Spanish Bean Soup

a childhood comfort food packed with smokey paprika

Well, I’m finally back! After more than a month of being sick from the flu, then a bad head cold, and then an eye infection (on top of that), I’m finally starting to feel like myself again.

It’s that time of year when everyone seems to be coming down with something or another, but this year felt particularly difficult for everyone I’ve talked to. Instead of taking days to recover, most people like myself, have taken weeks to return to normal.

I hope you and yours made it through without too much downtime or evaded the bugs altogether!

For weeks, I was too sick to do anything besides lie in bed watching The Real Housewives' reruns. I couldn’t even cook for myself, which was another kind of torture, but on one occasion, and I mean one, I was able to whip up a batch of childhood comfort food—Spanish Bean Soup.

Growing up in Tampa, Florida, this humble soup was a staple when we went out to a Cuban restaurant or on rainy days when my mom made a pot for dinner.

Brought to popularity by the iconic Columbia Restaurant back in the 1920s, it’s nourished generations of Tampa folks with simple ingredients like garbanzo beans, potatoes, ham, and chorizo.

The owner of the Columbia adapted a version of the Spanish stew, Cocido Madrileño, to serve at his famous restaurants throughout the state. By the 1940s, the restaurants would turn out 90 to 100 gallons of Spanish Bean Soup a day!

While this soup may not look like much, served with buttery Cuban toast, nothing is more comforting than sipping its rich, smoky paprika broth.