Spain
The rice of Spain, town by town.
Rice came to the Iberian Peninsula with the irrigation channels of al-Andalus. Over the centuries it turned into hundreds of local dishes, each with its own pan, fire and broth. Here they are, with the history behind each one and a detailed recipe to cook it.
Explore the dishesSeco, meloso or caldoso?
Every rice is a question of water.
108 dishes
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Txuritabeltz (Relleno Navarro y Sangrecilla)
Navarrese rice-and-blood sausage filling with fried lamb's blood
Txuri-Beltz
Aragon, Navarre & La Rioja
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