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Colombian recipes

101 Colombian recipes to cook at home, each with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Jugo de maracuyá, takes 10 minutes. Most take around 50 minutes.

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Arroz con piangua

The women of Tumaco and the Nariño mangroves wade out at low tide to gather piangua, a dark-shelled ark clam that lives in the roots, and much of the catch ends up in this rice: the clam meat chopped and cooked with coconut milk, a refrito of onion and peppers, and the Pacific's chillangua and oregano. It is rich, briny and creamy, with the clams' strong, almost iron-like sea flavour carrying through every grain. Locals eat it as a lunch main with patacones and a little salad. Outside Colombia, look for frozen piangua meat in Ecuadorian or Colombian shops, or use fresh clams or cockles in the shell. Before cooking, throw away any clam with a cracked shell or one that stays open when tapped; after steaming, discard any that stay shut. Overcooking the clam meat is the usual error, as it turns rubbery, so stir it in only for the last minutes. Chef's tip: strain the clam cooking liquid through a cloth or coffee filter to catch the grit, then use it in the rice; that's where the flavour is.

70 minColombianRice & GrainsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Mamona

Cattle ranches of Meta and Casanare celebrate with mamona: a young steer cut into huge traditional pieces (rib slab, flank, shoulder) threaded on long wooden stakes and leaned around a wood fire for five hours or more, seasoned with nothing but coarse salt. The Villavicencio restaurants that specialise in it serve the meat with cassava, small boiled potatoes, plantain and ají, and some cooks splash beer over it, which you can skip. The beef ends up smoky and dripping on the inside with a salty, crusty bark. This home version uses a covered kettle barbecue with indirect heat, a whole slab of short ribs and a thick piece of flank. The usual blunder is putting the meat right over the coals; mamona cooks beside the fire, never over it. Chef's tip: let the salt sit on the meat in the fridge for a few hours before cooking; it seasons deeper and helps the crust form.

290 minColombianMeatGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Cachama frita

Roadside restaurants on the way from Bogotá down to Villavicencio and Restrepo sell cachama by the hundred at weekends: a farmed river fish of the Orinoco basin (the same family as pacu), opened out like a book, seasoned with garlic, cumin and lime and fried until the edges turn to crisp, salty lace. Its flesh is firm, fatty and sweet, and the rib bones, fried crisp, are half the pleasure. It comes with boiled cassava, ripe plantain tajadas and a little tomato salad. Outside Colombia, look for frozen whole pacu or cachama in Latin or Asian shops; otherwise use pompano or a large sea bream. A soggy, greasy fish usually means the oil wasn't hot enough; keep it at 180 °C and fry one at a time. Chef's tip: score the thick side of the fillet in a fine crosshatch down to the bones; the fine intramuscular bones fry crisp and the heat reaches the thickest part.

50 minColombianFishGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Mute santandereano

Bucaramanga's Mercado Central and the Sunday family tables of Santander serve mute, a big, thick soup that takes most of a day: hominy corn, honeycomb beef tripe and pork ribs, plus red beans, potatoes, pumpkin, cabbage and a handful of short pasta, all simmered until thick, rich and savoury. It is filling enough to be lunch on its own, eaten with avocado, ají and a piece of arepa. The tripe must be bought cleaned and bleached from the butcher and then simmered for two hours until tender; undercooked tripe is the most common complaint, as it stays chewy and tastes strong. This version uses cooked or tinned hominy and beans to save the overnight soaking. Chef's tip: rub the tripe with lime and salt and rinse it twice before cooking; it removes any farmyard smell and keeps the broth clean-tasting.

