Galician winter soup

Caldo gallego

The beauty of this dish is in its simplicity. If you’d like to jazz it up a bit, however, here are some suggestions – turnip leaves, silverbeet or chard, flat green beans, carrots, pumpkin, meatballs, chorizo sausage, chopped Spanish ham [jamón] ...

SERVES 4–6

90 g (3¼ oz) piece smoked pork joint or ham hock

90 g/3¼ oz piece tocino

90 g/3¼ oz unto

1 white turnip

½ savoy cabbage, roughly chopped

6 new potatoes, peeled and halved

250 g (9 oz) cooked haricot or cannellini beans (see How to cook perfect pulses or legumes)

Put the pork joint, tocino, unto and turnip into a large saucepan with 3 litres (105 fl oz/12 cups) water over medium–high heat. Bring to the boil, then half–cover the saucepan with a lid and reduce the heat to a steady but soft boil. Cook the stock for 2 hours.

Add the cabbage and potatoes to the stock and cook for another 30 minutes. Add the white beans and cook for 3–4 minutes, until heated through.

Remove the pork joint and turnip from the stock and set aside to cool slightly. Remove the tocino and unto; discard. Roughly chop the pork joint meat and the turnip into bite-sized chunks and return to the stock. Serve immediately.