Reconstruction
On October 19, 2026, dining rooms and cider houses across Oviedo serve the same formidable first course: chickpeas stewed with salt cod and spinach. Known locally as garbanzos con bacalao y espinacas, the dish opens the Menú del Desarme before callos al estilo de Oviedo and arroz con leche. It is a civic ritual as much as a meal, bringing residents and visitors together around an observance rooted in nineteenth-century conflict but now deliberately framed as a celebration of peace.
The stew belongs to the broader Spanish family of potajes de vigilia. Catholic restrictions on meat during fast and abstinence days encouraged combinations of pulses, vegetables and preserved fish. Salt cod was especially useful because curing made an ocean fish transportable and storable far inland. In a traditional preparation, dried chickpeas are soaked overnight and the cod is repeatedly soaked to remove excess salt. The chickpeas then cook slowly until tender. Spinach and cod are added with a sauce or sofrito that may contain onion, garlic, tomato, paprika, flour and olive oil. Recipes differ considerably: some cooks add hard-boiled egg, saffron or leek, while others flour and fry the cod before returning it to the pot.
The relationship between this food and El Desarme is less tidy than popular legend suggests. Oviedo commemorated its defense against a Carlist attack on October 19, 1836, during the First Carlist War. Civic and religious ceremonies honoring the defenders are historically documented, but surviving records do not establish that the modern three-course menu was served at the original event. Another interpretation connects the chickpea-and-cod dish with communal meals celebrating peace and civilian disarmament after the Third Carlist War ended in 1876. Because those celebrations occurred during Lent, fish could replace meat in an extraordinary public or military ration. This reconstruction is plausible but not demonstrated beyond dispute.
By the late nineteenth century, October commemorations and the autumn service of tripe had begun to converge. The precise moment when chickpeas, tripe and rice pudding became an invariant menu remains uncertain; a scholarly synthesis notes that the complete culinary formula is reliably visible when the observance was revived in the 1950s. Restaurants subsequently transformed a partly reconstructed tradition into a durable urban institution.
In 2026, the wider festivities ran through late October, with October 19 remaining the central restaurant day. El Desarme entered that year with new official standing: Spain’s tourism authorities had granted it the title Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional on September 18, 2025. The chickpea stew therefore survives not as a verified battlefield recipe, but as a living expression of Oviedo’s hospitality, historical memory and preference for reconciliation over the legends of military trickery once attached to its name.
Nutrition
| Nutrient | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 105–140 kcal | calculated |
| Protein | 7–10 g | calculated |
| Fat | 2.5–5 g | calculated |
| Carbohydrate | 13–18 g | calculated |
| Fibre | 3.5–5.5 g | calculated |
| Glycaemic index | 30–40 | estimated |
| Glycaemic load | 3–5 | estimated |
| Micronutrients | ||
| iron | 1.7–2.8 mg | estimated |
| folate | 75–140 µg DFE | estimated |
| vitamin B12 | 0.25–0.65 µg | estimated |
| vitamin K | 45–120 µg | estimated |
| potassium | 300–500 mg | estimated |
| sodium | 350–900 mg | estimated |
Typical serving: one restaurant first-course serving, approximately 250 g
Estimated from a traditional recipe containing soaked and cooked chickpeas, desalted cod, spinach, tomato, onion, garlic, olive oil, flour and optional egg. Final water content, oil quantity, chickpea-to-broth ratio, added egg and effectiveness of cod desalting cause substantial variation.
Historical context
At this time, Oviedo is celebrating a modern food festival built around events from two phases of Spain’s Carlist conflicts: the city’s defense on October 19, 1836, during the First Carlist War, and nationwide celebrations of peace and disarmament after the Third Carlist War ended in 1876. The 2026 observance follows El Desarme’s designation as a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional on September 18, 2025. Restaurants serve the traditional menu over an extended festival period, while October 19 remains its commemorative center.
Evidence
Written sources
ModerateMunicipal commemorations of the October 19, 1836 defense and later nineteenth- and early twentieth-century civic observances are documented, but the records cited by modern scholarship do not identify the complete modern menu at the original event.
Recipe evidence
StrongPublished Asturian recipes directly document chickpeas, desalted cod and spinach, usually with a sofrito or sauce; egg, tomato, leek, saffron and treatment of the cod vary by cook.
Food identification
StrongOfficial tourism materials and contemporary restaurant practice consistently identify garbanzos con bacalao y espinacas as the first course of the Menú del Desarme.
Dating
LimitedThe 1836 commemoration is secure, but the date when the chickpea dish and the standardized three-course menu became attached to it is uncertain. The full formula is securely visible by the mid-twentieth-century revival.
Preparation method
ModerateSoaking chickpeas, desalting cod and slow simmering are widely attested, but no single standardized recipe governs all Oviedo restaurants.
Geographic attribution
StrongThe annual October 19 service and its identity as El Desarme are directly associated with Oviedo, Asturias.
Historical interpretation
InterpretiveConnections to an 1836 military meal, an attempt to disarm enemies through food, or an 1876 Lenten peace ration represent competing traditions or reconstructions rather than a single conclusively demonstrated origin.
Sources
- 1.Maricarmen Ramos Castro, Eugenio Rodríguez, Laura Soto, Francisco Arnaldo (2022). Asturias: Forgotten dishes or occasional consumption in Spanish gastronomy. Revista Española de Nutrición Comunitaria 28(Supl. 1):33–50. doi:10.14642/RENC.2022.28.S1.5387Scientific literature
- 2.Cofradía del Desarme de Oviedo (2026). Historia de El Desarme. El Desarme—Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional. eldesarme.es/historia/Modern synthesis
- 3.Turespaña (2026). El Desarme festivities (Oviedo). Spain.info. www.spain.info/en/calendar/fiesta-desarme-oviedoModern synthesis
- 4.Secretaría de Estado de Turismo (2025). Resolución de 18 de septiembre de 2025 por la que se concede el título de Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional a El Desarme de Oviedo. Boletín Oficial del Estado, núm. 284. www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2025-2398Historical primary source
- 5.Víctor Alperi and Sofía Fernández (1995). Garbanzos de El Desarme de Oviedo. La Cocina Asturiana, reproduced by VivirAsturias. oviedo.vivirasturias.com/cocina-asturiana/i/6081Modern synthesis
- 6.U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (2026). FoodData Central. U.S. Department of Agriculture. fdc.nal.usda.gov/Modern synthesis
- 7.University of Sydney Glycemic Index Research Service (2026). Glycemic Index Database: Chickpeas. Glycemic Index Research Service. glycemicindex.com/gi-search/Scientific literature
Limitations
- moderatedescription
The association with Oviedo’s 1836 defense is historically established for the commemoration, but stronger scholarly synthesis reports no direct documentation of the modern menu’s components at that event. The chickpea-and-cod course may instead reflect later fasting cookery, an 1876 peace-ration tradition, or subsequent consolidation; the complete menu is securely evident only by its mid-twentieth-century revival.
