Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Porotos Granados
Summer stew of fresh beans, corn, squash, and basil, Chile’s pre-Columbian trinity in one pot.
Chilean · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 45 min
~494 cal · 25g protein · 98g carbs · 3g fat · 20g fiber · 11g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Porotos granados is a soul dish of the Chilean summer, a vegetable stew whose core ingredients, beans, corn, and squash, are the pre-Columbian trinity cultivated by the Mapuche and other Indigenous peoples long before the Spanish arrived.
Fresh cranberry beans are simmered with winter squash, sweet corn (as kernels or grated into a pulp called pilco), and a base of onion and garlic until the squash melts and thickens the pot. Fresh basil, a legacy of Italian influence, perfumes the whole stew.
Thick, sweet, and comforting, it is peasant food in the best sense, made when the crops are at their peak and eaten with a spoonful of pebre chili salsa. Porotos granados tastes of the Chilean countryside in high summer, humble and abundant at once.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
2 cups cranberry beans (fresh or soaked dried)
3 cups winter squash, cubed
2 cups corn kernels (half blended, half whole)
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp, bloomed in oil sweet paprika (color chilena)
1/2 cup fresh basil, torn
1 tsp dried oregano
3 tbsp olive or
Instructions
1
Bloom the paprika in the oil, then soften the onion and garlic with the oregano.
2
Add the beans and 5 cups water; simmer 25 minutes (fresh) or until tender (soaked dried).
3
Add the squash and simmer 15 minutes until it starts melting into the broth and thickening it.
4
Stir in the blended corn for body and the whole kernels for bite; cook 5 minutes.
5
Season, rain in the basil, and rest 10 minutes. Serve with pebre or a simple tomato salad.
Chilean Central Valley summer tables.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Central Valley. Summer here means pastel de choclo, a bake of ground fresh sweetcorn spread over beef, a piece of chicken, olives and hard-boiled egg, dusted with sugar so the top caramelises under the heat. Winter means cazuela, a clear broth holding one piece of meat, a wedge of pumpkin and a whole potato.
🗺️
Chile. Pastel de choclo has no pastry: a meat and onion filling under a lid of ground fresh corn, sugar sprinkled on top and browned in the oven, served in the clay dish it was baked in. Ceviche is eaten here too but it is shared with and argued over against Peru, so nobody on this coast gets to claim it outright.
🌍
South America. South America's cooking follows its dramatic geography, potatoes and quinoa in the high Andes, cassava and river fish in the Amazon basin, and grass-fed beef on the pampas. Indigenous ingredients like maize, ají peppers, and cacao meet Spanish, Portuguese, African, Italian, and Japanese influences brought by five centuries of migration. Ceviche, feijoada, arepas, and the smoke of the asado are its most beloved icons.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Chile
SopaipillasGolden pumpkin-dough fritters, soft and faintly sweet, fried up on cold Chilean mornings and eaten with pebre or chancaca syrup.
CompletoA hot dog buried under diced tomato, mashed avocado, sauerkraut, and mayonnaise, Chile's overloaded snack-lunch.
Leche AsadaA rustic baked milk custard with a scorched, caramelised top, Chile's homelier cousin of crème caramel.
Browse all Chile recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Chile meal
Mote con HuesilloDrink
Leche AsadaDessert
CompletoLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Porotos Granados?
Summer stew of fresh beans, corn, squash, and basil, Chile’s pre-Columbian trinity in one pot.
Where does Porotos Granados come from?
Porotos Granados is a Chilean dish from Central Valley, Chile.
Can Porotos Granados be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Porotos Granados recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Porotos Granados safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Porotos Granados take to make?
About 60 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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