Rice, town by town.

Arrocito del Grau de Castelló

Creamy seafood rice from Castellon's fishing port

Arrosset del Grau

El Grau is Castelló's fishermen's quarter, built around the port and its fish auction (llotja).

Castellon

Arroz a Banda

Fishermen's rice cooked in fish stock, served with allioli

Arròs a Banda

"A banda" means "apart" or "on the side". The dish was the fishermen's way of turning the unsaleable catch (morralla: rockfish, scorpionfish, weever, gurnard, small crabs) into two meals.

Alicante · Valencia

Arroz a la Alicantina

Alicante rice with chicken, squid and red pepper

Arròs a l'Alacantina

Alicante's own mar i muntanya (sea and mountain) paella.

Alicante

Arroz a la Asturiana

Asturian rice with pork, chicken and sausages

Arroz con Cosas Asturiano

A generous Sunday "arroz con cosas" ("rice with things") of Asturian homes. It brings together the region's pork and poultry: pork ribs, lean pork or fresh ham, chicken, fresh white sausages and fresh chorizo, with peas.

Northern Spain

Arroz a la Cazuela

Barcelona-style rice in a clay casserole with seafood and meat

Arròs a la Cassola

The Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana defines arròs a la cassola as rice cooked in a cassola "with fish, meat, poultry, vegetables, etc.", a dish that "admits many combinations".

Catalonia

Arroz a la Cubana (Canarias)

White rice with tomato sauce, fried egg and fried banana

Arroz con Huevo y Plátano

A plate of white rice, tomato sauce, fried egg and fried plantain or banana (in Canarias, the local plátano de Canarias), sometimes with papas fritas or a sausage.

Canary Islands · Madrid

Arroz a la Sevillana

Seville-style rice with chicken, pork and peppers

Arroz con Cosas

Sevilla province is Spain's leading rice producer. The marismas del Guadalquivir around Isla Mayor were drained and put under rice in the 20th century, notably by Valencian growers who settled there from the 1920s–1930s.

Andalusia

Arroz a la Zamorana

Zamora winter rice with pig's ear and snout, turnip and garlic

Arroz Zamorano

Arroz a la zamorana is Castilla y León's great rice and a child of the matanza (pig slaughter). Rural families in the Aliste comarca used every part of the pig.

Castile and Leon

Arroz a la Zaragozana

Aragonese rice with pork ribs, sausage, ham and peppers

Arroz a la Aragonesa

Aragonese home cooking adds rice to stews (cazuela aragonesa, colas de cordero with rice, conejo en salmorejo with rice) rather than cooking it in a flat pan. A rice "a la zaragozana" would follow that logic.

Aragon, Navarre & La Rioja

Arroz al Horno

Oven-baked rice with pork, sausages, chickpeas and potato

Arròs al Forn

Arròs al forn is the rice of the olla. It was invented to use the broth, chickpeas and meat left over from Saturday's cocido (olla or putxero).

Valencia

Arroz al Horno con Guisantes

Oven-baked rice with peas and pork

Arròs al Forn amb Pèsols

The spring version of arròs al forn.

Valencia

Arroz al Horno con Pasas y Garbanzos

Oven-baked rice with raisins and chickpeas

Arròs al Forn amb Panses i Cigrons (Arròs Viudo)

The Lenten twin of arròs al forn. It is an arròs viudo ("widowed rice") "que no se acompaña de ninguna carne", in which raisins and chickpeas replace the pork, sausages and morcilla.

Valencia

Arroz al Horno de Alubias y Nabos

Oven-baked rice with white beans, turnip and pork

Arròs al Forn de Fesols i Naps

The well-known arròs amb fesols i naps is a soupy winter pot. This is its oven-baked form, and a meatless one: just beans, turnip or nap-i-col (kohlrabi), a head of garlic, oil, paprika and black pepper.

Valencia

Arroz al Horno de Anguilas y Judías

Oven-baked rice with eel and green beans

Arròs al Forn d'Anguiles i Bajoques

A rare baked rice that puts eel, the fish of L'Albufera's all i pebre, together with the paella vegetables: bajoqueta, tavella and garrofó.

Valencia

Meloso · creamyIron cauldron

Arroz Amarillo Canario

Canarian saffron-yellow rice side dish

Arroz Canario

Canarian cooking sits between Castile, Andalucía, Africa and the Americas, and rice reached the islands' everyday tables partly through the return of emigrants from Cuba and Venezuela.

