Fanesca is a traditional Ecuadorian soup served during Easter week, made with squash, cabbage, corn, fig leaf squash, 12 types of beans, and potatoes. The broth is made with milk and dried cod, and the dish is usually prepared in large portions as a social activity. The complex cooking process requires different people to cook different ingredients, and the soup is garnished with hard-boiled eggs, fried plantains, chili, queso fresco, and hot sauce. Some ingredients are hard to find outside of southern Ecuador, making authentic fanesca difficult to replicate.
Fanesca is an Ecuadorian soup that is traditionally served during Easter week. The process of making it requires many complicated and time-consuming steps, which will most likely affect how rarely it is made. Making and eating fanesca is a large-scale social activity, so it is almost always produced in large portions. Most recipes offer servings for 20-25 people.
Fanesca ingredients typically include squash, cabbage, corn, and fig leaf squash, also known as malabar squash. In addition, at least 12 different types of beans and potatoes are used. Varieties of beans typically used include fava, tremoco, and cannellini beans.
The traditional Fanesca broth does not contain water, instead it uses only milk. Some cooks prefer to replace the water with some milk. Dry cod must be soaked in milk for 24 hours. The taste of cod can be quite bitter, so depending on personal taste cod may or may not eventually be added to the soup. Only those who truly enjoy the dish will appreciate the taste of the cod in the soup.
Due to the multitude of ingredients and their complex cooking requirements, cooking fanesca is usually a group activity. All ingredients are cooked separately for varying lengths of time, so different parts of the cooking process are done by different people. After all the ingredients have been properly cooked and then mashed or pureed, the cod milk is added and the ingredients are cooked together to allow the flavors to meld. The soup is served nicely garnished with sliced hard-boiled eggs, fried plantains, chili, queso fresco, and hot sauce. Dried onion limes and fried empanadas are often served on the side.
In Ecuador, all the ingredients used in fanesca are fresh and purchased from the markets just before cooking begins. Many of the many ingredients needed for fanesca are found only in the southern highlands of Ecuador near the city of Cuenca. Most of the ingredients are grown by the indigenous population in southern Ecuador and are mainly distributed to local markets.
Sometimes, it’s hard to find the ingredients in other regions of Ecuador. One such ingredient is the small, starchy mellocos potato specific to the Andes. Attempts to make the Ecuadorian dish unique in other parts of the world require the substitution of certain ingredients, making authentic fanesca even more elusive.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
