Potaje de Frijol de Carita Con Calabaza y Col (Black Eyed Peas Stewed w/ Vegetables)

This a very simple vegetarian/ vegan friendly black eyed pea stew. I make this when I want something really filling and satisfying but somehow not harsh on the stomach if you know what I mean, like when I want a bean stew that's real hardy and can stand alone as a dish but without all the pork and sausage (which I have nothing against, honestly if you'd like you can boil some Spanish chorizo together with the beans then slice it and add it back to the pot)

For those that want a super filling, heavy, hardy black eyed pea stew with lots of yummy pork products and meat check out my post for "Potaje de Frijol de Carita"

Ingredients:
-1 lbs. black eyed peas (soaked over night, drained)
-water (enough to submerge black eyed peas 1 1/2 inches)
-1/4- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
-1 onion finely chopped
-3 cloves garlic minced
-1 large tomato grated
-1 tablespoon sweet smoked spanish paprika (Pimenton Dulce de la Vera)
-1 lbs. calabaza cut into 1 inch cubes (carribean, banana, butternut, Hubbard, or kabucha squash work well)
-1/2 small head of savoy, nappa, or regular green cabbage, thinly sliced into small strips (this dish is best with savoy cabbage but I only had regular green cabbage on hand)
-salt to taste

Directions:
(1) Drain black eyed peas that have been soaked over night. Cover with fresh water about 1 1/2 inches, bring to a boil on high and cover to simmer until tender about 40 minutes is what it took for me.
(2) Meanwhile, heat a medium frying pan with olive oil on medium high heat, when oil is hot add onions and sautee until onions are translucent about 5-7 minutes, add garlic and sautee an additional 3 minutes until fragrant, add grated tomato and cook down 5-7 more minutes until tomato looses all it's moisture, quickly add 1 tablespoon of sweet smoked spanish paprika stir 1 minute until fragrant and remove from heat set aside.
While you were preparing the spanish "sofrito" you can prep all your vegetables, here's a picture of everything ready to just add to the pot
(3) When black eyed peas are tender, add the "sofrito" (sauteed contents), and the calabaza. Let boil about 15 minutes until squash is tender,
then add shredded cabbage and cook an additional 5 minutes.
(4) Turn off heat and enjoy :) you can serve it as a vegetable soup with any meal (though it's heavy) or eat it on it's own with rice or bread for a light lunch if you'd like a nice raw salad of tomato, cucumber, maybe avocado served over watercress or any lettuce dressed with olive oil, lime, and salt.
PLEASE NOTE:
I was inspired to make this when I saw a post in another Spanish blog called "Amarillo Azafran" her post for "Alubias Carillas Con Verdura" (black eyed peas with vegetables) I thought it was a great idea, and I was already familiar with marrying cabbage with calabaza in bean stews (my grandmother/ Tata would always do this for her signature dish "Potaje de Garbanzos" a.k.a. Garbanzo Stew)

Potaje de Garbanzo's Con Espinaca (Chickpea and Spinach Stew)

This is a very simple, healthy, Spanish stew, I learned to make it not from my grandmother (Tata) but from Nuria and her wonderful blog "Spanish Recipes", all the way from Barcelona, Spain.

This stew is delicious, garbanzo beans are boiled and simmered with ham bones and a whole onion for a good deal of time creating a flavorful stock from the bones, and the onion gave the stock a slight sweet taste. To make it even better a flavorful sofrito of cooked down onions, garlic, and tomato with bacon is incorporated into the stew. All this is married with Spinach in such a wonderful way.

However, I didn't follow her recipe exactly step by step but it's almost the same way, for one I used a meaty pork bone I had leftover from a large Cuban roast leg of pork I made way back, and I added 1 heaping teaspoonful of sweet smoked Spanish paprika, which I love. Besides that it's almost the same recipe and of course we all have our ways of doing things so the procedures are slightly different :)

Eating hardy Spanish stews is nothing new to me, growing up my grandmother would always make flavorful hardy bean stews, but we never had a stew with garbanzo's and green leafy spinach, the only stew we ate with greens was "Caldo Gallego" (a white bean and turnip green or Swiss chard stew typical of Galicia, Spain) but this combination of Spinach and Garbanzo's was something new to me that I was excited to try.

My family loved it, my grandmother (Tata) really appreciated it, the recipe was familiar and comforting to me yet new at the same time, and I think this stew will be one of those bean stews that will become part of my families recipes and it's here to stay :)

Ingredients for boiling chickpeas:
-1 lbs. dried chickpeas (soaked over night and drained)
-water (enough to cover chickpeas 2 inches)
-1 large ham bone or pork bone
-1 medium onion
-salt to taste

Ingredients for the rest of the dish:
-1/2 lbs. bacon cut into cubes or 1 inch pieces
-olive oil (enough to evenly coat the bottom of a pan)
-1 onion minced
-6 cloves garlic minced
-1/2 can 4 oz. tomato sauce or 3 small ripe tomatoes pureed or 1 large ripe tomato pureed
-1 teaspoonful sweet smoked Spanish paprika (optional)
-2 bunches of spinach (coarsely chopped, washed well, and drained)

Directions:
(1) Soak garbanzos over night in cold water, then drain then next day and drain. Another method you can use is bring to a boil with water 3 minutes, then soak for 2-4 hours, drain and they are ready to use.

(2) Now that garbanzos are ready add enough water to submerge them 2-3 inches, the ham or pork bone, and 1 whole onion, and if desired a little salt. Bring to a boil on high heat, then cover and lower heat to medium low to low. It can take anywhere from 1 1/2 hours to 3 hours it all depends on how old your garbanzos are.

(3) Meanwhile, heat olive oil on medium high heat, add cut bacon and cook until it renders fat,

then minced onion 5-7 minutes, saute until translucent, then add minced garlic cook until fragrant about 2-3 minutes,

add the teaspoonful of sweet smoked Spanish paprika if using, stir 30 seconds

and add tomato sauce. Let the tomato sauce cook down a bit into a oily paste about 5 minutes. Turn off heat. Set aside.

(4) When beans are tender, remove the ham bone, remove any meat from the bone if any

and add it back to the stew, and discard the onion (if you like the onion, and don't want to throw it out, you can julienne it into thick strips and throw it back in the stew). Stir in the flavorful "sofrito" (sauteed onion, garlic, tomato you cooked down with bacon)

stir it in

(5) Add cleaned chopped spinach, and let it cook an additional 5 minutes.
(6) Serve with some bread or rice or alone.
PLEASE NOTE:
-Do not be tempted to use canned garbanzo beans, it will NOT I repeat will NOT be the same for this dish, this is a very simple dish, using little ingredients and really no spices I just felt like adding sweet smoked Spanish paprika because I love the flavor, so it's important you make a flavorful base by allowing uncooked garbanzos to boil a long time with pork bones making a very flavorful base. If you must used canned I recommend letting the bones boil at least 2-3 hours and prepare the dish as recipe instructs except add the garbanzos towards the end. BUT honestly if your going to take the time to boil the pork bones 2-3 hours then you should just boil it together with the garbanzo's :)

For those looking for a quick fix look elsewhere you can check out my quick "Guiso de Garbanzo Con Chorizo" (Chickpea, Sausage, and Pork Pot) or Nuria's short cut recipe for "Garbanzos Con Espinaca" in which she sautee's chickpeas with blood sausage, pine nuts, and spinach :)