Canary Islands

Arroz Caldero del Mar Menor

Murcian fishermen's rice cooked in a rich fish broth with ñora pepper

Caldero Murciano

According to the San Pedro del Pinatar town council, the caldero goes back to the 19th century, when Mar Menor fishermen cooked the fish that wouldn't sell at market in iron pots on board.

Murcia

Arroz Caldoso con Bogavante

Lobster rice soup

Arròs Caldós amb Llamàntol

Arroz caldoso con bogavante is the coast's celebration rice. It is ordered for Sunday lunches, Christmas and family gatherings, and one Alicante blog describes it as a festive staple of the comarca.

Alicante · Valencia

Arroz Caldoso con Bogavante del Cantábrico

Cantabrian lobster rice soup

Arroz con Lumbrigante (Rinlo y la Mariña)

Northern Spain

Arroz Caldoso con Colitas de Cangrejo de Isla Mayor

Rice soup with crayfish tails from the rice marshes

Arroz con Cangrejos de las Marismas

Isla Mayor was born from rice: paddies were laid out in the Guadalquivir marshes in the first half of the 20th century, and the town grew around them (see the history page for the settlement debate).

Andalusia

Arroz Caldoso con Pato de las Marismas

Rice soup with duck from the Guadalquivir marshes

Arroz de Pato Cortijero

The rice paddies of the Guadalquivir marshes are Spain's largest rice-growing area, and like L'Albufera they are full of waterfowl.

Andalusia

Arroz Caldoso de Isla Cristina

Huelva rice soup with clams and shellfish

Arroz Caldoso con Almejas y Marisco Onubense

Isla Cristina is one of Spain's major fishing ports.

Andalusia

Arroz Caldoso de Langostinos de Vinaròs

Rice soup with Vinaros king prawns

Arròs Caldós de Llagostins de Vinaròs

The Llagostí de Vinaròs (Penaeus kerathurus, the striped prawn) is caught on the sandy, Ebro-fed bottoms off Vinaròs.

Castellon

Arroz Caldoso de Sepia y Coliflor

Rice soup with cuttlefish and cauliflower

Arròs de Sèpia i Col-i-flor

A winter soupy rice in which the cuttlefish is boiled for half an hour first. This is unusual, since most recipes sear it. The boiling makes a broth and tenderises the cuttlefish.

Valencia

Arroz Campero Andaluz

Andalusian country rice with pork, peppers and artichoke

Arroz con Cosas (de Campo)

Andalusia

Arroz Clarico (con Hierbabuena)

Clear yellow rice soup with meat, chickpeas and fresh mint

Arroz Clarico de la Vega Baja

The name says it all: clarico is the affectionate Vega Baja and Murcian diminutive of claro ("thin, clear").

Alicante · Murcia

Arroz con Acelgas

Creamy Lenten rice with chard, white beans and potato

Arròs amb Bledes (Arròs en Banderetes)

Arròs amb bledes is the definitive Lenten (Quaresma) rice. It contains no meat and is built on chard, white beans and potato, all huerta products available through late winter.

Valencia

Arroz con Alcachofas de Benicarló

Rice with Benicarlo artichokes and pork

Arròs amb Carxofes de Benicarló

The Alcachofa de Benicarló has held a Denominación de Origen since 18 September 1998.

Castellon

Arroz con Almejas

Rice soup with clams

Arroz con Ameixas

Galicia's rías are among Europe's richest shellfish grounds. Carril (Vilagarcía) is famous for its clams, and the mariscadoras who gather them on foot are a cultural institution.

Northern Spain

Arroz con Alubias y Nabos

Winter rice soup with white beans, turnip and pork

Arròs amb (en) Fesols i Naps

This is the great winter rice of the Valencian countryside. It is also known as caldera, caldera de l'horta, olla pobre or arròs junt.

Valencia

Arroz con Bacalao de Vigilia (La Mancha y Extremadura)

Lenten rice soup with salt cod

Arroz de Cuaresma

Salt cod was the protein of Lent across inland Spain, far from fresh fish. It arrived by mule and rail, preserved in salt.

Castilla-La Mancha & Extremadura

Arroz con Bacalao y Coliflor

Rice with salt cod and cauliflower

Arròs amb Bacallà i Coliflor

This is a Lent and Holy Week rice (Quaresma, Setmana Santa).

