This recipe was adapted from Jennifer McLagan’s recipe in Odd Bits called Beginner’s Tripe. And it’s aptly named because it’s a winning dish. Tripe is tender grandma-food at it’s finest and this dish brings out all of the best properties of old-style cooking and well-prepared tripe! McLagan’s tender tomato-stewed Beginner’s Tripe reminded me of my own grandmother’s kitchen, despite never being served tripe there myself!
Grandma Food
My grandmother was born on the island of Madeira and came to the US at age 27. My grandpa came from the mainland of Portugal and they met in California where they married and raised their family.
They definitely had the old-country style of repurposing everything and eating nose-to-tail. All of the meals in my grandparents home had the simplicity of fresh real food – vegetables straight from their compact but abundant garden, herbs from along the side of the house, flavorful meats, and leftover pan-drippings pulled from a jar in the fridge for the base of each meal. All of the dishes seemed to be prepared quickly, cooked for a long time, and had complex and rich flavors – despite the simplicity.
This dish, McLagan’s Beginner’s Tripe, was reminiscent of all those qualities. I didn’t have the chorizo to add to this recipe when I made it. However, many dishes in my grandparents home had some homemade linguica included and I can imagine the depth that this missing ingredient would provide – especially the beloved version of my youth!
Beginner’s Tripe
That said, I am so glad that I finally experimented with Beginner’s Tripe! We have so many beloved tripe dishes in our home – especially Tripe Pasta and Menudo – that there is always a tradeoff between dishes I know my family loves and trying something new.
Tripe can be cleaned and prepped up to several days in advance. For fresh tripe, clean, parboil and drain. Then boil in fresh water for 6-8 hours, drain and reserve. Now the tripe is ready for your recipe.
Bleached tripe would need to be rinsed and parboiled (water discarded) to minimize the bleach on the tripe. For bleached tripe, the pre-boil may vary in length. Check the tripe after one hour of cooking time to see if it is tender.
With fresh tripe, consider a longer cook if necessary. With a long preboil, our fresh tripe was easily tender in two hours.
This dish can be prepared in advance and allowed to rest in the Dutch oven or other heavy bottomed pot until serving time. It can be reheated on the stove. Save the work of frying the garbanzo beans (and chorizo or linguica) until just before serving. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 lb tripe, cleaned and pre-cooked
- lard or other cooking fat, divided
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 2 celery stalk, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 sprig of thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- strip of lemon zest
- 1/2 t chili flakes
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 t pepper
- 1 24oz jar of strained tomatoes
- 1/2 cup broth
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- (1 chorizo sausage, sliced)
- 1/4 cup parsley
Instructions
- Place garbanzos on a paper-towel lined baking sheet in the fridge to dry out while you prepare the dish.
- Cut the tripe into strips (1/2" by 2"). Reserve.
- Preheat oven to 300 F.
- In a heavy soup pot, add the lard over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook until they soften, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic, thyme, bay leaf, lemon zest and chili flakes, salt and pepper and stir together. Cook for another minute and then add the tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, stirring occasionally and allowing the sauce to thicken.
- Add the tripe and mix well. Pour in the broth and them them all become friends. Bring to a boil, then Cover and move to the oven. Cook for two hours or until tripe is tender.
- Near the end of cooking, heat a pan on medium high and add a dollop of lard. When hot, add the garbanzo beans and cook until they brown. Then add the bell pepper and chorizo to the pan and continue to cook until the peppers are soft (and the fats and flavors of the chorizo have covered the other pan residents).
- Serve tripe in a bowl, with a spoonful of the fried garbanzo mix on top. Add parsley to garnish. Enjoy!
One important piece of information missing from this article is where to find tripe. Once acquired I’d like to try your recipe.
So true! Thanks for asking about sourcing! I have had the best luck (consistently) finding tripe at ethnic grocery stores – where I purchased for years. Although I have been told that in some communities, you can even find it at Walmart. Now, I have a couple of farmers that sells to me directly.
The tripe in stores looks different from the tripe in this photo – it has been bleached. To prepare it, you’ll want to soak it in vinegar (or another acid like lime juice) for 15-30 minutes, rinsing after – I do this 2-3x, then parboil for 10 minutes, discarding the water. Now it’s ready for use.
With the fresh tripe, you would need to rinse it thoroughly until all the grass or other debris has been removed from all the membranes. Then parboil and drain as well. Then, you would need to do a long boil (several hours) with or without aromatics. The bleached tripe has typically already had the long boil and is far more tender to start.
Hope that helps and gives you what you need to get started! Reach out with any other questions. 🙂