Stews or cocidos, as they are called in Spanish are typical main dishes in Spain, particularly in the central and northern regions of Spain. The Cocido Madrileño is named after the province of Madrid, where it originated.

Cocido Madrileño was traditionally prepared in a large cauldron, simmering away all day long, hardly bubbling. This boiled meat dinner has lots of flavor from the  meats, sausage, vegetables and garbanzo beans used in the dish and is well-known as one of Spain’s national dishes. The dish is actually two courses – soup and a main dish.

The soup or “caldo”, is a clear stock which is rich with the juices of the various meats used to prepare the dish. Caldo may be saved to be used in many Spanish dishes but is often served as the first course with a couple of spoonfuls of vermicelli cooked in it.

The chickpeas, meat and vegetables – the cocido – are usually served as the second course with a bit of the caldo ladled over it.

Since we started “eating healthy” we cook Cocido at least once a week. We don’t use all the meats traditionally used in the dish – only chicken and beef and we cut the preparation time by preparing it in a pressure cooker – we still get the same rich taste of the various ingredients used. Another thing we modified is to mince the vegetables before cooking it. We also shred the meat once it is cook because we enjoy eating it as a stew with bread. Really hearty and very low in calories. 1 gm of our Cocido is equivalent to 1 calorie!

INGREDIENTS

Serves 3 as a main meal

250 gms dry chickpeas (garbanzo beans), soaked in water at least 8 hours before cooking

1 chicken breast, bone in, skin on or off

200 gms beef with bones (beef shank is fine)

1 leek

2 medium-sized carrots

2 stalks celery

1 clove garlic

2 Maggi beef or chicken cubes

1/4 tsp smoked paprika powder

2 litres water

Salt to taste

DIRECTION

Clean the chicken breast and beef and leave to dry in a colander.

Drain and rinse the chickpeas in warm water – cold water will split the peas. Keeping root end intact, trim the leek of roots and dark green leaves. Discard the leafy part of the leek. Cut the leek at the top 1/3 and wash the leek to remove any sand particles or dirt.

In a pressure cooker, put the drained chickpeas, chicken breast, beef bones, the whole bottom 2/3 of the leek, Maggi cubes, smoked paprika and the water. Do not cover the pressure cooker. Place on medium heat and bring it to the boil.

In the meantime, peel and wash carrots, celery and garlic. Chop these up together with the top 1/3 of the leek.

Add the chopped vegetables to the rest of the ingredients in the pressure cooker, cover and put the pressure setting to “2”. Boil it under pressure for 40 minutes.

Remove the chicken breast and beef from the pressure cooker, de-bone and shred, then put the meat back into the soup. Discard the piece of cooked leek. Add salt to taste if necessary.

Serve hot with warm country bread.