Fabada is a hot and heavy dish, and for that reason, it is most commonly eaten during the winter and as the largest meal of the day, lunch.

Fabada is made with fabes de la Granja (a kind of large white beans from Spain) soaked overnight before use; lacón (shoulder of pork); pancetta or bacon (tocino), morcilla (a kind of blood sausage from Spain); chorizo, olive oil, sweet paprika, garlic and salt.

[citation needed] The first written reference to fabada appears in the Asturian newspaper of Gijón El Comercio in 1884 but does not mention the recipe.

In Colombia, the paisa tray is a Creole adaptation of the fabada, replacing the fabas with red ball beans (soaked for 16 hours) cooked with pork leg, garlic onion and salt, accompanied by chorizo, pork rinds, cooked ground meat, fried egg, sliced avocado and white rice.

Outside Asturias, the Spanish olla podrida, southern French cassoulet and Portuguese and Brazilian feijoada are similar to fabada asturiana.