Let me share with you a typical Sunday in Spain. Long before the concept of “slow living” became popular, this was exactly how my in-laws traditionally spent their weekends. For many Spaniards, these traditions have been passed down through generations. Our Sundays are filled with the unmissable pleasures of the Spanish countryside, from cooking a traditional Valencian paella and picking fruit straight from the trees, to simply slowing down and spending quality time with family.

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Typical Spanish Sunday in Valencia: Making Paella

Sunday in Spain

Sunday in Spain is traditionally an important day. Spaniards may have different Sunday routines depending on their region and family traditions, but one thing remains constant: Sundays are meant for relaxing and spending time with family and friends. While this may seem like an easy habit to embrace, it honestly took me some time to adjust to Sundays in Spain, where you simply can’t continue with your usual routine, no matter how much you try.

Living in Spain for 15+ years

After years of living as an expat in Spain, Spanish Sundays with my husband’s family have become part of who I am. We still travel on Sundays occasionally, but most of the time, it’s about family, the countryside, and traditional paella. In Valencia, a typical Sunday always involves sharing a paella (and an almuerzo, of course) – you can’t escape it, even if you try!

Sometimes this means gathering with loved ones at a nice restaurant, but more often, Sundays in Spain (especially for the older generation) serve as an excuse to bring the entire family together around the same table – ideally at a countryside house, known as a maset across the Valencia region – to cook the traditional paella, ideally in the old way, using a wood-fired oven.

Traditional vs Modern Spain

Asking a Spaniard about their Sunday plans can reveal a lot about them. Take my husband, for example – he comes from a very traditional Spanish family. It’s almost an unspoken rule to gather the whole family at their countryside house and share a paella on Sundays.

My mother-in-law, Rosamari, has four siblings, and my father-in-law, Vicente, had five (though sadly, only one is still with us). For them, getting together on Sundays has always been the best way to express love, appreciation, and support for one another, especially with so many siblings, as it’s difficult to stay in touch daily. Of course, in the big Spanish cities, many parent-child relationships are much less informal, so not everyone would be gathering over a meal each Sunday. Yet, I’d say if you explore Spain beyond its major cities, most of the locals are still much more traditional and family-oriented than you might expect.

You know I can’t get enough of Spanish landmarks and road trips, so having to pause my travels on most Sundays felt strange at first. For me, Sunday was always the best day for hiking, exploring medieval villages, and trying local foods. In a way, it’s still about slowing down because you don’t visit big cities like Barcelona or Madrid.

But over time, I came to understand that older generations can’t keep up with the same pace. For most seniors in Spain, slowing down means staying close to their roots, the land they grew up on, and preparing the traditional dishes they once shared with their families.

I also suspect that this tradition of gathering and sharing meals could be rooted back in the complicated Spanish past, involving the Civil War and eventual famine. Therefore, gathering and sharing a meal together every Sunday obviously has a profound meaning for the oldest generations in Spain.

The modern lifestyle of the Spanish cities might bring changes to this tradition of Spanish Sundays for some. But the truth is that in my circle, even the younger generations of Spaniards try to be a part of these family-oriented Sundays.

Eating Authentic Paella Every Sunday

Eating authentic paella every Sunday is one of the most important rituals in Valencia and its surrounding areas. To be honest, having paella all the time was a bit of a challenge for me at first. While it is especially typical in the Valencia region, I know plenty of families across Spain who choose it as their main weekend dish.

I went through my own funny stages with Paella Sundays. I absolutely loved it the first hundred times! But the more repetitive it became, the less excitement it brought. My mother-in-law insisted she was constantly diversifying our meals by making either Valencian paella, fideua, arroz al forn, or mushroom paella. To me, though, it didn’t feel like much variety – especially considering how incredibly diverse Spanish cuisine is, from Central Spain to Asturias and the famous tapas culture.

Yet, over time, paella somehow won over my craving for diversity. While I still love trying different Spanish foods on the road, a Sunday at home without paella has actually started to feel strange – like something is missing.

Enjoying Rural Spain

Let me make this clear: I’m now sharing with you my cozy reading corner, filled with plants and gardening ideas for Spain. For most of my life, I was a city girl who couldn’t even keep a simple cactus alive. The countryside always felt foreign to me.

However, my perspective has slowly started to change after having kids (or maybe it’s just me getting older and picking up all these “granny hobbies”- who knows?). Anyway, watching how much they enjoyed connecting with the rural side of Spain – chasing chickens, playing in the mud, picking fruit, planting trees – helped me realize how important the traditional Spanish countryside was for their growth. Together, we’ve come to appreciate Spanish Sundays as a family.

