Arepa is a Colombian breakfast bread. It is made with precooked corn meal and can be stuffed or topped with a filling of your choice. These are very quick and easy to make, and look and taste delicious!
The first time I ate arepas was in New Mexico at a small Colombian cafe. I was amazed at how a simple bread could be packed with such great flavor! We were supposed to be in Colombia this week but due to the current situation had to cancel our trip. I was really looking forward to sinking my teeth in some “real” arepas. Since I could not go to Colombia, I decided to bring a little bit of Colombia home.
This is a great party snack as well and can be a fun engagement for your guests! You could have multiple toppings and salsas and they could build their own arepas.
What you will need:
| Ingredients | Quantity |
|---|---|
| For the Arepa: | |
| Pre cooked corn meal (Pan is a popular Colombian brand) | 1 cup |
| Salt | 1/3 teaspoon |
| Water | Around 1 1/4 cup |
| For the Salsa: | |
| Red beans | 200 g |
| Finely Chopped Bell Pepper | 50 g |
| Finely Chopped jalapeno | 1 teaspoon |
| Paprika | 1/2 teaspoon |
| Finely Chopped Cilantro | 2 tablespoons |
| Lemon Juice | 2 tablespoons |
| For the Filling: | |
| Eggs | 6 |
| Cheese | 100 grams |
| Other: | |
| Oil for Frying | 2 tablespoons |
How to make it:
- In a mixing bowl, add 1 cup of water and salt.
- Add the precooked corn flour and mix well till you get a dough. Add more water if the dough is too dry. Usually for 1 cup of flour you need around 1 1/4 cup of water.
Arepa dough - Divide the dough into 6 parts. Form round balls of dough and then press them in between your hands, ensuring they are at least 1/2 an inch thick.
Form the arepas on your palm - Add oil to a pan and place these arepas on the pan.
- Cook on a medium flame for around 4 minutes on each side. Do not cook these on a high flame or the flour will not cook through.
Fry the arepas on both sides - Take them off the flame, and let them cool for at least 5 minutes.
- Use a knife and cut them in the center to separate the top and bottom layer.
- Your arepa are ready for the filling.
For the bean salsa:
- Take cooked or canned red beans in a mixing bowl.
- Finely chop bell peppers, jalapeno, and cilantro. Add them to the bowl.
- Add paprika, salt (if using canned beans, please adjust accordingly), and lemon juice.
- Mix everything well.
Bean Salsa
For the eggs:
- You can use scrambled eggs, over easy eggs, poached eggs or whatever other way you like your eggs. It is totally your preference. I simply used over easy eggs in this recipe.
Put it all together:
- Open the arepa and stuff it with some salsa, one egg, cheese and enjoy!