My very favorite item of Cuban cuisine is garbanzo bean soup, also known as Spanish bean soup (made with garbanzo beans (chickpeas), potatoes, ham and chorizo sausages). There were several Cuban restaurants in Tampa whose garbanzo bean soup I used to enjoy. But I’ve been living in the Miami area two months now and I can’t find it on the menu of any Cuban eatery. Any theories as to why? Any suggestions as to where I might find some?
I’ve never had (or seen) a Cuban version, but it sounds an awful lot like Spanish cocido. If you miss it that much, why don’t you just make it yourself? It’s a slow-cooked thing, almost impossible to screw up, even if you’re not an experienced cook.
No . . . Spanish bean soup has no chicken, cabbage or turnips.
Well, there are a ton of cocido recipes out there - I ate vats of it when I was studying in Spain in college, and the common ingredients were garbanzos, morcilla, some other kind of meat, and onions. Íf you’re culinarily inclined, I’m sure you could experiment until you came up with something you liked, and even the experiments would probably all taste reasonably good.
Sloth is my besetting sin.
Actually, I have made it for myself, using an excellent recipe from Clarita’s Cocina by Clarita Garcia.
Does anybody have a theory or WAG? As to why Cuban restaurants in Tampa, but not (so far as I can find) Miami, serve this soup?