The best traditional dishes of Asturias that you might not know about

Exclusive pulses, sausages that are works of art, pots that feed the soul, lamb prepared in an exotic way, slaughtering dishes as exclusive as caviar, desserts that taste of glory...

In Asturias the list of dishes, products and recipes that will surprise you with their quality and surprise your palate is almost endless. Every corner of Asturias, every village, every area has, sometimes unexpectedly, a pleasant and succulent gastronomic surprise in store for you.

In Asturias, the cuisine is like the orography: varied and always admirable for its nuances and wisdom, treasuring centuries of knowledge and effort.

In this gastronomic journey we reveal the charm of traditional dishes, which are the ones you don't always expect?

Dishes that you can enjoy in restaurants, cider houses, bars and eating houses, both in and out of season. In addition, you can sometimes buy the ingredients in gourmet shops, bar-shops or markets, and prepare these delicious creations at your leisure.

Let's get started!

The verdina is a very special, unique, very exclusive vegetable. A seasonal vegetable.

It is a variety of beans, small in size and harvested when the beans are unripe and have not yet acquired their white colour, remaining green. When dried in green, these small beans maintain their colour and preserve their intense vegetable flavour.

The verdina bean cooks very easily, so once cooked, it remains whole without splitting, and as they have a very thin skin, they are very pleasant to the touch, and as they are greener, they have a very delicate, exquisite and somewhat fruity flavour. That is why they are ideal with fish and seafood.

Like other varieties of legume, verdinas are excellent if eaten within the year.

Formerly, they were only produced in the Ardisana Valley, in Llanes, although the increase in demand for this product has meant that they are now grown in more areas, with the east of Asturias being their cradle and origin.

Numerous recipes are made with this variety of legume, practically with any type of fish or seafood, for example with octopus, clams, prawns, cod and all types of fish. They are also frequently used in recipes with game meat, in recipes with deer or wild boar. They are also a real delicacy when stewed with vegetables or mushrooms.

Keep an eye on verdinas: once you try them, you won't be able to forget them!

Emberzau or pantrucu is undoubtedly a peculiar dish that you will only find in the eastern part of Asturias. It is said that the name emberzau comes from the fact that it is cooked wrapped in cabbage.

It has always been linked to the slaughter of the pig, as its main ingredients come from the pig, one of them being the pig's own blood.

To the pig's blood, finely chopped onion, pork fat and bacon (diced), cornflour and a little wheat flour are added so that the whole mixture binds well, as well as a little salt.

All this is mixed well until a compact dough is obtained, which is used to make a kind of black pudding which is not stuffed into a casing, but is wrapped in cabbage, tied up and cooked in plenty of boiling water for two hours.

Once this laborious process is finished, it is cut into slices and fried.

The result is a real delicacy, which your palate will be eternally grateful for!

Os roxóis, also known as chicharrones, are another of those genuine and unique dishes that Asturias has to offer.

Moreover, as with other products and dishes, os roxóis are typical of a specific territory: Los Oscos.

Between November and February, this unique recipe, seasoned with ham trimmings and pork bacon, appears on the menus of some of the establishments in this area, such as the Hotel Restaurante Casa Pedro, attracting people from all over the world who come to enjoy this gastronomic delicacy. In addition, roxóis can also be bought in the Santalla butcher's shop in Santa Eulalia de Oscos.

The cooks of these western Asturian lands say that it is a very laborious dish - it takes more than eight hours to make - but it is very grateful, because all the effort is compensated by how tasty it is.

An iron cauldron is the ideal container for simmering with birch wood. A little water and a handful of salt are the only ingredients required to start the process. When it starts to boil, it is necessary to stir, and after a while it is necessary to remove the first fat, which is very precious for preserving the chorizos at home. Then a finely chopped onion is added and everything is stirred again until the product is dry.

Os roxóis are another of those pleasant seasonal surprises in Asturias!

Autumn is chestnut time, a fruit with deep cultural and gastronomic roots in Asturias. A fruit with its own popular and traditional festival, known as amagüestu.

But its great potential for pairing, its flavour and its high nutritional value go beyond that, and from time to time the chestnut is the star of dishes with as much history and renown as chestnut stew, ideal for the cold season.

It is a simple but careful preparation, where the raw material is essential for a brilliant result. The chorizo sausages, black pudding, pork shoulder, pork belly and pork meat are cooked, along with the vegetables, until the meat is almost tender.

In another pot, cook the potatoes and chestnuts, and when ten minutes have elapsed, add them to the compangu (a meat accompaniment to the fabada made from chorizo, black pudding and bacon) and the cabbage, cooking until soft. Finish off with the salt and it is ready to eat.

Chestnut stew is one of those unforgettable autumn delicacies!

It is said by gastronomic scholars that fire-roasting and charcoal-grilling are the oldest ways of cooking in existence. In fact, lamb roasted on the stake is a recipe that dates back centuries, and nowadays this ancestral flavour continues to seduce the most demanding diners with its flavour and juiciness.

It is a deeply-rooted roast in Asturias and many fans of this dish travel miles to go to the restaurants that offer it on their menus.

To make this dish, a lamb is placed with a metal bar or wooden stake across it from side to side, and another bar is placed perpendicular to the lamb's legs. In this way, it is arranged crosswise to receive the heat as evenly as possible.

From time to time, the lamb is turned so that the roasting takes effect equally on all sides. The wood used for this purpose must be hardwood: beech, oak or ash. The stake should have a certain inclination, forming an angle of approximately 60 degrees.

The lamb will be ready to eat when it is golden brown and even a little browned. It is important to know that this roasting will take no less than three and a half hours.

