Verdinas Con Almejas Recipe
Verdinas con almejas or fabes con almejas or alubias con almejas is one of the famous dishes from the Asturias region of Spain. We can translate verdinas con almejas as "beans with clams." Verdinas is the type of bean used in this dish. Its name comes from its color (green=verde).
Asturias is a region in northern Spain that, like our Black Sea region, receives a lot of rain, is very green, and is famous for its beans. They have several varieties of beans, one of which is this green dry beans called verdinas. They usually cook verdina beans with seafood. But like any regional dish, there are different ways to prepare verdinas con almejas. Some people add shrimp, some cook it with tomatoes. Some even use the classic white beans instead of verdinas.
I had the best verdinas con almejas a few years ago at a random restaurant we walked into for lunch. This year, when I went to Asturias for a short two-day trip, I was dreaming of eating verdinas con almejas. I ordered it at the first place I found, but unfortunately, it was a disappointing meal. It wasn’t bad, but it had no distinct flavor. So, on my way back, I bought verdina beans and made my own verdinas con almejas as soon as I got home.
The consistency and flavor of the beans turned out great. I realized that if I hadn't been lazy and bought frozen clams from the market and instead had gone to the local market to get fresh and better ones, the dish would have been more flavorful with a stronger seafood aroma. But I’ll keep this as a lesson for next time.
I wanted to share this recipe because it’s not only delicious but also prepared using a different technique. You can use this technique in the classic dry bean recipe as well. This dish is also a kind of soup and has a thick consistency. Unlike Turkish soups, which get their thickness from flour added, this dish achieves its thickness by pureeing a small amount of cooked onions and beans and adding it back to the dish. This way, the dish gets a thick consistency without adding any ingredients other than its own. If you are unhappy with the consistency of your legume dishes like bean or chickpea stew, you can use this method in those recipes as well. For another method to give a different consistency, you can check out the Spanish dish potaje de garbanzos.
You don’t have to use verdinas for this recipe. As I mentioned earlier, this dish is sometimes made with white dry beans. There isn’t a noticeable difference in flavor. Just use good, tasty dry beans, and there won’t be any difference in flavor.
Enjoy your meal...
Verdinas Con Almejas Recipe with Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup of verdina beans (or dry white beans),
- 300 g of clams,
- 1/2 onion,
- 2 bay leaves,
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil,
- 2 cloves of garlic,
- 1 handful of chopped parsley,
- 4 cups water at room temperature,
- Salt to taste.
Preparation
- Soak the beans overnight,
- The next day, take the beans, whole onion, bay leaves, and water in a pressure cooker, close the lid, and cook until the beans are tender,
- Open the lid and remove the bay leaves,
- Set aside the cooked onion, half a cup of cooked beans, and enough cooking water to fill a soup bowl,
- Puree these ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth,
- In a large pan, heat the olive oil and sauté the finely chopped garlic,
- Add the clams, cover, and cook until the clams open,
- Add the parsley and stir,
- Add the clams and the prepared puree to the beans and mix,
- Add salt, mix, and cook for a few more minutes before removing from heat.
Enjoy your meal...