My Favorite Recipes Collection: Ecuadorian Indigenous Potato Vegetable Soup made with Uchu Jacu

Today is my father's birthday, he would have been 90 today. He passed away in 2016. Miss him dearly !! I always dedicate my posts here on my blog to this, as he always inspired me. He used to travel all over India for business and whenever he came back from his business trip, he would bring a new recipe to try, the food that he had tried in that particular region and would inspire me and my mom to replicate the recipe. We just came back from an Amazing trip to Ecuador, Galapagos and Amazon Rain forest Coca and Sacha Lodge. Since we are vegetarian we could only try some of the recipes, amongst them were popular Ecuadorian potato soup of different region and they were very big on Ceviche, and they made vegetarian version for us. As matter of fact when we were staying at this beautiful Scalesia Lodge in Isabela island of Galapagos, the kitchen staff and our wonderful tour guide did a live demo class on how to make both non-veg and veg Ceviche, which I am going to post later. That is going to be my first video post. So stay tuned :) Lets get back to this recipe. First of all my heart goes out to all of those families who suffered loss of lives in the earthquake that just hit Ecuador yesterday, 2 wks ago we were there in the same region. So so sad... I hope they are doing ok, will be praying for them. When we visited Cayambe region in the northern part of the Ecuadorian province of Pichincha, one of our tour destination was to visit a Hacienda and have lunch at this place. They had made this soup, when I asked the lady to share the recipe she showed me this packaged flour mix that they use for this soup, and I bought one pack. It had the recipe in the back in Spanish, and one of our fellow traveler used google translate lens to translate the recipe in English for everyone. (I did not want to boast that I know that much Spanish to follow the recipe.) Any way I have posted the picture with English translation here. As it says in the recipe you can use this as a base and make any soup and with any vegetables. I only had baby carrots in my fridge, so I used that but you could use spinach or any greens, corn, heart of palm, tomatoes or any thing your palate desires. I basically followed the same recipe.

Let me first tell you little bit about Uchu Jacu (or Uchujacu; Quichua for hot flour) is a traditional flour produced from six different grains,originating from the Cayambe region in the northern part of the Ecuadorina province of Pichincha. After the recipe had almost been forgotten during some time, the flour is being produced again today in the mills of the organization UNOPAC. Though the flour is relatively little known, it is still very popular with the members of the various indigenous communities in the area.

The production of Uchu Jacu marks an elaborate process; wheat, barley, corn, pea, lentil and field bean are being used as ingredients. In order to assure a high level of pureness, the grains are sorted by hand and toasted. Subsequently, garlic, annatto and cumin are added to the assorted grains and eventually the mixture is ground. Eventually, the flour is sieved another time and packed. According to tradition, Uchu Jacu is exclusively being used to make a very nutritive soup. Although the full traditional recipe requires adding potatoes, onion, hominy, eggs, cream cheese and guinea pig, this version can be altered at will. Uchu Jacu resembles potato soup in appearance as well as in consistency, but develops a quite distinct flavor. They serve the soup with toasted corn, hot sauce and top it with Avocado slices and cheese. I must admit though the roasted corn were very hard to chew and I was afraid I was going to break my tooth, but here you can get better quality of crunchy roasted corn , in future I will definitely will be using it, as we just came back from our vacation I only had limited things in my fridge and pantry and I was very anxious to post this recipe.

The hot sauce that they served us was amazing, I will ask one of my friend from Ecuador for the recipe and will post it later. Also found out that what really makes these soup different is the seasoning. The Ecuadorian soups are seasoned with a spice called annatto, which gives it a subtle flavor and a unique color. Annatto is a spice and coloring that comes from the seeds of the anchiote tree. It has a flavor that is earthy and slightly peppery with a hint of nutmeg sweetness. The anchiote tree is commonly found in Latin America and South America, where the seeds were traditionally used as a dye for paints and for medicinal uses. It has been used for hundreds of years as both a dye and seasoning in Latin America and the Caribbean. Annatto is sometimes known as “poor man’s saffron” because it gives dishes a similar color to the hue saffron would impart. It was used in many Spanish dishes that found their way to the New World, where saffron was not easily available. Annatto is widely used as a natural coloring agent in many food products. (If your butter or cheese is yellow, chances are pretty good it has been dyed with annatto.)

If you don’t have annatto, substitute ¼ tsp turmeric, ½ tsp sweet paprika, and a pinch of nutmeg. While this is not an exact substitution for the flavor, it will get you close to the flavor and color that the annatto provides. However in this package as you can see the annatto is included. So I did not have to worry about it.

So here is how I made it with my limited supply of ingredients:

1/2 cup of Uchu Jacu flour
2 cups of cold water
2 medium potatoes
3-4 baby carrots
3 sprigs of green onions
1/2 small yellow onion
Water to cook potatoes and carrots
1 table spoon of butter
Salt to tasteF

For the Topping

½ cup of Queso fresco, crumbled, or shredded mozzarella
Chopped fresh cilantro
1 avocado, cubed or sliced
Hoe sauce to taste

Method:

Peel and chop potatoes and carrot.
Add water and salt and cook on stove top, or micro wave or pressure cooker until soft. I just cooked in microwave for 20 min.
While these are cooking, chop onion and green onion.
Add butter to frying pan on medium lower heat and saute onions until light brown.
Add 1/2 cup of Uchu Jacu flour to cold water and mix well until lumps are gone, set aside.
Add cooked potatoes and carrots to sauteed onions and add the water that you cooked them in.
Then add flour and water mix to it.
Let is simmer for 5-6 min on medium low heat stirring in between.
Blend the entire content with hand blender.
Add water if too thick.
Add salt if needed.
Server hot topped with cheese, avocado and roasted corn if desired .

Yummmmmy !!!

Hints:

As mentioned earlier you can use any other vegetable to accompany potatoes: like spinach or any other greens, Heart of palm, edamame, peas, tomatoes or any of your favorite veggies and for my non veg readers you an add any meat items that you like.

You can even substitute sweet potato for potatoes.

Enjoy !!

Information on Uchu Jacu flour souce: Wikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uchu_Jacu https://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License

Recipe adapted from recipe on the package of Uchu Jacu flour purchased from the Hacienda and all he photographs by Surekha.