Frijoles Charros

Frijoles charros, or “cowboy beans”, is a traditional Mexican soup featuring pinto beans and bacon.

Fazulovika

Fazulovika is a thick Slovak soup, made with smoked meat and beans, flavored with paprika and marjoram, and usually thickened with a roux, or mixture of cream and flour.

Further exploration of Plantain Dumplings, aka Asopao de Gandules, version 2.

I’m considering this a failed recipe, shared to document my journey, not because I think you should try it. I set out to look at plantain dumpling recipes, but there’s several different types of plantain dumplings and I didn’t focus in on a specific one, so my recipe wound up kind of tough and chewy. On top of that, the soup recipe I came up with lacks seasoning.

Asopao de Gandules

Asopao de gandules is a Puerto RIcan/ Caribbean soup made with rice and pigeon peas, and served with plantain dumplings.

Asopao de Mariscos

Asopao de Mariscos is a seafood and rice stew popular in Puerto Rico and across the Caribbean. I made several errors in my cooking process, but even so the dish was tasty, and I’ve tweaked my recipe so hopefully you won’t make the same mistakes!

Puerto Rican Asopao de Pollo

Asopao de Pollo is a chicken and rice soup from Puerto Rico. It’s full of tasty vegetables and Caribbean flavors, good for warming up on a cold day, but just as tasty any other time.

Arroz a la Valenciana

Arroz a la Valenciana is a rice dish, variations of which are found throughout the world in many former Spanish colonies. My version takes elements from Nicaraguan and Salvadorian recipes and combines them to make a tasty dish full of rice, chicken, vegetables, and hot dogs.

Asopao de Pollo Dominicano

Asopao is a popular type of rice soup across the Caribbean. This version uses chicken, and is based on Dominican recipes.

Farinata

Farinata is a type of flatbread or pancake from Genoa, made with chickpea flour. The thin batter is poured into smoking hot pans with lots of olive oil, and baked in a very hot oven, making a delicious crispy crust with a soft, custardy center and a earthy, vegetal flavor.