It's been quite a while since I've made a post. And I'm pretty sure I say that every time I make a post... The good thing is that I do actually still make dishes for this project with regular frequency. The making and eating part is actually what matters most. That part came first, the blog came second. So don't worry about this project falling off the wagon (you're probably not worried); I've got seven more countries I've made meals for that I just haven't written about yet.
Now, to Chile. The dish I chose for this country is not really the most exciting dish, nor is it what I would think of as Latin American food. But I think there's a misconception among some that South America is more homogeneous than it really is. The food of Venezuela is not going to be exactly the same as that of Chile. The national dish (or at least one of them) is empanadas, which I've already made for Argentina so I knew I couldn't do that again, as much as I love them. So I came across the dish known as "porotos con riendas" which means beans with reins. It's a traditional bean stew served in the winter in Chile. Since it was so traditional, I figured it was a good candidate.
The first step is boiling the beans until soft. Different types of beans can be used, from Great Northern, to kidney beans, to granados (cranberry beans), to pinto beans. I used pinto because I already had some in my cabinet.
While the beans simmered, I cut up my squash. Recipes call for pumpkin, which for most recipes any kind of winter squash is probably going to do the trick. I went with acorn squash.
Next, I cooked some onion with my spices--cumin, paprika, and chili powder. There is a specific type of Chilean chili powder called merquén, which I did not go through the trouble of finding.
Next, I added my veggie "sausage". Porotos con riendas calls for chorizo, which can sometimes be difficult to find in the vegetarian section of the supermarket sometimes. I believe what I used was an Italian sausage flavor instead.
All of that, plus the pumpkin, and some spaghetti, are added to the pot with the beans that have been cooking. The spaghetti is the "riendas" part of the dish, because they look vaguely like horse reins.
And then it all just cooks together until the squash and spaghetti have softened! This is a very comforting and satisfying dish. I can see why it's a traditional winter dish for Chileans. I never would have thought to make a soup with beans and spaghetti in it, but it works. It's pretty simple and cheap to make, and will warm you up when the weather gets cold. Plus it's a lot more flavorful than I thought it would be. What's not to like?
Recipes Used: Porotos con Riendas
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