Sopa da Pedra

A hearty bean-and-meat soup from Almeirim, loaded with cranberry beans, potatoes, chouriço, blood sausage and pork, traditionally tied to the folktale of a monk who made soup starting from a stone.

Sopa da pedra — 'stone soup' — is the hearty bean-and-meat soup of Almeirim in the Ribatejo, its name from the old folk tale of a beggar who made soup 'from a stone'. It is protected by the EU as a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed.

Thick, smoky and deeply satisfying, the broth carries the earthiness of beans and the spiced richness of cured sausages. Tender chunks of pork and soft potato make it a full meal, lifted by a fresh cilantro finish.

Long simmering breaks down the beans' starch and the meats' collagen into a naturally thick, gelatin-rich broth, while the cured sausages render smoky fat that perfumes the whole pot.

Variations

Add white beans, include morcela and farinheira, vary the cuts of pork, garnish with mint instead of cilantro

On the Palate

Where Sopa da Pedra sits in the Portuguese flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 8

400 gBeans

200 gChouriço

150 gBlood Sausage

400 g, mixed cutsPork

500 gPotato

1 largeOnion

1 bunchCilantro

How it's made

8 steps · 30 min

1
10 min
Soak the cranberry beans overnight, then drain.
2
60 min
Boil the beans with pork meat, pig's ear and a pig's trotter until tender.
Watch out
The beans are ready when they crush easily against the pot and the trotter's skin turns soft and sticky — that gelatin is what thickens the broth.
3
5 min
Add chopped onion, garlic, bay leaf and paprika to the pot.
4
15 min
Slice in the chouriço and blood sausage and let them simmer to release their flavor.
Watch out
Give the sausages a few minutes uncrowded — the fat should render out and turn the broth a ruddy, smoky color before you move on.
5
20 min
Add diced potatoes and continue simmering until soft.
Watch out
Add the potatoes late and pull them at just-fork-tender; let them overcook and they melt away and cloud the soup.
6
8 min
Remove the meats, dice them, and return them to the soup.
7
3 min
Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
8
4 min
Finish with plenty of fresh chopped cilantro and serve very hot.