Alicante · Valencia

Arroz con Boquerones y Pava (Coliflor)

Murcian rice with fresh anchovies and cauliflower

Arroz Huertano de Boquerones

A huerta rice that marries the cheapest Mediterranean fish, the boquerón (fresh anchovy), with winter cauliflower, two bunches of ajos tiernos and red pepper.

Murcia

Arroz con Borrajas y Almejas

Aragonese rice soup with borage and clams

Borrajas con Arroz y Almejas

Aragon, Navarre & La Rioja

Meloso · creamyStew pot

Arroz con Cangrejos (La Bañeza)

Creamy rice with river crayfish

Arroz con Cangrejos de Río Bañezano

La Bañeza's crayfish tradition is "more than two centuries" old, according to the RENC source.

Castile and Leon

Arroz con Chipirones y Ajos Tiernos

Creamy rice with baby squid and green garlic

Arròs amb Xipirons i Alls Tendres

A spring rice of the Alicante coast. Small squid (chipirones, Valencian xipirons) are paired with young garlic (ajos tiernos), which appears in the huertas from late winter.

Alicante

Arroz con Choco

Huelva rice soup with cuttlefish

Onubense

People from Huelva are nicknamed choqueros because of their attachment to the choco, the local cuttlefish: very tender, with short tentacles.

Andalusia

Arroz con Conejo

Rice with rabbit and red peppers (no snails)

Arròs amb Conill

The rabbit was the countryside's most accessible meat: bred in every farmyard (conejo de corral) or hunted in the monte. Snails, by contrast, are seasonal and laborious.

Alicante · Valencia · Murcia

Arroz con Conejo y Caracoles

Wood-fired rice with rabbit and mountain snails

Arròs amb Conill i Caragols (Arroz con Conejo y Serranas)

This is the rice of the dry, vine-and-almond interior of Alicante.

Alicante

Arroz con Conejo y Caracoles (Aragón, Navarra y La Rioja)

Aragonese rice with rabbit and snails

Arroz de Monte del Valle del Ebro

Snails (caracoles, cargols) are a deep-rooted festival food along the Ebro. In La Rioja they are a Christmas Eve dish, still held in esteem in Haro.

Aragon, Navarre & La Rioja

Arroz con Conejo y Caracoles Catalán

Catalan rice with rabbit and snails

Arròs amb Conill i Cargols

Rabbit and snails is a rice combination shared across eastern Spain's dry interiors, from the Alicante serrana rice to Aragón.

Catalonia

Arroz con Conejo y Caracoles Murciano

Murcian rice with rabbit and mountain snails

Arroz con Conejo y Serranas

Murcian sources describe rice cooked "a la lumbre" (over an open wood fire) as one of the pillars of the region's cooking, and rabbit with snails as the classic version.

Murcia

Arroz con Costra

Baked rice with rabbit and sausages under an egg crust

Arròs amb Crosta (Arroz y Costra)

Arroz con costra is one of the oldest documented rices in Spain. Elche and Orihuela both claim it. The Oriolan tradition places an early recipe in the Convento de la Santísima Trinidad de Orihuela.

Alicante

Arroz con Galeras y Alcachofas

Creamy rice with mantis shrimp and artichokes

Arròs amb Galeres i Carxofes

The galera (Squilla mantis, mantis shrimp) is the winter jewel of the Vinaròs and Benicarló trawler fleets. Its sweet, lobster-like flesh is hard to extract, so it is ideal for flavouring stock.

Castellon

Meloso · creamyStew pot

Arroz con Habas Peladas

Thick rice with dried peeled broad beans

Arròs amb Fava Pelà (Fava Pelada)

Alicante

Arroz con Hígado de Toro

Creamy rice with bull's liver and offal, chickpeas and escarole

Arròs amb Fetge de Bou

This is an offal rice: liver, sweetbread (molleja), heart and entrañas of a bull, stretched with chickpeas and a large amount of escarole.

Valencia · Alicante

Arroz con Leche

Rice pudding with milk, cinnamon and lemon (dessert)

Arròs amb Llet / Arroz con Leche Requemado

Rice cooked in sweetened milk is one of the oldest rice preparations in Spain.

Northern Spain · Madrid · Valencia

Arroz con Liebre

Creamy rice with wild hare

Arroz Meloso de Liebre (La Mancha y Extremadura)

The hare (liebre) is the prized small game of the open cereal plains of La Mancha and the Extremaduran dehesa.

