Solidarity was palpable during this past week of hard trials for Peruvians. So many good deeds made me feel very proud to be Peruvian. Pride reaffirms this blog’s commitment to share Peruvian food with the world – I hope – in the simplest of ways and with lots of photos! Español aquí.
That is why this week I am very happy to share this week’s Peruvian dish with you: Peruvian style cheese, corn and flava bean salad otherwise known as Solterito. For those who aren’t familiar with it, solterito is a cold dish from Arequipa. Arequipa is in both a southern region of Peru and the main city. The food from here absolutely delicious.
But coming back to the solterito, it’s traditional recipe includes flava or broad beans, peruvian corn, onions, tomato, rocoto pepper, cheese, potatoes, olives and parsley. Other variations depend on the region where you prepare. If you are not in Peru, look for andean corn and rocoto peppers in latin markets. The rocoto pepper has black hot hot seeds inside. For the fresh cheese we talked about in the our pesto recipe you can also look in latin markets or replace with feta.
Today’s recipe is based on my Nicolini recipe book, and does not include olives, although you can surely add them. What I love about this recipe is that you can eat as you want. While it is usually served as an entrée, you could add grilled meat or chicken and serve it as a hearty salad.
In Peru it is usually served with cooked potatoes, although flava beans have the same amount of carbohydrates as the potatoes. Doing that is double your share. If you are looking for a healthy option, I recommend accompanying it with fresh vegetables. I hope you like it!
Ingredients
1 cup of peeled flava beans – Before cooking the beans, remove them from this pod and the first sachet that covers them. I did it this very carefully with a knife.
1 cup of Andean corn
1 finely chopped red onion
250 grs of white cheese
2 tablespoons of finely chopped, seedless and veinless, rocoto pepper or Peruvian peppers
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Juice from 2 peruvian lemons
Finely chopped parsley leaves
Salt and ground pepper to taste
Preparation
Cook the beans in water or steam them.
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They cook in about five minutes. Repeat with the corn.
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Set both aside.
Bring the onion and pepper together in a bowl. Add the beans and the corn.
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Add the cheese. Season with oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
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Add the parsley leaves. Let it sit for at least five minutes so that the peppers will cook in the lemon juice.
Serve as starter as main course. It is customary to accompany with potatoes boiled in dice. Some people enjoy it with olives.
Serves 4 to 6 servings.
