Algo Es Algo; Menos Es Nada!

Algo es algo; menos es nada or roughly translated – half a loaf is better than no bread! Never were truer words spoken. Oh how I wished I’d made a lovely rustic country style loaf to go with our dinner yesterday but I didn’t and it meant we were without bread, I was sure we’d some in the freezer but it must have all been used because when I went to get some to heat through the freezer was bare.

We had a lovely warm salad of sweet chorizo and butter beans but without the bread to mop up all the rusty coloured, highly flavoured oils it was lacking, with all the will in the world it couldn’t be the great delight I had in mind. 

The chorizo was a sweet (dulce) variety, but you could use any you like with no detriment to this dish. Chorizo is a very famous Spanish pork sausage, coloured the most beautiful shade of red by the use of paprika – the kind used varies depending on the type of chorizo. There are many varieties of chorizo available so it is worth experimenting with a few different kinds; some come cooked and sliced thinly to be used as a tapas along with other cooked or cured meats.

I would highly recommend that you buy dried beans and soak them overnight, before cooking as per your recipe instructions. They have a much superior flavour and texture to those sold in cans. The butter beans I used came from Delicioso and were of the Judion de la Granja variety (a much larger than average bean).

They can be hard to get and pricey so feel free to replace with them with regular butter beans, it will still be incredibly nice, I just like using different ingredients (not that you’d have guessed) and the drama of the large beans.

For the greenery I used a spring cabbage that I’d shredded and blanched and a bag of mixed leaves, which added both texture and a variety of flavours as some were peppery and others very sweet. I also tossed through some chargrilled spring onions and asparagus tips.

For colour I scattered a little sweet paprika over the beans. The variety I used mimicked the sweet variety used in the chorizo being a sweet sun-dried paprika from ‘El Ruisenor’ with its own Denomination of Origin (D.O.C Murcia); another buy from Delicioso.

Moral of the story? Always make sure you have a fresh loaf to hand.

The Recipe:

• Olive oil
• 1 loop of chorizo
• 4 spring onions
• 20 spears of asparagus (tips only)
• 1 small spring cabbage (shredded and blanched)
• 200g mixed salad leaves
• 100g cooked (still hot) butter beans
• Sweet paprika for sprinkling

1. Dice or slice the chorizo and fry gently in a little olive oil, do this slowly to allow all the paprika stained juices from the meat to escape.
2. Meanwhile griddle the asparagus tips and spring onions until tender and charred.
3. Add the cabbage to the frying pan with the chorizo and heat through, now add the asparagus and spring onions.
4. Finally add the salad leaves and toss together.
5. Plate up the salad and then scatter with the still warm butter beans.
6. Sprinkle with paprika.
7. Serve with plenty of bread

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