Recipe: Arepas from Venezuela (for any time of day)
Dishes that are good for you, the planet and your wallet; that’s what Anna Jones’s new cookbook, One Pan, Plate, Planet, is all about. The book is divided into four chapters with more than 150 recipes. From generously filled sheet pans to super-quick weekday dinners like these arepas from Venezuela. Everything is easy to make, affordable and, above all, incredibly healthy and delicious.
Anna: “We ate this the day after our wedding. One of the wonderful people who prepared our wedding meal, Bea (@bmangobajito), is from Venezuela and she makes the most delicious arepas. Feather-light, but sturdy enough to soak up the wine from the night before. We ate them for breakfast, but they are suitable for any meal. True comfort food.”
How to make the arepas from Venezuela
- Put the red onions in a bowl with the juice of one lime and a pinch of sea salt, and squeeze the mixture together with your hands until the onions turn bright pink. Set aside so the onions can marinate.
- Make the dough. Put the cornmeal, sea salt and oil in a bowl with 400–450 ml boiling water. Leave the mixture for one minute so the water can absorb into the flour. Carefully mix the dough together by hand. It should become a kind of modelling clay. It must not be crumbly. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes, or 30 minutes if you have the time.
- Prepare the black beans. Heat some olive oil in a medium-sized frying pan and fry the cumin seeds, coriander stems and paprika in the hot oil for 1 minute. Add the black beans with the liquid from the can and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the chopped green chilli and the remaining coriander leaves.
- Make the salsa verde. Put 30 g of the feta and half of the coriander leaves in a food processor. Add the remaining ingredients and blend everything into a dark green salsa. Season to taste and set aside.
- Wait until the dough is ready (it should come away from the bowl easily and be easy to work with). Divide it into golf-ball-sized pieces and shape them into circles 8 cm in diameter and 1 cm thick (you will make 10). Heat some oil in a large frying pan and place an arepa in the hot oil. Cover the pan and fry the arepa for 7 minutes on each side until golden brown on both sides. Keep it warm in the oven and fry the remaining arepas.
- Add the chopped green chilli and the remaining coriander to the black beans. Serve the arepas warm. Cut them open and fill them with a spoonful of black beans, some salsa, radishes, pickled red onion and some feta.
Title: One Pan, Plate, Planet
Author: Anna Jones
Price: €29.99
Publisher: Fontaine Uitgevers
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