We’re moving back from the imaginary fictional foods of Harry Potter, to a traditional Colombian dish. This week, I’ll be talking about my experiences making Baneja Paisa. Fun fact, I learned that this is actually the national dish of Colombia which is pretty cool because I didn’t even know that some countries had government recognized national dishes. From what I’ve gathered by looking through a variety of websites and articles, this is definitely a dish that is deeply loved by many people. Every recipe I came across seemed to have some sort of heartfelt story or just a detailed appreciation for this dish. That being said, after reading all of that, I was pretty excited to try it out myself. At first, I really struggled with trying to find a recipe, because every one I looked at seemed to have their own variation on the dish.
From what I’ve gathered, Baneja Paisa is a platter dish with a lot of different components that come together to make up one dish. The recipe that I ended up using seemed pretty authentic so I’ll attach the link to it down below. If anyone has any experience with this dish, please let me know if you think this recipe looks accurate. Some of the items that make up this dish are white rice, pinto beans, powdered beef, fried pork belly (which I didn’t find so I didn’t get to include unfortunately), chorizos, eggs, baked plantains, hogao (which I learned is a tomato onion sort of sauce), and avocado. That being said, it’s definitely a lot of food. It’s hard for me to gauge how long it took to make because there were a bunch of different components, but it’s definitely something that takes a while. It fills you up a lot though so it’s worth it. I really thought that this dish was really really good and can definitely see why people love it so much. Again, this is another great dish for the warm weather because it will warm you right up.
Although my attempts at making this dish will never truly capture the Colombian authenticity and culture within this dish, I still think that this was a lot of fun to make and was so delicious either way. As always, if anyone has any recommendations for an upcoming recipe or culture they might want me to look into please let me know. I’m going to attach the link to the recipe I used this week right here in case anyone decides to try this out at home. Let me know if you do!
OMGGGGGG I can’t believe you actually did it!! Thank You for trying it and getting more recognition to my culture. Even though, I don’t live in Colombia every time I go I order a Bandeja paisa with beer it’s just such a vibe.
That is really a complicated dish. It is really interesting how you are exploring cultural food and not shying away from intense recipes.
This is so cool! I have always wanted to go to Colombia so I think that is awesome that you are exploring these cultural foods and recipes. You’ll have to share how it turns out!