Super Sopas: 10 Soups and Stews that Takes Their Cues from Traditional Latin Recipes

Once in a while, when my kids begin to whine about having to finish an adequate portion of the healthy and balanced meal they are served before they can even contemplate the idea of having dessert, I tell them it could be worse. They could have been born in Latin America, where they would be asked to finish both their sopa and their seco (the main dish, described in opposition to the wet soup as “dry”), to finally qualify for a postre. Not buying what I’m selling, they are content to explain to me the various reasons that is absurd, an exaggeration and an imposition, and include the fact that we live in South Florida where, they insist, it is way too hot to eat soup.

But we have air conditioning, and I can crank it up, is my usual retort to my guys, who much like my childhood heroine from the 1970s comic strip, the precocious pacifist Mafalda, have strong opinions on politics and the economy but not much taste for soup. I’m not sure why they reject this warm, nourishing, semi-liquid meal that is a staple throughout cultures and the best repository for all the random veggie odds and ends in the bottom of your crisper, but I suspect it’s because they’ve never suffered a bone-chilling morning in Bogotá, just to tuck into a bowl of steaming hot ajiaco for lunch. 

1Parihuela/Cazuela de Mariscos

PARIHUELA-PERUVIAN STYLE SEAFOOD SOUP BELatina
Photo Credit fromscratchlatinkitchen.com/

Parihuela is the quintessential seafood stew of Perú, a showcase of all of the various offerings from its Pacific waters, from bivalves like mussels and clams, crustaceans like shrimp and lobster, to fin fish like corvina. In other Latin American countries, this mixture of seafood together with a flavorful broth-based in sofrito is called cazuela de mariscos or seafood hotpot. A sort of criollo bouillabaisse or cioppino, the parihuela makes use of its local flavor palate, trading the saffron of the Provençal dish for aji amarillo, aji rocoto, cilantro, ginger, and lime.

Aguaji

aguaji plantain soup BELatina
Photo Credit dominicancooking.com/

From the Dominican Republic, the antidote to the excellent rum is this excellent soup the next day. With the word for water right there in its name, this soup uses green plantain as the star of the dish, but it punctuates the mild-tasting fruit with some powerful flavors. With garlic and leek for flavor, culantro and cilantro for depth, and the sinus-and mind-clearing properties of allspice, a bowl of aguaji should be all you need to chase that hangover away.

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