240 minColombianSoups
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pepitoria

Santander's famous plate of cabrito (roast kid goat), sold in Bucaramanga, Barichara and the canyon towns, always comes with pepitoria next to it: rice cooked with the kid's chopped heart, liver and kidneys, a refrito of onion and tomato, and blood, which turns it a deep reddish-brown and gives it a rich, mineral flavour, a little like a soft black pudding. It's a dish that uses the whole animal, and it is worth trying if you like morcilla. Ask a halal, Caribbean or specialist butcher for very fresh goat offal and fresh blood (pig blood works if goat isn't available); keep both cold and cook them the same day. Offal must be cooked right through, and the blood until it has set and darkened with no liquid red left. The usual misstep is adding the blood too early, so that it scorches on the bottom; it goes in when the rice is nearly done. Chef's tip: if blood is impossible to find, double the offal and add 1 tsp extra achiote; you'll get a lighter but still very good rice.

110 minColombianRice & GrainsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Carne oreada

Before refrigerators, Santander cooks preserved beef by marinating thin sheets of it with panela, salt, garlic and cumin and hanging it in the sun and breeze until the surface dried. Carne oreada is still sold in the markets of Bucaramanga and San Gil, and grilled at home or in asaderos with arepa santandereana, cassava and guacamole. The meat comes out chewy-tender with a sweet, salty, caramelised edge and a concentrated, almost cured beef flavour. Sun-drying isn't safe in most home settings, so this version dries the meat on a rack uncovered in the fridge for 1–2 days, which gives the same firm, dark surface. Grilling it too long is the frequent fault, as the thin meat goes leathery; it needs only a few minutes a side over high heat. Chef's tip: some cooks splash a little beer into the marinade, but orange juice gives a similar tang without alcohol.

35 minColombianMeatGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Arepa santandereana

Bakeries and breakfast counters in Bucaramanga and Socorro sell a different kind of arepa from the soft white rounds of Bogotá: yellow, made with corn and cassava and studded with bits of crunchy pork chicharrón, cooked slowly on a griddle until a thick, chewy crust forms. The traditional dough is ground from cooked dry corn, but precooked yellow maize flour with mashed cassava gets you close at home. It is savoury and a little smoky, and goes with eggs and hot chocolate at breakfast or with carne oreada at lunch. Dough that's too dry is the common fault: it cracks around the edges as it cooks, so knead in water until it feels like soft play dough. Chef's tip: cook the arepas slowly over a medium-low heat; the cassava needs time to turn chewy inside while the outside builds a golden crust.

80 minColombianBreads & ParathasGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Frito pastuso

In Pasto and the high Nariño towns close to Ecuador, frito pastuso is a weekend plate found at market counters and family lunches: chunks of pork leg simmered with garlic and cumin until the water evaporates, then fried in their own fat until browned and crisp at the edges, served with small boiled yellow potatoes, mote (white hominy), toasted corn and a smooth ají de maní, the region's peanut and chilli sauce. The pork is salty and crusty, the potatoes soft, and the peanut sauce brings a gentle heat. Contains peanuts. The mistake people make is cutting the pork too small, so it dries out before it browns; keep the chunks generous, about 4 cm. Chef's tip: marinate the pork overnight in the fridge; the garlic and cumin get right into the meat and the fried edges caramelise better.

90 minColombianMeatGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Salchipapa

Late at night outside the bars and football stadiums of Bogotá and Medellín, carts and fast-food counters sell salchipapa by the plastic tray: hot chips topped with fried slices of hot dog sausage, drowned in salsa rosada (ketchup mixed with mayonnaise), mustard and grated cheese, sometimes with a squirt of pineapple sauce. Kids love it, and it's an easy Friday-night dinner at home: salty, crisp and soft at once, with the sweet-tangy pink sauce tying everything together. The way it goes wrong is soggy fries; double frying keeps them crisp under all that sauce. Chef's tip: slice the sausages on the diagonal and fry them until they curl and blister at the edges; the crisp bits make the dish.