Castilla-La Mancha & Extremadura

Arroz con Magra, Costillejas y Verduras

Murcian farm rice with pork ribs and vegetables

Arroz Huertano Murciano

The Huerta de Murcia is the irrigated plain of the Segura, watered by Andalusi channels (acequias and azarbes).

Murcia

Arroz con Mariscos y Pescados de Candamo

Asturian rice with velvet crab, prawns, clams and fish

Arroz de Grullos

An Asturian seafood rice built on the Cantabrian catch: andaricas (velvet crabs, nécoras), cigalas, clams and prawns, with pixín (Asturian for monkfish), squid and congrio (conger).

Northern Spain

Meloso · creamyStew pot

Arroz con Miel de Bogarra

Sweet Christmas rice with honey, citrus peel and cinnamon (dessert)

Arroz con Miel Navideño (Sierra de Albacete)

In the remote mountain villages of the Albacete Sierra, honey from rosemary and thyme hives was the traditional sweetener. The RENC records an arroz con miel eaten at Christmas in Bogarra.

Castilla-La Mancha & Extremadura

Arroz con Pata de Ternera

Creamy rice with calf's foot, chickpeas and sausage

Arròs amb Pota de Vedella

This is a working-class Alicante city classic and a winter rice. It uses the cheapest, most gelatin-rich cut, the calf's foot, together with chickpeas, botifarra de ceba (onion sausage) and chorizo.

Alicante

Arroz con Pato

Paella-style rice with duck from the Albufera lagoon

Arròs amb Ànec (Arròs d'Ànec de l'Albufera)

L'Albufera is Europe's most important wintering wetland for ducks, and from October to January the tirades (regulated hunting days) traditionally supplied wild duck (collverd mallard, sivert teal, bragat) to the villages of the lake.

Valencia

Arroz con Pava (Pavo)

Festive rice with turkey and meatballs

Arròs amb Titot

La Vega Baja has a long tradition of raising Spanish Black turkeys. In Almoradí the bird is finished on feed laced with wine, giving the famous pava borracha ("drunk turkey"), whose meat is richer and more marbled.

Alicante

Arroz con Perdiz

Rice soup with wild partridge

Arroz Caldoso de Perdiz (Sierras de Jaén y Córdoba)

The red-legged partridge (perdiz roja) is the defining small game of the dehesa and the olive-grove sierras, and partridge hunting is a centuries-old social ritual in Jaén.

Andalusia · Castilla-La Mancha & Extremadura

Arroz con Pitu de Caleya

Creamy rice with Asturian free-range rooster

Arroz con Pitu

The pitu de caleya is a free-range rooster or chicken that roams the caleyas. It is slaughtered at about a year old, while farm chickens barely reach two months. It now has a quality label, Pitu de Caleya.

Northern Spain

Arroz con Rape y Gamba Roja

Rice with monkfish and red prawns

Arròs amb Rap i Gamba Roja

A modern Alicante classic in the "Ciudad del Arroz" canon.

Alicante

Arroz con Sepia y Alcachofas

Rice with cuttlefish and artichokes

Arròs amb Sépia i Carxofa

This is the classic winter mar i muntanya of the Valencian coast. Cuttlefish from the inshore boats is paired with artichoke from the huerta, whose season (November to April) overlaps with cuttlefish's best months.

Valencia · Castellon

Arroz Cortijero de Jaén

Jaen country rice with ham, chorizo, peppers and olives

Arroz Cortijero (Country-Estate Rice)

A rice of the olive-grove cortijos of Jaén, the world's largest olive-oil-producing province.

Andalusia

Arroz de Ayuno de Calasparra

Lenten fasting rice with salt cod, cauliflower and artichoke

Arroz de Vigilia con Bacalao

Calasparra has grown rice since at least the 14th century. In 1986 its rice became the first rice in the world to receive a Denominación de Origen, and the first non-wine D.O. in Spain.

Murcia

Arroz de Boquerones y Espinacas

Rice with fresh anchovies and spinach

Arròs amb Espinacs i Aladrocs

A thrifty sea and huerta rice. The two cheapest things a coastal family could buy were a handful of fresh anchovies and a bunch of winter spinach.

Alicante · Valencia

Arroz de la Plana

Castellon farm paella with chicken, rabbit, pork and artichoke

Arròs de la Plana (Paella de l'Horta Castellonenca)

La Plana is Castellón's irrigated coastal plain, transformed in the 19th and 20th centuries into a sea of orange groves, with vegetable huertas in between.

