Arròs
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Recipe · 3 min read

Arroz al Horno de Alubias y Nabos

Oven-baked rice with white beans, turnip and pork

Arròs al Forn de Fesols i Naps

Seco · dry Cooked in Clay casserole Valencia

⚠️ Source-confidence note: recorded in a Valencian home-recipe collection hosted by the Universitat de València (uv.es/baldovi), which says it was "amplament popular, o era, a la ciutat de València" (widely popular in València city, or once was). No other sources were found.

01Geographic & Texture Profile

  • Primary Geographic Zone: València city (L'Horta).
  • Liquid & Texture Profile: Seco (dry). The baked counterpart of a caldoso.
  • Traditional Cooking Vessel & Fuel: A flat earthenware cassola in the oven.

02Historical & Cultural Context

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. According to its source it was once a common dish in València city, which makes it a good example of a dish that has quietly disappeared. Nap-i-col (kohlrabi), rarely seen in Valencian markets today, was the preferred brassica.

Culinary science: in the oven, the starch from the beans and the sweetness of the turnip concentrate into a dry, savoury crust on top, a very different result from the same ingredients simmered as a caldoso. Briefly frying the rice with paprika seals the grains.

03Local Town-by-Town Variations

  • València city (recorded): Beans + turnip or nap-i-col + garlic head, no meat.
  • Caldoso form: Arròs amb fesols i naps (with pork; L'Horta, La Safor, La Ribera).
  • ⚠️ No other town variants are documented.

04The Master Recipe (4-Person Batch Blueprint)

Variant represented: recorded version (published quantities).

The Flavor Base (El Fondo)

Ingredient Quantity
Dried white beans, soaked 250 g
Turnip or nap-i-col (kohlrabi) 500 g
Whole head of garlic 1
Olive oil 250 ml
Pimentón 1 tsp
Black pepper, saffron, salt to taste
Water ≈ 1.5 L

Assembly Ratios

Element Quantity
Rice 500 g
Bean broth ≈ 1 L (adjust to about 2 : 1 by volume)

Step-by-Step Cooking Blueprint

  1. Beans: Start the soaked beans, garlic, turnip and salt in cold water and boil until tender.
  2. Rice: Fry the rice briefly in oil with the pimentón.
  3. Assemble: Put it in the cassola with the broth, beans and turnip. Adjust the salt and water.
  4. Oven: ≈ 20 min at 220–240 °C.
  5. Rest: 5 min.

Baked & crust rices: Finished in the oven (or under embers): the leftover-cocido logic, sometimes sealed with egg.

Winter pot & matanza rices: Olla-style pots of legumes, pork and offal with the rice cooked in.