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Traditional food · Spain
Dishes, sweets and drinks that were born in cities and communities of Spain: mountain stews, garden rice dishes, coastal fish and sweets from convents and pastry shops.
In the photo: Sagrada Família, Barcelona
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
The cuisine
Spanish cuisine is, above all, a sum of regional cuisines. Each autonomous community has its own dishes, linked to the climate, the terrain and the history of the place, and many of them carry in their name the city or region they come from. Olive oil, garlic, peppers and paprika, bread and legumes appear throughout almost the whole country, but they combine in very different ways from one region to another.
In the humid north, between Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country, the table features bean stews, fish and cod dishes, octopus and cider. In the interior of the two Castiles, Madrid and Extremadura, cold winters explain the chickpea stews served in stages, the lamb and suckling pig roasts in wood-fired ovens, and shepherds’ stews. On the Mediterranean coast, from Catalonia to Valencia, rice, rock fish and vegetable gardens dominate the cuisine. Andalusia is the land of cold tomato soups and fish grilled on the beach, and the islands preserve their own recipes, such as the potatoes boiled in salt water of the Canary Islands and the spiral pasta of Mallorca.
Many specialties come from festivals and customs. There are Christmas sweets, like the almond confections of Toledo and Xixona, and sweets for saints’ days, like crema catalana on Sant Josep’s day. There are dishes for pilgrimages and outdoor picnics, such as the hornazo of Salamanca, and whole meals organized around a seasonal ingredient, like the calçotada of Valls.
Part of this heritage has official protection. Some products have protected geographical indications from the European Union, with rules about ingredients and production zone. Others have been declared cultural assets of interest by regional governments, such as paella valenciana and cocido madrileño, and the cider culture of Asturias was recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The Royal Academy of Gastronomy and the postal service dedicated a series of stamps to specialties of the autonomous communities.
33 flavors
Cold drink made from ground chufa, water and sugar, served chilled with fartons, elongated cakes for dipping. Alboraya, in the huerta of Valencia, is regarded as the birthplace of the drink and is home to the council of the Chufa de Valencia Protected Designation of Origin.
Cold soup of tomato, bell pepper, cucumber, garlic, bread, olive oil and vinegar, blended and served chilled. A rural Andalusian dish, it was chosen to represent Andalusia in the postal service’s series of stamps.
Chicken stewed in a sauce of red peppers, tomato, onion, garlic and ham — chilindrón. It’s the dish chosen to represent Aragon and, made the same way, is also prepared with lamb.
Cocido de la Maragatería, the comarca of Astorga, served in reverse: first the meats, then the chickpeas with cabbage, and finally the soup. It is the dish that Castile and León tourism associates with Astorga.
Small cake of butter, eggs, sugar and flour baked in a small square paper box, from which the batter overflows. It is a Protected Geographical Indication and appears as a Christmas sweet in the 1805 accounts of the diocesan archive of Astorga.
Large white-bean stew, the Asturian faba, slowly cooked with chorizo, morcilla, pork fat and lacón. It is the best-known dish of Asturias and is eaten throughout the region, especially in cold months.
Still apple cider with no added carbonation, served in small pours poured from high above, with the bottle held over the head to aerate the drink. The Asturian cider culture is Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
Potato omelette with undercooked eggs, creamy inside, which in Betanzos is traditionally made without onion. The town promotes it with an annual contest and a dedicated week.
Small potatoes cooked unpeeled in very salty water until the skin wrinkles, served with red, spicy mojo or green cilantro mojo. It’s the dish of the Canary Islands, found on every island.
Bean stew with kale and pork chorizo, blood sausage, ribs and bacon, born in the mountain valleys of inland Cantabria. It is the community’s dish and is served throughout the region, especially in winter.
Suckling lamb slowly roasted in a wood-fired oven, in a clay baking dish, with only water and salt. It is the dish chosen to represent Castile and León and the meat is protected by the IGP Lechazo de Castilla y León.
Cream made with milk, egg yolks, sugar and starch, scented with cinnamon and lemon peel, topped with sugar caramelized on the spot with a hot iron.
Fish stew with potato, sofregit, and a crushed-almond and bread paste, tied to the cuisine of the Catalan coast’s fishermen.
Cold, thick cream of tomato, bread, garlic, olive oil and salt, served with chopped hard‑boiled egg and ham on top. It is Córdoba’s signature dish, with its own gastronomic brotherhood and studies by the city’s university.
Lamb stew made with small pieces of meat, cooked in a cauldron with garlic, onion, bell pepper, bay leaf, wine and paprika. A dish of the shepherds of Extremadura, it was the first in the postal service’s stamp series dedicated to each autonomous community’s dishes.
Cooked octopus in a copper pot, cut with scissors into rounds on a wooden plate and seasoned with coarse salt, paprika and olive oil. It’s the dish of inland Galician fairs and was chosen to represent Galicia.
