Sopa da Pedra
Almeirim Stone Soup with Beans, Pork and Sausage
A thick, brick-coloured soup of beans, potato, pork and sausage, sturdy enough to count as dinner. Nothing is fried first: everything goes into the water and the pot does the rest. In Almeirim it comes with a clean stone in the bottom of the tureen.
The soup belongs to Almeirim, in the Ribatejo. Since 2022 its name has been protected in the EU as a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed. According to DECO PROteste's 2024 report, the registered recipe has 16 ingredients, among them feijão catarino beans, sausages, pig's trotter or cheek, cured pork belly, potato, onion, garlic and coriander, and there is no fried base: everything goes straight into boiling water. The potatoes are cut into small irregular cubes and partly break down to thicken the soup.
The story everyone tells is of a friar who talks villagers into adding ingredients to a pot of water and a stone. The same report gives a plainer account: the name was first used commercially in 1960 by the restaurant O Toucinho.
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 500 g dried borlotti or pinto beans, soaked in cold water for 12 hours
- 300 g unsmoked streaky bacon or pork belly, in one piece
- 1 chouriço (about 200 g)
- 150 g black pudding in its skin (morcela if available)
- 1 large onion, peeled and halved
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1 bay leaf
- 500 g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into small irregular cubes of about 1 cm
- A small bunch of coriander (about 20 g), chopped
- Fine sea salt and black pepper
Method
- Boil the beans Drain the soaked beans, put them in the pan with 3 litres of fresh cold water and bring to the boil. Boil hard for 10 minutes, skimming off the foam. This step matters for safety as well as texture.
- Add the meats Add the bacon, chouriço, onion, garlic and bay leaf. Lower the heat and simmer, partly covered, for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, until the beans are soft enough to crush between two fingers. Add the black pudding for the last 15 minutes. Do not add salt yet.
- Lift out the meats Take out the bacon and sausages and set them aside. Remove the onion halves, garlic and bay leaf. Crush a ladleful of the beans against the side of the pan to thicken the broth.
- Cook the potatoes Add the potatoes and simmer for 20 minutes, until they are soft and starting to break up at the edges. Season with salt and pepper now, tasting as you go: the meats have already salted the broth.
- Finish Cut the bacon and sausages into small pieces and return them to the pan with the coriander. Simmer for 2 minutes. The soup should be thick but still pourable. Serve very hot.
Food safety
Dried beans of the kidney bean family contain a natural toxin that is destroyed only by boiling. Soak them, discard the soaking water and boil them hard for at least 10 minutes before lowering the heat. Do not cook unboiled dried beans in a slow cooker. If you add a stone for show, use a smooth, non-porous one, scrub and boil it first, and warn everyone at the table.
Salt at the end. Salt added early can keep bean skins tough.
Like most bean soups it is better the next day. Thin with a little water when reheating.