Name: Portuguese ‘Stone’ Soup (Sopa de Pedra)
Yield: Serves 6–8
Ingredients: 250 g/9 oz red beans, such as kidney beans, soaked overnight in cold water; a bay leaf or two and some thyme and parsley; 200 g/7 oz piece of smoked bacon or pancetta; 2 tablespoons tomato purée; 400 g/14 oz waxy potatoes, cut into spoon-sized pieces; 3 garlic cloves, sliced; 2 carrots, chopped; 2 small turnips, chopped; 2 onions, chopped; 1 black pudding – if you can find the Portuguese morçela or the Spanish morcilla, all the better; 2 chorizo sausages; a gammon hock or a raw ham end (most delicatessens are happy to sell these cheaply); salt and freshly ground black pepper; 100 ml/3½ fl oz olive oil; 2 tablespoons massa de pimentão (red pepper purée – not essential but a good thing to have; Turkish grocers stock a similar product, or use puréed roasted red pepper); the darker leaves from a smallish Savoy cabbage, shredded

Preparation info

Serves
6–8

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Eagle Cookbook

By David Eyre

Published 2009

About

Within reason, sopa de pedra can include any cured pork and vegetables, so this recipe may be modified as you wish. However, it should always include chorizo, cabbage and beans. It is also one of those composite dishes that benefit from being made the previous day, but be sure to cool it down as rapidly as you can; warm beans love to ferment, given the chance.