Sweet leavened and laminated dough, rolled with a cream filling, fried and coated in sugar. It is the typical sweet of Girona, linked to the historical Puig pastry shop in the early 20th century.
Sweet spiral bread made from fermented dough with pork lard, the saïm, sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar. It has Protected Geographical Indication as Ensaïmada de Mallorca and was the pastry chosen to represent the Balearic Islands.
Potatoes broken into pieces and cooked with Riojan chorizo, paprika and choricero pepper pulp in a reddish broth. A countryside dish from La Rioja, named after the region.
Baguette-style bread filled with breaded and fried squid rings, eaten standing at the bar. Madrid’s official tourism promotes it as a gastronomic icon of the city, typical of the bars around the Plaza Mayor.
Chickpea stew with meats, cured sausages and vegetables, served in stages called vuelcos: first the soup, then the chickpeas with the vegetables and finally the meats. It was declared an Intangible Cultural Interest asset by the Community of Madrid.
Sardines skewered on a reed and grilled over a wood fire, on the beach sand, inside a boat filled with sand. It’s the dish of Málaga’s beaches, and the craft of the espeteros is recorded in the Atlas of Intangible Heritage of Andalusia.
Salted cod, desalted and slowly cooked in olive oil with garlic and chili, stirring the pan until the fish’s gelatin binds the oil into a thick sauce. This is the dish chosen to represent the Basque Country.
Pie made with bread dough enriched with lard and wine, filled with pork loin, chorizo and ham. It is the dish of Lunes de Aguas, the riverside picnic on the Monday after Easter Monday, a festival of tourist interest in Castilla y León.
Almond cake made with eggs and sugar, dusted with powdered sugar and marked with the silhouette of the Cross of the Order of Santiago. The earliest record of the cake dates to 1577 at the University of Santiago, and it has a Protected Geographical Indication.
Suckling pig fed only on mother's milk, roasted whole in a wood-fired oven until the skin is crispy. It is Segovia’s signature dish, with a quality mark since 2002, and is often carved with the edge of a plate.
Sweet made from ground sweet almonds and sugar, shaped into figures and baked, with Protected Geographical Indication. The most cited tradition places its origin in a convent in Toledo in the 13th century.
Partridge braised with onion, garlic, bay leaf, thyme, wine and, in some versions, vinegar, in a sauce known as Toledo-style. It is the chosen dish for Castilla–La Mancha and one of the symbols of Toledan cuisine, land of hunting in the Montes de Toledo.
Fishermen’s stew layered with potato and fish, topped with allioli, born on the boats of Tossa de Mar. The name recalls the movement of the pan during cooking, and the town dedicates a gastronomic campaign to it every September.
Spring vegetable dish from the Ribera of Navarra, such as artichoke, broad bean, pea and asparagus, cooked separately and brought together with ham. It is the dish chosen for Navarra and the specialty of Tudela, which celebrates the garden in the Fiestas de la Verdura.
Cooked rice in a wide, shallow pan — paella — with chicken, rabbit, green beans and garrofó bean, tomato, saffron and olive oil. It was born in the garden plots and the Albufera of Valencia and was declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Generalitat Valenciana.
A meal centered on calçots — white spring onions roasted over embers until the skin is charred, peeled by hand and dipped in a sauce of almonds, tomato and pepper. It originated in Valls, which celebrates the calçotada festival at the end of January.
Almond-and-honey sweet, in a soft version from Jijona and a hard version from Alicante, both made in Xixona under Protected Geographical Indications. The tradition of turrón in the town is documented since the 16th century.
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Your questions
There isn’t a single one. Spanish cuisine is regional: paella comes from Valencia, fabada from Asturias, gazpacho from Andalusia and cocido madrileño from Madrid, among many others. Each community has its own dishes.
Lunch is usually the main meal and starts later than in many countries, in the early afternoon. Dinner is also late, often well into the evening. In tourist areas, kitchens often have longer opening hours.
Small portions served in bars to accompany a drink. The custom varies a lot from city to city: in some places, a tapa comes with each drink; in others, it is ordered separately. In the Basque Country, the bar counter portions are called pintxos.
Several sweets and products have Protected Geographical Indication, such as Tarta de Santiago, mazapán de Toledo, the mantecadas of Astorga, ensaïmada de Mallorca and the turrones of Jijona and Alicante. Paella valenciana and cocido madrileño have been declared Assets of Cultural Interest by their regional governments.
Generally, no. Seasoning relies on garlic, olive oil, sweet or smoked paprika and herbs. Some dishes use hot chili peppers, like bacalao al pil-pil, and the mojo picón of the Canary Islands is spicy, but these are exceptions.
Preferably in their place of origin, at the times when they are traditionally made: the calçots from November to March in Valls; horchata in the warm months, especially May to September, in the orchards of Valencia; cocido in the cold months. Many towns organize festivals and competitions dedicated to their dishes.
