribs, the marinated bacon and the chorizo. Cover everything with water so that it exceeds the beans by about four fingers. Put the saucepan over medium-high heat until it starts to boil. Reserve the potatoes, cabbage and black pudding.
When it starts to boil, with the help of a spoon or a spatula, remove the foam that forms on the surface. Add a little salt and let the stew cook for 1 hour and 30 minutes over medium-low heat. Add water as needed.

While the mountain stew is cooking, peel the potatoes and wash them. Also, cut the kale or cabbage leaves into strips, cut the black pudding into pieces or leave it whole, as you prefer.
Tip: You can also make the mountain stew with cabbage if you can’t find collard greens or cabbage.
After an hour and a half, add the potatoes to the casserole, the cabbage and the black pudding. To follow the authentic recipe for mountain stew, you must crack the potatoes.

Add 1-2 tablespoons of sweet paprika and let the mountain stew cook for 30-40 minutes or more if necessary. Everything must be very tender, especially the meat, the bacon and the beans. When you see that it’s done, turn off the heat.
If the broth is a little clear you can take part of the beans, potatoes and some vegetables, crush it and add it to the pan. Let it boil and mix everything well and that’s it. You can let the stew cool down and trim it if you don’t want it to have so much fat, since the fat will remain on the surface and you can easily remove it. Undoubtedly, this typical mountain stew recipe from Cantabria is delicious.

Mountain Stew – Accompaniments

Now that you know how to make mountain stew and some tricks to substitute ingredients or speed up the process, let’s see what you can serve the dish with. Without a doubt, since it is such a tasty recipe, with such a rich sauce, the best accompaniment is a good slice of homemade bread.