ClosePhoto: Leigh BeischI’ve been enamored of soups since I was a child, when I learned to cook in my grandmother’s kitchen. My grandmother, Mita (short for mamita), lived in a grand estate on the outskirts of Guatemala City. I was a shy child, and I first discovered her kitchen while looking for the perfect hiding place from the large parties that filled her home on weekends.Soon, within those stucco-and-tile walls, I learned to make pastry, to shell beans and to cook with my senses—adding a little bit of this or that until a dish tasted “just right.” Mita taught me the foundation of soup—to make broth from scratch—and then began to teach me about different cultures of the world through food. I learned to make comforting, rice-studded stews, called asopaos, from her travels in Cuba; delicate caldos—soups with perfectly clear broths and chunks of meat and potatoes—that she had learned to make while she lived in Mexico; and rich cream-based soups called cremas, enjoyed during her many trips to South America.Chris CharlesWhen my children were little, our family lived in Toronto, Canada, and I began to teach them about the world through food, just as Mita had taught me. Every weekend, we traveled “virtually” to a different country: we’d listen to the music, watch a movie and, of course, eat the food, which always included soup. When our tours took us to Latin America, we prepared hearty, potato-based locros from Ecuador and my favorite consommé with floating crêpes that I grew up eating in Guatemala. We cooked Brazil’s moqueca, a seafood stew rich with coconut milk and red palm oil, and taught our girls the importance of African culinary influences in our foodways. They learned to discern differ-ent flavor bases, or sofritos, like the tomato-based one used to flavor sopa de fideos in Mexico. We exposed them to indigenous traditions and ingredients through dishes like vori vori, a corn-dumpling soup from Paraguay. One bowl at a time, my daughters expanded their understanding of the world and of our Latin American heritage.As you cook the recipes gathered here and taste these soups, I hope they also offer you a little escape to Latin America, if only for a moment.Vori Vori (Corn-Dumpling Soup)Leigh BeischGet the recipeMoqueca (Seafood & Coconut Chowder)Leigh BeischGet the recipeSopa de Fideos (Chicken Noodle Soup with Sofrito)Leigh BeischGet the recipeSopa de Albóndigas (Honduran-Style Meatball Soup)Leigh BeischGet the recipeLocro de Papas (Potato & Peppers Soup)Leigh BeischGet the recipeSANDRA GUTIERREZis the author ofThe New Southern-Latino Table,Latin American Street Food, andEmpanadas: The Hand-Held Pies of Latin America.This article originally appeared in the January/February issue ofEatingWellmagazine.Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!Tell us why!OtherSubmit
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Photo: Leigh Beisch
I’ve been enamored of soups since I was a child, when I learned to cook in my grandmother’s kitchen. My grandmother, Mita (short for mamita), lived in a grand estate on the outskirts of Guatemala City. I was a shy child, and I first discovered her kitchen while looking for the perfect hiding place from the large parties that filled her home on weekends.Soon, within those stucco-and-tile walls, I learned to make pastry, to shell beans and to cook with my senses—adding a little bit of this or that until a dish tasted “just right.” Mita taught me the foundation of soup—to make broth from scratch—and then began to teach me about different cultures of the world through food. I learned to make comforting, rice-studded stews, called asopaos, from her travels in Cuba; delicate caldos—soups with perfectly clear broths and chunks of meat and potatoes—that she had learned to make while she lived in Mexico; and rich cream-based soups called cremas, enjoyed during her many trips to South America.Chris CharlesWhen my children were little, our family lived in Toronto, Canada, and I began to teach them about the world through food, just as Mita had taught me. Every weekend, we traveled “virtually” to a different country: we’d listen to the music, watch a movie and, of course, eat the food, which always included soup. When our tours took us to Latin America, we prepared hearty, potato-based locros from Ecuador and my favorite consommé with floating crêpes that I grew up eating in Guatemala. We cooked Brazil’s moqueca, a seafood stew rich with coconut milk and red palm oil, and taught our girls the importance of African culinary influences in our foodways. They learned to discern differ-ent flavor bases, or sofritos, like the tomato-based one used to flavor sopa de fideos in Mexico. We exposed them to indigenous traditions and ingredients through dishes like vori vori, a corn-dumpling soup from Paraguay. One bowl at a time, my daughters expanded their understanding of the world and of our Latin American heritage.As you cook the recipes gathered here and taste these soups, I hope they also offer you a little escape to Latin America, if only for a moment.Vori Vori (Corn-Dumpling Soup)Leigh BeischGet the recipeMoqueca (Seafood & Coconut Chowder)Leigh BeischGet the recipeSopa de Fideos (Chicken Noodle Soup with Sofrito)Leigh BeischGet the recipeSopa de Albóndigas (Honduran-Style Meatball Soup)Leigh BeischGet the recipeLocro de Papas (Potato & Peppers Soup)Leigh BeischGet the recipeSANDRA GUTIERREZis the author ofThe New Southern-Latino Table,Latin American Street Food, andEmpanadas: The Hand-Held Pies of Latin America.This article originally appeared in the January/February issue ofEatingWellmagazine.Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!Tell us why!OtherSubmit
