Brave, Bold and Beany — Fabada Bravas

Crispy outside, tender inside, and zinged up with a spicy tomato sauce, patatas bravas are the quintessential bar snack of Spain.  I’ll teach you how to make them 6 pm Thursday, August 25, in my Tapas Table cooking class. It’s free, virtual and open to the public, hosted by the Pinecrest branch of Miami Dade Public Library. Space is limited. Sign up now.

Patatas bravas is a classic Catalan dish, but it’s not brave. In Spain, brava means fierce or fiery. Here I keep the fire but go for fabada — beans. Fabes de la granja are big fat white beans from Spain. Feel free to use their American cousins, including giant limas and royal coronas. They all have a mildly nutty flavor and creamy mouthfeel. Think of them like potatoes, minus the glycemic spike plus the value adds of protein, fiber and complex carbs. Heat and olive oil helps crisp their skins, but their insides stay fluffy and floury. The umami, peppery tomato sauce, it what makes them brava.

Want more?  Me, too!  Join me 6pm ET Thursday August 25, for Tapas Table, when I’ll be showing you how to make classic patatas bravas and more plantbased Spanish tapas. Register now so you won’t miss a bite.

How to Make Fabada Bravas

1. For the spicy tomato sauce, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. 
2. When oil starts to shimmer, add the diced onion and minced garlic. Stir to coat in oil.Reduce heat to medium and sauté for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the vegetables becomes translucent and fragrant.
3. Add tomatoes, paprika and red pepper flakes. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes or until the sauce thickens and the flavors blend. 
4. Allow the sauce to cool slightly, then blitz with an immersion blender or in a food processor.
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment or a Silpat. 
6. In a medium bowl, toss beans olive oil, so they’re  lightly coated. Give them a good dose of sea salt.
7. Turn them onto the rimmed baking pan. Bake for about 15 minutes,  
8. Flip beans and continue baking for another 10 minutes or so, or until beans begin to blister.
9. Scatter fresh greens on a platter or a broad, shallow serving dish. Drizzle beans with about half the tomato sauce, finish with another sprinkle of sea salt. 
10. Serve the remaining tomato sauce on the side for those who want to bump up the brava. 

Fabada Fun Facts and Tapas Tips

• Don’t miss my a bite of my free, virtual Tapas Table class August 25, I’ll be teaching you how to make classic patatas bravas and more plantbased pinxhos. Sign up here.
• Faba de la granja — literally farm beans — and judión de la granja are Spanish. Royal coronas and giant limas, known in the South as butter beans are American. They’re all white beans of generous size with a mild, deliciously buttery taste and soft, floury texture. They all cook up quicker than many dried beans — maybe an hour if you make them as I do, on the stovetop in the preferred Rancho Gordo www.ranchogordo.com manner. If you’ve got an Instant Pot, you, they’ll cook in half the time Either way, cook just until al dente, don’t let them go to mush (sometimes they want to).  They cook further in the oven, and you want beans firm enough to dip.
• Enjoy fabada bravas as you would patatas bravas — as a tapa or bar snack. Serve as a starter with cocktails, or as part of a tapas spread. Put out forks and little plates and invite everyone to dip — or sluice — beans in sauce. Keep the sea salt handy, too. 
• What makes brava sauce brava? Juicy, ripe, red tomatoes, punchy, zesty garlic, fragrant peppers, both spicy and sweet, and luscious green-gold olive oil. They’re the fiery flavors — and crops — of Spain. They’re bold, not shy, and play beautifully together here and in scads of Spanish and Catalan recipes.  What’s cool  — not fiery — is that though these ingredients combine over and over again, they’re never ho-hum. 
• Summer is when tomatoes and peppers are ripe, fresh and bursting with flavor — so stock up.

Fabada Bravas

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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cups giant limas cooked and well drained
• 1 medium onion diced
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 14- oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon paprika sweet, hot or smoked
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• sea salt to taste
• 3 cups fresh spinach arugula or your favorite tender green

Method

 

1. For the spicy tomato sauce, heat one tablespoon of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When oil starts to shimmer, add the diced onion and minced garlic. Stir to coat in oil.
2. Reduce heat to medium and sauté for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the vegetables becomes translucent and fragrant.
3. Add tomatoes, paprika and red pepper flakes. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes or until the sauce thickens and the flavors blend. Allow the sauce to cool slightly, then blitz with an immersion blender or in a food processor.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment or a Silpat.
5. In a medium bowl, toss beans with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, so the beans are lightly coated. Turn them onto the rimmed baking pan. Season with sea salt to taste
6. Bake for about 15 minutes, then flip beans and continue baking for another 10 minutes or so, or until beans begin to blister.
7. Scatter fresh greens on a platter or a broad, shallow serving dish. Drizzle beans with about half the tomato sauce, finish with another sprinkle of sea salt and serve the remaining tomato sauce on the side for those who want to bump up the brava.

Notes

Serves 4 to 6.

More Plantbased Pinxhos

Two chilled Spanish soups for hot summer days and nights:

• Gazpacho
• Ajo Blanco

Remember how I said tomato, garlic, peppers and olive oil are Spain’s bold flavors?  Here they are again:

• Romesco Sauce
• Chickpeas with Saffron

@theeddiegarza gives chorizo a plantbased makeover.

Vedge chef Rich Landau lavishes fresh asparagus with crunchy, buttery, garlicy hazelnut picada. 

Thank you for reading my vegan stories and plant-based recipes. I sincerely love to connect with listeners and would like to hear your feedback, takeaways, “ah-ha!” moments, etc in the comments.

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