45 minColombianFast Food
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Perro caliente

Bogotá's hot-dog stands near the universities and in the Zona Rosa take the frankfurter and keep going: melted cheese, a sticky pineapple sauce, salsa rosada, mustard, a mound of crushed potato crisps and, on top, a couple of boiled quail eggs on a toothpick. It's sweet, salty, creamy and crunchy in every bite, and it is very much a hold-it-over-the-napkin snack. Kids are usually the first in line. Adding the crisps too early is the classic mistake; they go soft under the sauces, so they are the very last thing on. Chef's tip: make the quick pineapple sauce while the eggs boil; fresh pineapple cooked down with a little sugar tastes much brighter than bottled.

25 minColombianFast Food
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Esponjado de curuba

Grandmothers' kitchens and old cafés of Bogotá and Boyacá have kept the esponjado alive: a pale, airy, sweet-sour mousse made with curuba, the long, soft-skinned banana passionfruit of the cold Andes, set with gelatin and sweetened with condensed milk. It is served chilled in glasses after Sunday lunch, light and tangy, perfumed like passionfruit but softer. Because it contains gelatin, it is not vegetarian; for a vegetarian version, set it with 2 tsp agar powder boiled for 2 minutes in the curuba juice. Older recipes fold in raw whipped egg whites; this one uses whipped cream instead, so there is no raw egg. The common problem is folding cream into gelatin that's too warm or too set: it should be cool and just thickening, like unbeaten egg white. Chef's tip: frozen curuba pulp is sold in Latin shops; if you can't find it, use passionfruit pulp with a squeeze of lime. Allow at least 4 hours for it to set.

30 minColombianDessertsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Garullas

Sugamuxi province, around Sogamoso and Tibasosa in Boyacá, is garulla country: bakeries and home ovens turn out these rings and rolls of rich, buttery dough kneaded with fresh curd cheese. They are slightly sweet, dense and crumbly, with a golden top, and they keep well for a few days, which is why they travel in bags back to Bogotá after weekend trips. Have them with a hot black coffee or hot chocolate at onces time. Cuajada is curd set with rennet, usually animal; a vegetarian ricotta or curd works. Overworking the dough is the usual error and gives tough, chewy garullas; knead only until it comes together. Chef's tip: squeeze the cuajada in a cloth to remove as much whey as you can before you start; wet curd makes the dough sticky and the rings spread flat.

50 minColombianBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Cholado

On a hot afternoon in Jamundí, just south of Cali, the stalls along the road to the river build cholados in tall plastic cups: a base of shaved ice drenched in bright fruit syrups, layers of chopped mango, papaya, pineapple, banana and strawberries, then a ribbon of condensed milk and a shower of coconut. It is half drink, half dessert, eaten with a long spoon as the ice melts into fruity, creamy slush. Children love it, and it is quick to build at home. The commonest mistake is shaving the ice too early; it melts into water before you finish assembling, so crush it at the last moment. Chef's tip: chill the fruit and glasses well beforehand and squeeze a little lime over the fruit so it stays bright.

15 minColombianDessertsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Salpicón de frutas

Salpicón is what Caleños grab at fruit stands and in the parks of San Antonio when the afternoon heat sets in: a tall cup of tiny, jewel-like cubes of papaya, pineapple, mango, banana and apple, swimming in freshly blended watermelon juice, eaten with a spoon and drunk to the last drop. Some stalls top it up with a fizzy orange or lemon soda; this version keeps it to fresh juice. It is sweet, cool and very refreshing. The mistake people make is cutting the fruit too big; the joy is in tiny cubes you can drink through the juice. Chef's tip: blend and strain the watermelon just before serving and keep everything ice cold; watermelon juice loses its fresh taste within an hour.

15 minColombianDrinksVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Maduro con queso

Cali cooks treat a black-skinned plantain as a treat rather than a fruit past its best, and maduro con queso shows why. The plantain bakes in its own skin until the flesh turns sticky and caramel-sweet, then it is split lengthways and packed with soft white cheese that melts into the hot fruit. In the Valle del Cauca it turns up at home lunches beside rice, beans and a sudado, and at weekend corrientazo counters as the sweet note on a savoury plate. The cheese of choice is a mild, stretchy quesillo or queso campesino, both normally set with animal rennet, so pick a vegetarian mozzarella-style cheese if that matters to you. Where it goes wrong is the plantain: a yellow one with a few spots stays starchy and dry, so wait until the skin is almost completely black and the fruit gives when pressed. Chef's tip: bake the plantains on a tray lined with baking paper, because the sugars leak out of the skins and burn onto bare metal.

