Garrofó

Garrofó (garrofón in Spanish) is a large, very flat white bean with a thin skin and a creamy inside, and an essential part of paella valenciana. The Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua defines it in a handful of words: “fesol gran, blanc i molt pla” (a large, white, very flat bean). The DLE (the Royal Spanish Academy dictionary) calls it a “variety of large, flat bean, used especially in paella”.

It’s one of those ingredients that make the difference between a paella valenciana and just rice with bits in. Leave it out and you’ll notice.

Where the name comes from

Garrofón comes from garrofó, which in turn comes from garrofa, carob; the DLE gives it as a Catalan word, the same one Valencians use. It’s also known as bajocó or fessol de la pelaïlla, as the Universitat Politècnica de València notes. The university identifies it botanically as Phaseolus lunatus. It is the species known in the Americas as the lima bean. To see where it fits in the story of the Valencian huerta, read our history of Valencian cuisine.

Why it belongs in paella valenciana

People argue about almost everything in a paella valenciana, but not about garrofó. A study sponsored by the Catholic University of Valencia, which surveyed some 400 home cooks in 266 towns and villages, recorded the ten ingredients almost all of them use: rice, water, olive oil, salt, saffron (or food colouring), tomato, flat green beans, garrofó, chicken and rabbit.

When it goes in

That depends on whether it’s fresh or dried.

• Fresh or frozen: it goes in with the vegetables. The València Turisme recipe browns the meat first, adds the green beans, the garrofó and the vaina (flat green beans), fries them for about eight minutes and then adds the grated tomato.
• Dried: it needs work the day before. Valencian producer Vicente Peris soaks the beans for 12 hours and boils them for an hour and a half (or half an hour in a pressure cooker). Once they’re cooked, he adds them to the paella with the grated tomato.

Spread them evenly around the paella pan before the water goes in, so everyone gets garrofó on their plate. Nobody wants the portion without.

Varieties: not all of them are white

Vicente Peris identifies three traditional varieties by the purple markings on the skin: speckled or painted garrofón, ojo de perdiz (“partridge eye”) and de la cella. If you find some with spots, there’s nothing wrong with them: they’re one of the old varieties.

Valencian versus imported garrofó

In 2024, the COMAV institute at the Universitat Politècnica de València warned that Valencian production had been falling for years: because of the heat, because growing it the traditional way, with all the staking, is expensive, and because of competition from cheaper look-alike beans, above all judión from Peru. The researchers are proposing new varieties and a change to the growing calendar to bring it back. Peris, for his part, argues that beans grown elsewhere have a thicker skin and floury flesh.

If you’re after the local bean, check the origin on the label. Fresh garrofó arrives in July, according to Visit València’s seasonal calendar.

Garrofó at a group meal

For a paella valenciana for fifty or a hundred people, dried garrofó means planning a day ahead, and it’s one of the first things to buy. If you’re organising the meal, how much rice per person for paella gives you the garrofón quantities for groups. And if you’d rather we came along with the pans and the cook, see our live paella and rice catering.