Judión bean ✦

Judión (haricot géant d’Espagne)

What it is

The scarlet runner reached the royal gardens at La Granja as an ornamental, grown for its red flowers and fed to the palace's game birds before anyone thought to eat it. Gardeners selected it for the pot over generations, and the stew that made it famous only reached restaurant menus in the 1950s.

In the kitchen

Soak twelve hours, start in cold unsalted water and never let it do more than tremble — a rolling boil bursts the skins and loses the whole point of the bean. Salt only once they are tender.

Goes with

Chorizo Morcilla de Burgos Pimentón de la Vera Bay leaf Garlic Olive oil

Same species

Ayocote bean Black bean Borlotti bean Cannellini bean Coco de Paimpol Faba asturiana

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