Porotos con Riendas ('beans with reins') is the Chilean winter staple — white beans simmered with pumpkin, a chorizo, and strips of spaghetti (the 'reins'), creating a hearty, thick, sweet-savory stew. The name comes from the way the spaghetti strands look like reins (riendas) on a horse. It is the most complete one-pot meal in Chilean cooking.
Porotos con Riendas (literally 'beans with reins') is one of the most traditional Chilean dishes. The 'reins' (riendas) are strips of spaghetti or fideo pasta broken into short pieces and cooked with the beans — the way they curl through the stew looks like the reins of a horse. The dish combines beans (a Mapuche-Indigenous staple), pumpkin (native to the Americas), chorizo (Spanish), and pasta (Italian-Chilean) — it is a microcosm of Chile's multicultural food history. It is the winter dish of every Chilean household, thick enough to eat with a fork.
A bowl of thick, golden-orange stew — soft white beans, chunks of orange squash, pieces of chorizo, and curly strands of spaghetti running through it all. The broth is thick and savory; the pumpkin gives sweetness; the chorizo gives smoke and fat. It is a complete meal in one bowl — the food of a cold winter day in central Chile.
The beans must be soaked overnight and simmered for 60+ minutes until completely soft. The pumpkin breaks down during cooking, thickening the stew naturally. The chorizo releases its fat and paprika into the broth. The spaghetti (broken into short pieces) is added in the last 10 minutes — it cooks in the stew, absorbing the bean broth and curling into 'reins.'
Variations
Some add corn; some use fideos (thin vermicelli) instead of spaghetti; some add hot dogs instead of chorizo.
On the Palate
Where Porotos con Riendas sits in the Chilean flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
8 steps · 30 min active + 1 hour waiting
- 1480 min
Soak 300 g white beans overnight; drain.
- 25 min
In a pot, sauté 1 diced onion and 2 minced garlic cloves in oil 5 minutes.
- 33 min
Add 1 chorizo (sliced), 200 g diced pumpkin, and the soaked beans.
- 460 min
Add 1.5 liters water; simmer covered 60 minutes until beans are very soft.
Watch outSimmer the beans until they're completely soft and creamy inside — undercooked beans stay chalky and the stew won't thicken up.
- 510 min
Add 100 g spaghetti (broken into 4-cm pieces); cook 10 minutes until pasta is tender.
Watch outAdd the broken spaghetti only in the last ten minutes so it cooks in the stew and drinks the bean broth — in too early and it turns to mush.
- 62 min
Season with salt, oregano, and 1/2 tsp cumin.
- 71 min
The stew should be thick; adjust with water if needed.
- 81 min
Serve hot in deep bowls.