40 minColombianSidesGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Mote de queso

Few dishes say Colombian savanna country like a pot of mote de queso. Families in Montería, Sincelejo and the towns around them make it for Sunday lunch and during Holy Week, when meat is off the table: white yam is boiled until it collapses into a thick, almost creamy broth, seasoned with a fry of onion and garlic, and finished with cubes of salty queso costeño and a squeeze of lime. It is eaten with plain white rice, sliced avocado and a fried ripe plantain on the side. Outside Colombia, a firm feta-style or halloumi-style cheese stands in for queso costeño; both are often set with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian (microbial-rennet) one. The trap most cooks fall into is adding the cheese too early, so it dissolves into strings and the soup turns gluey and over-salted. Chef's tip: wear gloves or oil your hands when peeling the yam, because the raw juice can make skin itch.

60 minColombianSoupsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bollo limpio

Before most of Barranquilla has opened its shutters, the bollo sellers are out with baskets of husk-wrapped corn logs. Bollo limpio is the plainest of them: white corn, soaked, cooked, ground and kneaded with nothing but salt, then tied in husks and boiled until firm. The result is dense and slightly springy, with a clean, sweet corn taste and a faint grassiness from the husks. It is torn open at breakfast and eaten with a slab of salty cheese and a spoon of suero costeño, or alongside fried fish and stews at lunch; this version itself is vegan. Plan ahead: the dried corn needs soaking overnight. If the dough is too dry, the bollos crack and turn crumbly, so knead in water until it feels like soft modelling clay. Chef's tip: if you cannot grind dried corn, 1 kg of ready-made unflavoured white corn masa from a Latin shop gives a close result; skip straight to the kneading.

180 minColombianBreads & ParathasVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Brevas con arequipe

Bogotá's old sweet shops and the dessert counters of Cundinamarca sell brevas caladas, firm green figs cooked for hours in panela syrup until they turn dark, glossy and tender, then split and filled with arequipe. A slice of salty fresh cheese alongside balances all that sugar. They are a classic Christmas and Sunday treat and keep for a week in the fridge, so make them ahead. Use hard, unripe green figs from Middle Eastern or Latin shops; ripe figs fall apart. Arequipe is Colombian milk caramel, the same as dulce de leche. The fresh cheese is usually animal-rennet, so pick a vegetarian one. Skipping the first boils is the common error: the figs keep a bitter, milky sap that spoils the syrup. Chef's tip: cook the syrup slowly and keep the figs just covered; a hard boil splits the skins.

180 minColombianDessertsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Rondón

The English-speaking Raizal islanders of San Andrés and Providencia call it rundown, and it is cooked for a crowd on weekends and at beach gatherings: coconut milk boiled down until it 'runs down' and starts to release its oil, with cassava, green plantain, breadfruit or sweet potato, flour dumplings, salted pig tail and, on top, fish and conch steamed in the creamy broth. Pork appears as the salted tail, which seasons the pot. The broth is rich, coconut-sweet and herby with thyme, with a perfume of whole Scotch bonnet that gives aroma rather than fire as long as it doesn't burst. Start the day before: the pig tail needs overnight soaking. A common mistake is stirring once the fish goes in, which breaks it up; layer it and let the steam do the work. Chef's tip: queen conch is protected in much of the Caribbean, so buy only legally sourced frozen conch, or swap in large raw prawns added with the fish.

