Caldo Gallego (White Bean, Chorizo and Ham Soup)
It’s soup season baby! This traditional Galician Caldo Gallego features a flavorful base of ham, chorizo, and white beans with both turnip root and greens. It’s an incredibly rich and savory soup, perfect for serving during the colder months with a piece of crusty bred.
The combination of chorizo and smoked ham builds the most flavorful base for this Galacian soup. With hearty ingredients like white beans, potatoes, turnips and turnip greens, it’s a super satisfying dish to make and serve a crowd.
It’s a super cozy, one pot recipe with Spanish flavors that are easy to love. If you’re a fan of zuppa toscana and other stewed white bean recipes, you can’t go wrong with this one.
Grocery List
How to Make Caldo Gallego, Step by Step
Non Traditional Tip: I like topping mine with a dusting of parmesan cheese and serving with crusty, garlic rubbed toast!
Starting with the Pork
When cooking with ingredients like smoked ham and chorizo, I love taking advantage of the natural fat and big flavors. That’s why we’re starting the base of this soup with the chorizo, rendering out that fat and building all of the flavors from there.
The result is a rich, flavorful soup without much effort!
More Latin Soups & Stews
Buen provecho,
Caldo Gallego
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Category: Soup, Entree, Main Dish
- Method: Stewed
- Cuisine: Spanish
Description
It’s soup season baby! This traditional Galician Caldo Gallego features a flavorful base of ham, chorizo, and white beans with both turnip root and greens. It’s an incredibly rich and savory soup, perfect for serving during the colder months with a piece of crusty bred.
Ingredients
- 1 lb chorizo*
- 2 lb smoked ham hock
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 medium sized turnips*, peeled & diced into bite sized pieces
- 1 large russet potato, peeled & diced into bite sized pieces
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 cups turnip greens or kale, chopped into bite sized pieces
- 1 can cannelloni beans, drained & rinsed
- 8 cups broth
Instructions
- Cook the chorizo. Add chorizo to the base of a dutch oven and cook over medium heat. Break the chorizo up with a spoon while it browns. Transfer the crispy pork to a plate, leaving the rendered fat behind.
- Cook the veggies with the spices. Add diced onion to the pot and cook for a few minutes, stirring often. Add the minced garlic and cook for another couple of minutes, until fragrant. Toss in diced turnips and potato and season everything with paprika, salt and pepper.
- Add remaining ingredients. Return the cooked chorizo to the pot along with the ham hock, turnip greens, beans, and broth.
- Simmer & serve. Turn the heat up to high and bring the liquid to a boil before covering and lowering to a low simmer. Cook for 30 minutes before adding additional salt to taste and serving.
Equipment
Buy Now → Notes
*I recommend using raw chorizo (without casing if possible) so that you can render as much fat as possible.
*If you can’t find turnips substitute with an extra potato.