Castellon

Arroz de Langosta Menorquín

Menorcan spiny lobster rice soup

Arròs de Llagosta (Fornells)

The caldereta de llagosta (spiny lobster stew) began as a fishermen's dish cooked in a caldero on their own boats.

Balearic Islands

Arroz de las Riberas del Turia

Creamy rice with chicken or duck, artichoke and mushrooms

Arròs de les Riberes del Túria

In the 17th and 18th centuries Sénia rice was grown along the Túria by royal order, especially in Riba-roja, until a plague wiped out the crop and rice farming disappeared there. Oranges later took over the huerta.

Valencia

Arroz de los Tres Puñaos

Meatless Lenten rice soup with beans, lentils and vegetables

Arroz de Vigilia (Arroz Clarico de Vigilia)

This is the Vega Baja's great Lent (Cuaresma) and vigil rice: a meatless dish of the poor huerta. Its name comes from the measuring system.

Alicante

Arroz de Matanza Ibicenco

Ibizan pig-slaughter rice soup with pork, chicken and sausage

Arròs de Matances (Eivissa)

On Ibiza the winter matances (pig slaughter) supplied the year's protein, mainly through cured sausages such as sobrassada and botifarró. The rice made on slaughter day used the fresh meat.

Balearic Islands

Arroz de Montaña Catalán

Catalan mountain rice with rabbit, sausage and mushrooms

Arròs de Muntanya (Cerdanya, Terres de Lleida)

High in the Pyrenees, rice was a bought luxury and the protein came from the farm and the forest.

Catalonia

Arroz de Montaña de Castellón

Mountain rice with rabbit, snails and wild mushrooms

Arròs de Muntanya (amb Conill, Caragols i Bolets)

The Castellón interior is a high, cold, sparsely populated land of masías, livestock and hunting.

Castellon

Caldoso · brothyIron cauldron

Arroz de Pals a la Cazuela

Pals rice in a clay casserole with seafood and meat

Arròs de Pals a la Cassola (Empordà)

Rice has a long and interrupted history in Pals. A Catalan study dates the town's rice mill to 1452.

Catalonia

Arroz de Renda

Xabia rice soup with snails and butter beans

Arròs de Renda

A humble inland-Marina rice of snails, lima beans and red pepper, with almost no oil (½ tablespoon for four people).

Alicante

Caldoso · brothyIron cauldron

Arroz de Ribera del Delta del Ebro

Ebro Delta rice with duck, eel and snails

Arròs de Ribera (Arròs a Banda del Delta, amb Ànec i Anguila)

The Ebro Delta is Catalonia's rice bowl, protected by the D.O.P. Arròs del Delta de l'Ebre.

Catalonia

Arroz de Trilla

Harvest-time rice soup with rabbit, snails and green chickpeas

Arròs de Batre

Alicante

Arroz de Verduras de la Vega Baja

Vegetable rice with broad beans and artichokes

Arroz de Verano (con Habas y Alcachofas)

La Vega Baja is the irrigated floodplain of the River Segura. It is one of Europe's oldest continuously farmed huertas, irrigated by Andalusi acequias and azarbes, and it is famous for the Alcachofa de la Vega Baja.

Alicante

Arroz del Pedrón de Parayo

Cantabrian rice with eel and river crayfish

Arroz de San Pedro con Anguilas y Cangrejos

A rice of friendship and of San Pedro (29 June). In the 1940s–50s, says the RENC source, a group of friends met by the Pedrón de Parayo to talk and rest from their daily work.

Northern Spain

Arroz del Señorito

Seafood rice with everything already peeled

Arròs del Senyoret

"Senyoret" means "little gentleman" or "young master". Everything in this rice comes already peeled, cleaned and boned, so the diner never has to touch a shell.

Alicante · Valencia

Arroz Empedrado

Baked Lenten rice with salt cod and white beans

Arròs Empedrat

"Empedrat" means "cobbled" or "paved with stones". The name refers to the white beans dotting the surface of the rice like cobblestones.

Valencia

Arroz Empedrao (Empedrado) Murciano

Murcian creamy rice with red beans and salt cod

The Revista Española de Nutrición Comunitaria includes this dish in its 2022 survey of forgotten Spanish dishes.