I’ve been enamored of soups since I was a child, when I learned to cook in my grandmother’s kitchen. My grandmother, Mita (short for mamita), lived in a grand estate on the outskirts of Guatemala City. I was a shy child, and I first discovered her kitchen while looking for the perfect hiding place from the large parties that filled her home on weekends.Soon, within those stucco-and-tile walls, I learned to make pastry, to shell beans and to cook with my senses—adding a little bit of this or that until a dish tasted “just right.” Mita taught me the foundation of soup—to make broth from scratch—and then began to teach me about different cultures of the world through food. I learned to make comforting, rice-studded stews, called asopaos, from her travels in Cuba; delicate caldos—soups with perfectly clear broths and chunks of meat and potatoes—that she had learned to make while she lived in Mexico; and rich cream-based soups called cremas, enjoyed during her many trips to South America.Chris CharlesWhen my children were little, our family lived in Toronto, Canada, and I began to teach them about the world through food, just as Mita had taught me. Every weekend, we traveled “virtually” to a different country: we’d listen to the music, watch a movie and, of course, eat the food, which always included soup. When our tours took us to Latin America, we prepared hearty, potato-based locros from Ecuador and my favorite consommé with floating crêpes that I grew up eating in Guatemala. We cooked Brazil’s moqueca, a seafood stew rich with coconut milk and red palm oil, and taught our girls the importance of African culinary influences in our foodways. They learned to discern differ-ent flavor bases, or sofritos, like the tomato-based one used to flavor sopa de fideos in Mexico. We exposed them to indigenous traditions and ingredients through dishes like vori vori, a corn-dumpling soup from Paraguay. One bowl at a time, my daughters expanded their understanding of the world and of our Latin American heritage.As you cook the recipes gathered here and taste these soups, I hope they also offer you a little escape to Latin America, if only for a moment.
I’ve been enamored of soups since I was a child, when I learned to cook in my grandmother’s kitchen. My grandmother, Mita (short for mamita), lived in a grand estate on the outskirts of Guatemala City. I was a shy child, and I first discovered her kitchen while looking for the perfect hiding place from the large parties that filled her home on weekends.
Soon, within those stucco-and-tile walls, I learned to make pastry, to shell beans and to cook with my senses—adding a little bit of this or that until a dish tasted “just right.” Mita taught me the foundation of soup—to make broth from scratch—and then began to teach me about different cultures of the world through food. I learned to make comforting, rice-studded stews, called asopaos, from her travels in Cuba; delicate caldos—soups with perfectly clear broths and chunks of meat and potatoes—that she had learned to make while she lived in Mexico; and rich cream-based soups called cremas, enjoyed during her many trips to South America.
Chris Charles
When my children were little, our family lived in Toronto, Canada, and I began to teach them about the world through food, just as Mita had taught me. Every weekend, we traveled “virtually” to a different country: we’d listen to the music, watch a movie and, of course, eat the food, which always included soup. When our tours took us to Latin America, we prepared hearty, potato-based locros from Ecuador and my favorite consommé with floating crêpes that I grew up eating in Guatemala. We cooked Brazil’s moqueca, a seafood stew rich with coconut milk and red palm oil, and taught our girls the importance of African culinary influences in our foodways. They learned to discern differ-ent flavor bases, or sofritos, like the tomato-based one used to flavor sopa de fideos in Mexico. We exposed them to indigenous traditions and ingredients through dishes like vori vori, a corn-dumpling soup from Paraguay. One bowl at a time, my daughters expanded their understanding of the world and of our Latin American heritage.
As you cook the recipes gathered here and taste these soups, I hope they also offer you a little escape to Latin America, if only for a moment.
Vori Vori (Corn-Dumpling Soup)Leigh BeischGet the recipeMoqueca (Seafood & Coconut Chowder)Leigh BeischGet the recipeSopa de Fideos (Chicken Noodle Soup with Sofrito)Leigh BeischGet the recipeSopa de Albóndigas (Honduran-Style Meatball Soup)Leigh BeischGet the recipeLocro de Papas (Potato & Peppers Soup)Leigh BeischGet the recipe
Vori Vori (Corn-Dumpling Soup)Leigh BeischGet the recipe
Vori Vori (Corn-Dumpling Soup)
Leigh Beisch
Get the recipe
Moqueca (Seafood & Coconut Chowder)Leigh BeischGet the recipe
Moqueca (Seafood & Coconut Chowder)
Sopa de Fideos (Chicken Noodle Soup with Sofrito)Leigh BeischGet the recipe
Sopa de Fideos (Chicken Noodle Soup with Sofrito)
Sopa de Albóndigas (Honduran-Style Meatball Soup)Leigh BeischGet the recipe
Sopa de Albóndigas (Honduran-Style Meatball Soup)
Locro de Papas (Potato & Peppers Soup)Leigh BeischGet the recipe
Locro de Papas (Potato & Peppers Soup)
SANDRA GUTIERREZis the author ofThe New Southern-Latino Table,Latin American Street Food, andEmpanadas: The Hand-Held Pies of Latin America.This article originally appeared in the January/February issue ofEatingWellmagazine.
SANDRA GUTIERREZis the author ofThe New Southern-Latino Table,Latin American Street Food, andEmpanadas: The Hand-Held Pies of Latin America.
This article originally appeared in the January/February issue ofEatingWellmagazine.
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