130 minColombianSoups
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Papas chorreadas

Chorreadas means drenched, and that is the idea: in farmhouse kitchens of Boyacá and Cundinamarca, whole boiled potatoes get a hot, loose sauce of tomato and long spring onion poured over them, enriched with milk and stretchy fresh cheese. It is comfort food from the cold highlands, served beside grilled meat on Sundays or on its own with an arepa and a mug of aguapanela on a weeknight. Colombians use queso campesino or doble crema, both usually made with animal rennet; a vegetarian mozzarella or other microbial-rennet melting cheese works perfectly. The mistake to avoid is adding the cheese to a boiling sauce, which makes it split and turn stringy; keep the heat low. Chef's tip: let the tomato and onion cook until really soft and jammy before the milk goes in, so the sauce tastes sweet and deep rather than raw.

40 minColombianSidesGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Encocado de pescado

Fishing towns of the Colombian Pacific, from Buenaventura's Pueblo Nuevo market to the stilt houses of Tumaco, cook their catch in coconut milk scraped from fresh coconuts, with a refrito of onion, peppers and garlic and the coast's wild herbs: chillangua (culantro), poleo and oregano cimarrón. Encocado is lighter and more herbal than many coconut stews, mild rather than hot, with the fish just cooked in a creamy, pale-orange sauce. It is eaten at lunch with white or coconut rice and patacones or boiled green plantain. Boiling the coconut milk hard after the fish goes in is the classic error: the sauce splits and the fillets toughen, so keep it at a gentle bubble. Chef's tip: culantro (sawtooth coriander) is sold in Asian and Caribbean shops; if you can't find it, use twice the amount of ordinary coriander plus a few mint leaves to stand in for poleo.

50 minColombianFishGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Migas de arepa

Nothing goes to waste in a paisa kitchen. Yesterday's arepas are torn into rough pieces and fried in a pan of hogao, the slow tomato and spring onion sauce of Antioquia, then folded through with soft scrambled eggs. It is a weekday breakfast across Medellín and the coffee towns, served with a cup of hot chocolate or a strong coffee, and it takes about as long as making toast. The texture should be part crisp, part soft, coated in eggy tomato. Most people stir it too much, which turns the arepa to mush; fry it first and let it crisp before the eggs go in. Use plain white-corn arepas, homemade or bought. Chef's tip: take the pan off the heat while the eggs still look a touch wet; they finish in the residual warmth and stay creamy.

20 minColombianBreakfast & BrunchGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Tapao de pescado

Quibdó's riverside kitchens and the villages along the Atrato and Baudó rivers make tapao, which simply means 'covered': fish and chunks of green plantain cooked in a little water and a refrito of onion, tomato and herbs, with the pot sealed under a plantain leaf and a lid so it all cooks in its own steam. There's no coconut, unlike the Pacific's encocados, so it tastes clean and brothy, of fish and herbs, with the plantain soaking up the juices and thickening them slightly. It's a weekday dish, often made with bocachico or other river fish, and eaten from deep plates with a spoon and fingers. Adding the fish with the plantain from the start is a common slip; the plantain needs a head start or the fish falls apart before the plantain is tender. Chef's tip: if you can find bocachico or another river fish, use it; otherwise sea bream or tilapia steaks with the bone in give the broth the best flavour.

55 minColombianFishGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Enyucado

Bakeries and street vendors in Cartagena, Barranquilla and Montería sell enyucado by the square, wrapped in paper, as an afternoon sweet with coffee. It is a dense, moist cassava cake held together by coconut milk, sweetened with sugar, scented with aniseed and given a salty edge by grated white cheese; the top bakes to a golden, slightly chewy crust while the middle stays soft and pudding-like. It is also a fixture at birthday and holiday tables along the coast. Queso costeño is the cheese used; a firm feta-style one is the nearest swap, and as both are usually set with animal rennet, choose a vegetarian (microbial-rennet) cheese. People most often go wrong by cutting it warm: the starch needs at least an hour to set, otherwise the slices are gummy and fall apart. Frozen grated cassava from Latin or African shops saves a lot of work. Chef's tip: squeeze the grated cassava lightly so the cake sets well but stays moist.

75 minColombianDessertsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

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