Fanesca: Ecuadorian Easter Soup

Fanesca is a traditional soup recipe for Easter in Ecuador. It is only made for Easter because the preparation is time-consuming, with a lot of ingredients, and the recipe makes a large batch. Fanesca contains a variety of fresh grains and beans, squash, salted cod, cheese, and milk. Wikipedia says that the twelve grains and beans represent the twelve apostles, and the cod represents Jesus. The presentation is traditional as well.

And of course, side dishes are very important and this soup must be served with slices of hardboiled eggs, fried ripe plantains, slices of queso fresco, slices of hot peppers or a good Ecuadorian hot sauce, white onions marinated in lime juice, and empanadas de viento or fried empanadas. These last empanadas are sometimes replaced by masitas or just the empanada dough shaped into small balls and fried. Fanesca is usually followed a dish of Ecuadorian mashed potatoes called molo.

The recipe says it serves 25 people, but it appears to feed an entire village. Reading the list of ingredients, the spices alone make me want to try it out! However, I’d never be able to find all the ingredients in my small town. The complete recipe and instructions for Fanesca are at Laylita’s Recipes. Check out her other Easter recipes, too.  -via Metafilter