Andean Stew
During a recent trip to Peru I encountered this dish everywhere, from the contemporary city of Lima, to the historic and cultural hub of Cusco, to the mountainous landscape of the lands surrounding Machu Picchu. Even as someone with literally no Peruvian heritage, this dish managed to give me an intense sense of comfort and homeyness every time I had it. There was a warmth and savoriness that felt like the nourishment of chicken-soup on a sick day. There was also a balanced complexity of flavor that only comes from knowing the fruits of your environment. This dish has deep ties to land and culture, ingredients that are inexpensive and widely accessible, and feels like a perfect way to kick off the journey of Grounded Grub. Enjoy!
Ingredients
1 small pumpkin : skin and pulp removed (separate the seeds from the pulp, wash and keep! These will make a yummy crunchy snack if baked with spices), cut into roughly 1.5 inch cubes. Since we’re using the inside, this is an opportunity to use the ugly pumpkins left over at the end of the season (or on November 1st hehe). 3lb roughly
3-5 small potatoes : washed and cut into roughly 1.5inch cubes
Garlic : four small cloves, chop how you like! (minced will cook quicker and will impart a more even, garlic-y flavor throughout, sliced will cook a little slower and will add awesome extra garlic-y bites)
1 Onion (red or white, I did a mix!) : diced
Red hot chili of choice : cut off stem, cut in half, remove the seeds (but keep off to the side!), dice pepper into small pieces (roughly ¼ in or less), add seeds depending on your desires spice tolerance/desire! You can always add more
Green peas : roughly ½ cup
Fresh oregano : roughly 2 tbsp worth of leaves or 6-10 stems worth, remove the stems to the best of your ability!
Goats milk feta cheese : add to taste! Crumble cheese over each individual bowl
Pumpkin seeds: add to taste! Extra awesome if you prepare these yourself!
Olive oil : ¼ cup (can also do vegetable oil)
Salt and black pepper of courseee
Cilantro : add to finished dishes
Preparation
Add oil to dutch oven (or other large pot, the heavier the better, more even heat) on medium to medium high heat, once the oil starts to flow around like water you know its ready
Add onions, garlic, and chili pepper, just as the garlic is getting some color and the onions have started to clarify, add the pumpkin and a good pinch of salt (it will flavor these ingredients early and give them the opportunity to sweat out some of their water early on, helping with caramelization)
Stir stir stir! You want to let the pumpkin get a little bit of color before it completely breaks apart but you don’t want it to burn! That being said, don’t worry about little bits that get stuck to the bottom of the pot
Once the pumpkin has softened substantially (it should be much easier to poke with a fork now), add the green peas, oregano, and potatoes
At this stage, you can decide what you want the consistency of this stew to be! IF left alone, this will become more of a mash than a stew. I added roughly half a cup of water, reduce the flame to medium-low, and let cook for roughly 20 minutes, opening occasionally to stir and season to taste!
Water can be added or cooked off to desired texture (and if you want an extra creamy texture, this can be pureed in a blender after its done cooking and left to cool)
To plate, fill your bowl with the stew and top with the feta cheese, pumpkin seeds, and black pepper!
Best Practice:
As always:
Avoid packaged produce, or really anything packaged for that matter. This is not to say that you’ll always have the option, but when you do, go for it! For example, you may sometimes see hot peppers in their own foam plates with plastic wrap, oregano and cilantro in its own plastic container, or things like pre-cut potatoes or onions in plastic containers. These are all very often available sans any container, so take the opportunity to use your hands, smell the produce, build that relationship with your ingredients! That being said, peas for example, might be difficult to avoid with packaging. Pick your battles and fight them well!
Try to bring your own bags when you go shopping for these ingredients
Make sure youre not buying more than you think youll reasonably use! Things like garlic, onions, potatoes, frozen peas, and the pumpkin will all last a while, so with those if you buy a bit more than you needed, youll have plenty of time to use them in the future. But with the hot peppers and herbs, those will go bad fairly quickly so buy with care!
These ingredients have been chosen with several things in mind:
Most of these ingredients are household staples that are relatively inexpensive and last a long time
Much of the fresh(er) produce listed is seasonal to the Northeast, and thus work to mitigate waste within local seasonal produce and reduce possible shipping and handling (big contributors to cost, carbon footprint, and freshness!). So, if you are from a different part of the world/country (or are reading this during a the spring or summer months in the Northeast), feel free to replace some of these ingredients with others that are similar in flavor and texture.
In more traditional versions of this recipe, dairy cream and cows milk cheese are often used. The dairy industry is one of the largest contributors to CO2, water use, and land use (within the food industry), and I do my best to not support industries at this scale as they typically do the most harm. That being said, if you have a local small-scale producer nearby, there is nothing wrong with indulging, just be sure to respect the ingredients!
Did you try this recipe? Tag @groundedgrub on instagram or facebook and hashtag it #groundedgrub!