Morcilla (Spanish blood sausage) substitutes

The same product from a different country. Both are blood, fat and grain in a casing, both are fully cooked, and both slice into dark rounds that soften and crumble when heated. British black pudding uses oatmeal or barley as the filler and is seasoned mainly with pepper and mace, so it tastes more cereal-y, peppery and plain. Morcilla de Burgos uses rice and lots of onion and paprika, so it is sweeter, smokier and softer. In a bean stew the swap is nearly invisible.

Best for

fabada and bean stews, cocido and boiled dinners, frying in slices with eggs, stuffing and rice dishes

Black pudding is drier and firmer than most morcilla, so it holds its shape better in a stew rather than melting into the broth. If you want that melting quality, mash a slice into the liquid deliberately. Add half a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a little softened onion to the pot to bridge towards the Spanish flavour.

Morcela is the Portuguese version and is very close to morcilla in both seasoning and texture. French boudin noir is smoother, richer and more custardy inside because it uses more fat and no grain filler, so it collapses into a stew more readily and tastes silkier and more intensely of blood. Latin American morcilla, common in Argentina and Colombia, is often sweeter and sometimes contains raisins or nuts, which changes the character noticeably in a savoury stew.

Best for

fabada and feijoada, grilling, frying with apples or onions, rice dishes

Boudin noir is the richest of these, so use slightly less if the dish already has a lot of fat in it. If the blood sausage you find contains sugar or dried fruit, it will sweeten the stew - taste as you go and consider using half the quantity. All of these are pre-cooked and only need heating.

The best blood-free substitution and the one to make if morcilla is the ingredient you were hoping to skip. Chorizo covers the paprika, garlic and smoke; the pork belly or hock covers the soft rendered fat and gelatinous body that morcilla gives a bean stew. What you cannot replicate is the mineral, faintly metallic iron depth that blood brings, so the stew tastes cleaner, brighter and less brooding. It is a real difference, but most eaters will just find it a very good stew.

Best for

fabada asturiana, cocido madrileno, bean and lentil pots, arroz con morcilla replacements

Add the ham hock or pork belly at the start so it has hours to give up its collagen - that is what makes fabada broth thick and glossy. Chorizo goes in later, in the last thirty to forty minutes, or its paprika turns bitter. A teaspoon of extra smoked paprika at the end restores some of the colour and depth you lost.

A closer approximation of morcilla's flavour without using blood. Liver and blood share a family of iron-rich, mineral, organ-meat flavours, so a couple of tablespoons of good pork liver pate melted into a stew gives back much of that deep, dark savouriness. Paired with any soft rice-filled or coarse pork sausage for the texture, it gets remarkably close. The pate makes the broth slightly thicker and a shade grey-brown, and adds a faint bitter edge that morcilla does not have.

Best for

fabada and bean stews, rich braises, rice dishes where morcilla is stirred through

Add the pate off the boil, whisking it into a ladleful of hot broth first so it disperses instead of clumping. Start with one tablespoon and taste - liver becomes overpowering fast. Chicken liver pate works but is sweeter and milder than pork, so use a little more of it.

The genuinely honest answer, and for a lot of home cooks the right one. Morcilla in a fabada or cocido is a background richness rather than a headline ingredient, and pots are routinely made without it. The stew comes out lighter in colour, less heavy and less mineral, with a cleaner bean flavour. What you lose is the dark, brooding, slightly iron depth in the background - noticeable if you have eaten the real thing, invisible if you have not.

Best for

fabada, cocido, bean and lentil pots, any recipe where you specifically want to avoid blood sausage

Do not just leave it out and change nothing, or the pot will taste flat. The paprika and fat are doing real work. A splash of sherry vinegar at the end also helps, because it adds the savoury complexity that long-cooked pork normally provides. This does not work for a dish where morcilla is served as the item itself, such as morcilla fried with peppers or on toast.

For a plant-based fabada or cocido. Mushrooms and soy sauce supply savoury depth, cooked rice supplies morcilla's characteristic grainy softness, beetroot supplies the dark red-purple colour, and smoked paprika supplies the smoke. The result is genuinely dark, soft and savoury, and it eats convincingly in a spoonful of stew. It is not mineral or fatty the way blood sausage is, so the dish is lighter and slightly sweeter from the beetroot.

Best for

vegetarian bean stews, plant-based fabada, rice dishes

Cook the mushrooms hard until they are deeply browned and no longer releasing water - undercooked mushrooms taste watery and ruin the effect. Use only a little beetroot; it is there for colour and will make the pot taste sweet and earthy if you overdo it. Grate it rather than chopping so it disappears into the broth.