Spanish
Potaje de Vigilancia (Lenten Chickpea and Cod Potaje)
Potaje de Vigilancia (Lenten Chickpea and Cod Potaje) is Spanish home cooking, eaten at lunch. On the plate it is the dish at the centre. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
- 1 lb dried salt cod
- 3 cups cooked chickpeas
- 4 cups fresh spinach
- 1 potato
- 1 onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 tomato
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 pinch saffron threads
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 hard-boiled eggs
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
How to cook it
- Soak the dried salt cod in cold water for 24 to 36 hours, changing the water two or three times, then drain and flake it into large pieces, discarding any skin or bones.
- Heat the olive oil in a wide pot and cook the chopped onion and garlic until soft, about 6 minutes, then stir in the chopped tomato, the cumin, the paprika, and the crushed saffron and cook until fragrant.
- Add the chickpeas, the diced potato, the bay leaf, and enough water to just cover everything, and simmer for 20 minutes until the potato is tender.
- Nestle the flaked cod into the pot and simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes so it stays tender rather than falling apart.
- Stir in the spinach in batches until wilted, taste before adding the salt since the cod already carries its own, and fish out the bay leaf.
- Ladle into bowls and top each with a few wedges of the hard-boiled egg, the traditional way this potaje is served during Lent, when meat is set aside.
Serve it with
A Spanish lunch is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Potaje de Vigilancia (Lenten Chickpea and Cod Potaje), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
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Something to sip
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The cooked vegetable
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What it is eaten with
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Something cool and fresh
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Potaje de Vigilancia (Lenten Chickpea and Cod Potaje) carries eggs and fish. It is free of the remaining 8 allergens on that list.
| Allergen | In this dish | Cook this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | No | |
| Tree nuts | No | |
| Dairy | No | |
| Gluten | No | |
| Shellfish | No | |
| Eggs | Yes | Ajoblanco (Chilled Malaga Almond and Garlic Soup) |
| Soy | No | |
| Fish | Yes | Ajoblanco (Chilled Malaga Almond and Garlic Soup) |
| Sesame | No | |
| Coconut | No |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Bands, not numbers. Dinejot does not weigh anybody's food, so it says light, moderate or hearty and stops there. This dish was read and set by hand.
- Calorie band
- Moderate
- Protein
- High
- Protein quality
- Complete
- Food groups it covers
- Pulses, Vegetables, Meat or fish, and Egg
- How this was set
- Hand audited
When to cook it
Potaje de Vigilancia (Lenten Chickpea and Cod Potaje) takes about 60 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at lunch. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.
Watch someone make it
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More to cook
Cooked from the same things
Other dishes built on chickpea, cod, and spinach.
From the same kitchens
More cooking from Spain.
Does the same job on the plate
Swap any of these in when you want a meal the same shape.
Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.