Murcia

Arroz Marinero Andaluz

Andalusian fishermen's rice soup

Arroz Caldoso Marinero (Málaga y Cádiz)

In Andalucía, rice by the sea is mostly eaten soupy: a fishermen's pot of rice, fish and shellfish built on a broth.

Andalusia

Arroz Marinero Balear

Balearic fishermen's rice soup with rockfish

Arròs de Peix (Caldós de Pescadors)

As on the Valencian and Murcian coasts, Balearic fishermen boiled the unsold catch with potatoes and saffron and then cooked rice in the broth.

Balearic Islands

Arroz Meloso de Pulpo

Creamy rice with octopus

Arròs Melós de Polp (i Arròs amb Polp Sec)

Octopus (polp, Octopus vulgaris) is caught with pots and traps by the artisanal fleets of Santa Pola, Dénia and Xàbia.

Alicante

Arroz Negro

Black rice coloured with cuttlefish ink, served with allioli

Arròs Negre

Arròs negre has been documented in Valencia since at least the 17th century. It is the fishermen's response to cuttlefish (sepia) and squid (calamar), whose ink sacs were too valuable as flavour to throw away.

Valencia · Alicante · Castellon

Arroz Negro Catalán

Catalan black rice with cuttlefish ink

Arròs Negre de l'Empordà

Barcelona Turisme lists "Arròs negre de l'Empordà" among its Catalan classics. The Catalan version has the same base as the Valencian arròs negre: cuttlefish or squid, fish stock and ink, served with allioli.

Catalonia

Arroz Rossejat

Toasted rice cooked in rockfish broth

Arrossejat (L'Ametlla de Mar)

L'Ametlla de Mar's Diada de l'Arrossejat has run for about 40 years. Around fifty amateur cooks compete for prizes, and the festival champions the dish as heritage "born on the fishing boats".

Catalonia

Arroz Sucio Mallorquín

Mallorcan spiced rice soup with meat, game and vegetables

Arròs Brut

In Mallorcan Catalan, brut means "dirty". The name refers to the murky broth coloured by the spices: cinnamon, pimentón, saffron, pepper, and in some versions clove and nutmeg.

Balearic Islands

Arroz y Gatet (Arroz con Pintarroja)

Santa Pola rice soup with small-spotted catshark and vegetables

Arròs amb Gatet

The gatet (small catshark, Spanish pintarroja) was a low-value bycatch of the Santa Pola trawlers. Like the morralla of the caldero, it fed fishing families rather than going to market.

Alicante

Arroz y Habichuelas

Murcian rice soup with beans and vegetables

Arroz con Habichuelas Murciano

The Murcian huerta's equivalent of the Valencian arròs amb fesols i naps and of the Vega Baja's tres puñaos.

Murcia

Arroz y Pollo con Alcaciles

Murcian rice with chicken and artichokes

Arroz Huertano de Pollo y Alcachofas

Murcia

Arroz y Verduras con Bacalao

Murcian vegetable rice with salt cod

Arroz Huertano de Verduras (Murcia)

A huerta vegetable rice with a characteristic Murcian touch: salt cod that is toasted on the griddle (asado a la plancha hasta tostarlo) and shredded, not soaked into the base.

Murcia

Meloso · creamyIron cauldron

Arroz, Col y Alubias

Ebro Delta rice soup with cabbage, white beans and pork belly

Arròs, Col i Fesols (Delta de l'Ebre)

The Ebro Delta concentrates most of Catalonia's rice cultivation. This is its everyday winter pot: rice, cabbage and white beans with a little salt pork.

Catalonia

Caldero de Santa Pola y Tabarca

Fishermen's rice from a cauldron of rockfish broth; fish and potatoes served first

Caldero Santapolero i Tabarquí

The caldero is the "mother" of arroz a banda. It is a two-service fishermen's meal cooked in a single iron pot.

Alicante

Cardillos con Arroz

Creamy rice with wild golden thistle (foraged greens)

Tagarninas con Arroz

Castilla-La Mancha & Extremadura · Andalusia

Chanfaina Salmantina

Salamanca rice stew with lamb offal and chorizo

Arroz de Chanfaina

Castile and Leon

Chipirones en su Tinta con Arroz Blanco

Baby squid in black ink sauce with white rice

Txipiroiak Bere Tintan Arroz Zuriarekin

Northern Spain

Colas de Cordero con Arroz

Good Friday stew of lamb tails, potato and rice

Guiso de Colas de Viernes Santo

On Good Friday, shepherds escodaban, docking the tails of the ewes kept for breeding. The tails became a stew.

