Known here in Gran Canaria as potaje de berros, this delicious soup is something that appears on many Canarian menus. Perhaps you sampled this with your Canarian cooking recipes while you were here on holiday, or maybe you just fancy making a typical Canarian food recipe. In either case, you will find it easy to make and a really novel and unusual soup.
This potaje de berros recipe is a popular Canarian lunch and it is also served as a starter before the main meal sometimes, often with some crusty bread for soaking up every last bit. Some families leave out the pork ribs and make this a vegetarian soup which works well too. Allow a couple of hours to cook this soup. You could cook it in a crockpot if you have one, and that will take about 8 hours on low.
Photo by Juantiagues
What you need:
- 1/2 kilo watercress
- 150g sweet potato
- 1/2 kilo potatoes
- 1 onion
- 1/4 kilo pork ribs
- 1/4 kilo white beans
- 2 tender cobs of corn
- 1 tomato
- 1 green bell pepper
- 3 minced garlic cloves
- 100 ml of mixed olive oil, salt, saffron and water
How to make it:
Soak the white beans overnight to tenderize them. Put the ribs, beans, sweet potato and cobs of corn in a big pot. Add 3 litres of water and simmer.
When the mixture is half-cooked, add the potatoes, watercress, tomatoes, onion, bell pepper (chop them all up first) as well as the saffron mixture and garlic.
Simmer gently until everything is cooked, then serve with a crusty bread roll, a hunk of tasty cheese (something like vintage cheddar perhaps) and some minced red onion too. You might like to serve a dollop of sour cream in the middle of the soup as a garnish, and some chopped parsley, but that’s up to you.