Boroña asturiana - or borona in Castilian - is a typical Asturian cornmeal bread. It was traditionally baked covered with a cabbage leaf, and was also often stuffed with chorizo, black pudding or other sausage, in which case it was called 'boroña preñada' (pregnant boroña).

It has a very dense, compact crumb and can be made with different proportions of maize flour, the more maize flour it contains, the stronger the bread becomes.

If boroña is already good in itself, if it is pregnant, it is a sublime dish.

The steps for making a pregnant boroña are very precise:

Pour the liquid ingredients - warm water and oil - into a bowl. Then add a mixture of the two flours little by little, stir and add salt. Finally, the yeast is added and the dough used to make the traditional boroña is kneaded for ten minutes.

The dough is removed and covered with a clean cloth and left to rest for an hour in a dry, draught-free place.

After this time, the dough is kneaded again for a couple of minutes and shaped by making a hole in the middle. This is where the sausages and meat are inserted.

You can close the dough and leave it completely covered so that it looks like a loaf of bread, or you can leave it open so that the ingredients can be seen. The oven is then preheated to 200 °C.

Once the dough is filled to your liking, close the edges a little. Wrap the brioche loaf in aluminium foil halfway up so that it cooks well. Cabbage leaves are also often used for this step.

Bake the bread at 180 °C on medium heat for one hour. Be careful as each oven is different and may need less or more time.

After the baking time has elapsed, check whether the dough is done with a toothpick to see if it is tender inside. If more time is needed, put it back in the oven and leave it for another 30 minutes.

When it is ready, take out the Asturian boroña and serve. The result is a consistent bread with the meat that has released its oils and aromas to spread on the bread.

Ummm... simply mouth-watering!

The cake called Venera is a typical dessert from the west of Asturias, and more specifically from the area of Boal and Navia. Due to the ingredients it is made with, it has a well-deserved reputation for being highly energetic, which is why pilgrims on the Camino de la Costa include it in their daily diet as they make their way to Santiago de Compostela. In addition, it has the advantage that it remains in perfect condition for several days.

The ingredients of the venera include ground toasted almonds, sugar, corn flour, eggs, wafers, egg whites and candied cherries.

Its preparation requires knowledge, care and a lot of pampering. The first step is to soak the almonds in hot water to remove their skins, and then place them in the oven to dry and toast them a little. As soon as they begin to brown, they are removed from the oven and left to cool before grinding.

Then mix the ground almonds, flour, sugar and beaten egg until a smooth dough is formed.

Once the dough is ready, make the doughnuts and place them on a wafer, touching each other.

When everything is in place, put them in the oven at 180 degrees for five minutes, until they are slightly coloured.

Leave to cool and decorate with meringue and candied cherries.

Simply delicious and ready to enjoy!

Escaldao is one of the most characteristic and representative sweets of Christmas in Asturias. It is a kind of yellow pudding, similar to the traditional turrón, but with more humble ingredients.

It is typical of the council of Grado, where it was invented.

It is a simple dessert, both in terms of ingredients and preparation. It is characterised by its traditional flavour, sweetness, tender texture and yellow colour.

Known as the poor man's nougat, it was made with boroña bread, a kind of bread that was formerly made with millet and later changed to corn. Nowadays it is made with butter, sugar, water, honey, a lot of patience and a wood-fired oven. It is as simple as that.

It is not really well known outside Asturias, but it is so delicious that you should try it some Christmas, because it also creates that homey atmosphere that is so typical of this time of year. And they say that the ideal thing to do is to prepare it and enjoy it with the family.

If you prepare it yourself, don't forget to make it the old-fashioned way, with a good boroña (bread made with corn flour, typical of Asturias), on a wood-burning cooker and stir it with a wooden spoon.

In case you get down to work, bear in mind that the ingredients are a kilo of boroña bread, a splash of water, a glass of white sugar, 500 grams of artisan lard and a spoonful of honey.

As for how to prepare it, here are some simple guidelines:

Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Melt the sugar with a little water and the honey in another saucepan. This should also be done over a low heat.

Mix the breadcrumbs, the crust and the butter, and stir everything well with a wooden spoon.

Stir in the melted, lightly toasted sugar, and if you like, add a dash of aniseed.

Continue stirring on a low heat for about half an hour or more.

And that's it! Your escaldao or escaldáu, ready to taste!

Panchón is a typical dessert from the council of Aller, in the central mountains of Asturias. One of its characteristics is that it involves laborious preparation, in which the main ingredients are spelt flour, lard and sugar.

It begins with the preparation of the dough for the pancha - round bread - which is then wrapped in cabbage leaves, placed in the llar (traditional Asturian household kitchen), and covered with ashes, embers and other materials that burn easily, such as spelt husks.

Once the panchón is cooked, it is crumbled and mixed in a saucepan with lard and sugar over a hot cooker.

Panchón is a very old dessert, and as well as appearing on the menus of many restaurants in the council of Aller, it is one of the gastronomic stars of some of its patron saint festivals.

If you visit the council of Aller you have to try panchón and learn about how it is made!

The frixuelos de Cangas del Narcea are different from those of the rest of Asturias, as they are fried in a spiral shape, which gives them a different look, not to mention when you savour them...

The preparation, like all Asturian pastries, is done with great care: the eggs are beaten, the milk is poured in and mixed well. Then add the salt. Then add the flour little by little and stir until it binds.

Leave the dough to rest for about 15 minutes, and with the help of a "garfiella" or ladle, pour the dough into a frying pan with plenty of very hot oil.

The dough is placed in a circle, starting in the centre of the pan and working outwards from the inside, and is removed when it is well browned.

The frixuelos are eaten hot, with honey, sugar or without any additives.

They are exquisite, so much so that some local restaurants include them in their breakfasts.

Without a doubt, the frixuelos of Cangas del Narcea are a delicious spiral!