Aragon, Navarre & La Rioja

Escudilla de Ángel

Old Mallorcan sweet rice with cinnamon (dessert)

Escudella d'Àngel (Arroz con Leche Mallorquín Antiguo)

"Angel's bowl" was a prestigious Mallorcan festive sweet, "muy celebrada, especialmente para los días de fiesta". It was first recorded in the 18th century and was usual until the mid-20th century.

Balearic Islands

Fideuá

Seafood noodles cooked like a paella (not rice)

Fideuà de Gandia

The dish is dated to the first quarter of the 20th century, and the usual story places it on a Gandia fishing boat called the Santa Isabel.

Valencia

Lamprea a la Bordelesa con Arroz

Lamprey stewed in red wine and its blood, served with white rice

Lamprea á Bordelesa con Arroz (Arbo)

The sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) is a jawless fish of prehistoric lineage. It swims up the Miño to spawn in winter and spring ("hasta que cante el cuco", until the cuckoo sings).

Northern Spain

Olla de Benicarló (con Arroz)

Benicarlo bean pot with ham, sausage, cardoon and rice

Olla de Benicarló amb Arròs

Castellón's iconic winter dish is the olla de la Plana, a bean-and-vegetable stew.

Castellon

Paella a la Riojana

Rioja-style rice with chicken or pork, potato and paprika

Arroz a la Riojana

La Rioja has a popular "paella riojana" culture of fiestas and cuadrillas, and a lively debate about chorizo.

Aragon, Navarre & La Rioja

Paella con Albóndigas

Paella with meatballs

Paella amb Mandonguilles (Pilotetes)

A southern-Valencian festive paella in which small meatballs (mandonguilles or pilotetes) join the rabbit and chicken. In winter they come with artichoke and garrofó.

Valencia

Paella de Cebolla y Bacalao

Paella with onion, dried garlic and salt cod

Paella amb Ceba i Alls Secs (i Bacallà)

A pared-down fast-day paella: a lot of thinly sliced onion, unpeeled dried garlic, and soaked, flaked salt cod.

Valencia

Paella de Costillas y Coliflor

Paella with pork ribs and cauliflower

Paella de Costelletes i Col-i-flor

A winter paella of the pig-and-cabbage season. Pork ribs and a piece of pork liver are browned with cauliflower florets (and optional alls tendres) until the cauliflower takes colour.

Valencia

Paella de Marisco

Seafood paella

Paella de Marisc

The seafood version took hold as paella moved from the fields to the coast.

Valencia · Alicante · Castellon

Paella de Verduras

Vegetable paella

Paella de Verdures (Paella d'Estiu i Paella d'Hivern)

Before tourism and refrigeration, the Valencian paella followed the huerta calendar.

Valencia · Alicante

Paella Mixta

Paella with meat and seafood (a tourist-era mix)

de Carn i Marisc

The usual account links it to the 1960s–70s tourism boom.

Valencia

Paella Valenciana

The original paella: chicken, rabbit, green beans and butter beans

Arròs a la valenciana

The paella valenciana was born as a field-worker's midday meal in the rice-growing marshes around L'Albufera, which have been cultivated since Andalusi irrigation (the séquies) reached their full extent.

Valencia

Perol Cordobés

Cordoba countryside rice with pork and chicken, cooked outdoors

Arroz de Perol (Día de San Rafael)

In Córdoba "perol" means three things at once: the pot, the rice dish cooked in it, and the outdoor gathering around it. Its great day is 24 October, San Rafael.

Andalusia

Potaje Bañezano (Garbanzos con Arroz)

Chickpea stew with rice from La Bañeza

Potaje de La Bañeza

A meatless pot of chickpeas and rice, finished with a sofrito of spring onion and paprika poured over at the end.

Castile and Leon

Explore Bilad al-Sham (the Levant)

Txuritabeltz (Relleno Navarro y Sangrecilla)

Navarrese rice-and-blood sausage filling with fried lamb's blood

Txuri-Beltz

Aragon, Navarre & La Rioja

Bilad al-Sham (the Levant)

Caldoso · brothyCopper pot

Fasoulia w Riz

White bean and lamb stew in tomato sauce, served over vermicelli rice

فاصوليا ورز

The Spanish structural parallel is the bean-and-pork winter pot rices such as arròs amb fesols i naps and arroz y habichuelas. The Lebanese table, however, keeps the stew and the rice separate until the plate.

