Cocido lebaniego is the dish of this district, and the question we are asked most is not how it is cooked but where to eat a good one and how it differs from cocido montañés. Here are both.
Cocido lebaniego and cocido montañés are not the same thing
They get confused constantly, and they are different dishes from two different parts of Cantabria.
Cocido lebaniego is from Liébana and is made with chickpeas — the Potes chickpea, small and thin-skinned. It has its meat, its chorizo, its black pudding, and it is traditionally served in a single course: everything together on the plate, with fine noodles in a separate soup.
Cocido montañés is from coastal and inland Cantabria and is made with white beans and cabbage. No chickpeas at all.
If someone offers you a “cocido lebaniego” with beans, it is not one.
When to eat it
It is a winter dish by nature, but in Liébana it is served all year round because it is what people come looking for. In summer, if it is hot, some prefer to save it for dinner or for a rainy day. It is a serious meal: do not count on a mountain walk afterwards.
Where to eat it
There are several places in Potes and the Camaleño valley that do it beautifully, and the list changes with the years and with the cooks. Rather than publish a list here that will age badly, we would rather tell you where it is good now: ask us and we will tell you where we would go this week.
One thing that does help: book a table. At weekends and over long weekends the good places in Potes fill up.
The rest of the Liébana larder
- Orujo from Potes, with its own festival in November and a distillery you can visit in Argüébanes, inside the valley.
- Quesucos de Liébana, with Denominación de Origen status.
- Picón Bejes-Tresviso, a blue cheese aged in caves, and not one for the faint-hearted.
More about all of this on the Food & Drink page.