So, I began seeing all the things I originally considered boring through their eyes. Suddenly, everything that used to irritate me before started to feel relaxing and even enjoyable. These days, I’m almost looking forward to the weekend to spend the day at my in-laws’ countryside house.

One might be born in the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, like Los Angeles, Hamburg, or Kuala Lumpur. But in the countryside, there’s definitely a long-lost connection to how our ancestors lived. I never thought about it at first, but over the years, I’ve learned this from my in-laws. This fact, along with the growing burnout from city life, likely explains why rural tourism is becoming increasingly popular. Spain is no exception, offering charming casas rurales in destinations such as the Pyrenees and Sierra de Albarracín, to name a few.

My Sunday in Spain

This tiny countryside house (called maset in Valencian), where we usually spend our Sundays in Spain, has been in my husband’s family for several generations. The olive trees surrounding it are nearly as old as the millenary olive trees we recently admired while hiking in Castellón.

This place used to be my father-in-law’s biggest passion, even before his retirement. These days, the countryside house literally helps him stay in great shape, despite being in his 80s. Vicente visits this place every day to care for the trees – almost like he used to go to work – and his example makes me reflect on the positive effects of maintaining a strict routine and having daily contact with nature. A huge bonus for the rest of us has always been the eco-friendly groceries he brought home, especially eggs, seasonal fruits, and olive oil.

In my post about Spanish food souvenirs, I’ve already shared with you that homemade olive oil is one of my top kitchen must-haves. The top seasonal Spanish fruits (which we often overeat because they’re so delicious) include loquats, figs, oranges, mandarins, pears, apples, prunes, apricots, peaches, pomegranates, and persimmons.

How To Make a Traditional Valencian Paella

As my parents-in-law say, “A Sunday without paella doesn’t feel like a Spanish Sunday at all.” As I’ve mentioned before, paella on Sundays is not optional in our family. Would you like to discover our traditional recipe for paella? First and foremost, my mother-in-law insists on making it the old way – using rainwater and cooking over a wood-burning fire. According to her, it’s one of the key factors that determine the taste.

The rest is simply a matter of ingredients and proportions. Here are the main steps:

• Place a paella pan with a bit of olive oil over the heat.
• Once the oil is hot, add the chicken thighs, pancetta (pork belly), and conejo (rabbit). Cook until golden brown on all sides, about 5-10 minutes.
• Add the red peppers, garlic, green and white beans, bottled tomatoes (already grilled), and artichokes. Stir for about 3 minutes.
• After frying a bit, remove the green beans and artichokes to prevent them from overcooking and losing their original texture. Return them when the rest of the dish is almost ready.
• At this stage, you can add snails (a favorite of Valencians) or calamari. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes. In our family, we never use mussels or peeled shrimp, but sometimes we decorate the paella with fresh grilled shrimp at the end.
• Next, add 5-6 cups of Arroz Bomba rice (see the picture) and 10-12 cups of broth. Bring it to a boil (this cup is my mother-in-law’s personal measurement).

• Afterward, we place the paella pan on the table and cover it with towels, placing two large spatulas crossing each other to ensure the towel doesn’t touch the rice. We never use aluminum foil.
• In 20 minutes, the rice becomes tender, and the paella is ready.
• Before serving, you need to mix everything well by scraping the bottom (the crunchy fried rice at the bottom is called socarrat)

More traditional foods

Another typical dish in our family is pan con alioli, bread with Spanish garlic mayonnaise, made the traditional way. You can see the process of making it on my IG highlight Countryside. Once the aioli sauce is ready, it’s spread on a slice of bread and toasted over a wood-burning fire for a few seconds. Depending on the season, my mother-in-law often prepares coca de codony (a traditional quince pastry) or simply buys pastissets de cabello de ángel (pastries filled with pumpkin pulp jam). For more of our family recipes, check out the Viva Spanish Kitchen blog.

What a Typical Sunday in the Spanish Countryside Looks Like

Want to see what a typical Sunday in Spain looks like? Check out my latest vlog below! Come along as we experience the “slow living” moments and unmissable pleasures of the Valencian countryside. From cooking a traditional Valencian paella to picking fresh fruit straight from the trees, this video is all about slowing down and spending quality time with family. Press play and enjoy a slice of Spanish country life with us!

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