Lebanon

Mahshi Halabi (Aleppo Stuffed Vegetables)

Aleppo-style zucchini stuffed with rice and meat in a tart tomato broth

محشي حلبي

Stuffed vegetables follow the seasons. In summer there are zucchini, aubergines and peppers. In winter cabbage leaves replace vine leaves (mahshi malfouf).

Syria

Mahshi Kousa wa Batinjan

Zucchini and eggplants stuffed with rice and meat, simmered in tomato

محشي كوسا وباذنجان

Palestine · Lebanon · Jordan · Syria

Mansaf

Jordan's national feast: lamb in dried-yogurt (jameed) sauce over rice and thin bread

منسف

Mansaf is lamb (or, in older and Bedouin tradition, camel or goat) cooked in jameed, a sauce of reconstituted dried, salted, fermented yogurt.

Jordan · Palestine

Maqluba

Upside-down rice with chicken or lamb, fried eggplant and cauliflower

مقلوبة

Maqluba is layered. Chicken or lamb poached in a spiced broth goes at the bottom, then deep-fried vegetables (eggplant, cauliflower, potato, tomato, sometimes carrots), then soaked rice.

Palestine · Jordan · Syria

Mujaddara

Rice (or bulgur) with lentils, topped with crisp fried onions

مجدرة (Mudardara / مدردرة)

Mujaddara is the region's most famous rice-and-lentil dish and the archetypal food of the poor and of fast days. It needs nothing but lentils, a grain, onions and oil.

Lebanon · Palestine · Syria · Jordan

Ouzi

Spiced rice with minced meat, peas and nuts baked inside filo pastry

أوزي

Ouzi is Damascus's celebration rice. Basmati or short-grain rice is cooked with minced lamb or beef, peas (often with carrots), whole spices and the Levantine seven-spice mix (baharat).

Syria · Jordan · Lebanon

Seco · dryStew pot

Qidreh

Hebron rice and lamb baked in a sealed pot in the baker's oven

قدرة (al-Qidra al-Khaliliyya)

Palestine

Riz a Djej

Festive spiced rice with minced meat, shredded chicken and toasted nuts

رز ع دجاج

The hashweh (literally "stuffing") is the same spiced meat-and-rice mixture used to stuff chickens, lamb and vegetables. Riz a djej is in effect the stuffing served as a dish in its own right.

Lebanon

Riz bi Foul (Rice with Fava Beans)

Spring rice pilaf with fresh fava beans, dill and lamb

رز بفول

In spring, when fresh green fava beans (foul akhdar) arrive in the markets, Levantine kitchens cook them into rice.

Syria · Lebanon

Riz bi Haleeb (Rice Pudding)

Levantine rice pudding with mastic and orange-blossom water (dessert)

رز بحليب

Aleppo adds a celebrated layered version, roz bi-haleeb mbattan ("lined" rice-milk pudding). A creamy rice-and-milk base is chilled and then topped with a set orange-juice layer.

Syria · Lebanon · Palestine

Riz bi Sh'ariyyeh

Everyday rice with toasted vermicelli, served under stews

رز بشعيرية

Its Spanish cousin is the toasted-grain logic of the arrossejat, where rice is browned in oil before the broth, and of the fideuà, where noodles are toasted before cooking.

Lebanon

Ruz bi-Djaj ma'a Hashweh

Festive chicken on spiced rice with minced meat, pine nuts and almonds

رز بالدجاج مع الحشوة

Palestine · Jordan · Syria

Sayadieh

Fishermen's rice cooked in fish stock with deep-brown onions, fish on top

صيادية

Structurally it is the Levantine cousin of the Alicante arroz a banda and the Santa Pola caldero.

Lebanon · Palestine · Syria · Jordan

Shakriyeh with Vermicelli Rice

Lamb cooked in hot yogurt sauce, served with vermicelli rice

شاكرية مع رز بشعيرية

Shakriyeh is lamb (or beef, or chicken) simmered with whole spices and then finished in hot cooked yogurt.

Syria · Lebanon · Palestine

Warak Enab

Vine leaves stuffed with rice, herbs and lemon (or with meat over lamb chops)

ورق عنب

Rolling vine leaves around rice is a shared craft of the eastern Mediterranean, done when the leaves are young and tender in late spring and preserved in brine for the rest of the year.

Lebanon · Syria · Palestine