Vegetarian Arepas With Avocados and Plantains

Yahoo Food

For those nights when you get home hungry, stressed, and impatient, Hangry is here to help. Each week, Kendra Vaculin will share quick, exciting meals that anyone can make — whether you’re in your first apartment or feeding a hangry family.

Today: Classic Venezuelan street food that’s sweet, savory, filling, and damn near perfect.



What’s the perfect food? Not your favorite food, but the most complete — well-rounded or well-angled or very specifically satisfying in a way that makes it perfect. Do you know this off the top of your head? Do you have a gut reaction? Probably trust your gut, as that’s the place you’re feeding.

I can’t help but think of blueberry pancakes with bacon on the side whenever this query arises. To be perfect, to me, means sweet and salty, a carby base plus something I could get at the farmers market. I want substance and a range of textures. I like cooking that is pretty easy. I like eating that is a little messy, like broken berries bleeding purple across your plate and chin and tablecloth.

Arepas do this for me too. I am a late adopter of the Venezuelan staple, having been turned on to their corny stuffed magic only within the last two years, but these bad boys wasted no time becoming a major favorite. In restaurants I nearly always go the meat route — shredded pork in a corn cake? Are you joking me? — but at home, a vegetarian version is a breeze to bring together. The sweet of the plantain plus the heartiness of the beans plus the cool kick of guacamole equals damn close to perfect. All of that piled on top of what is basically a pancake, and I’m sorry, but game over.

Vegetarian Arepas with Avocado and Plantains

Makes 6 to 8 arepas

For the arepas:

2 cups masarepa, P.A.N. harina blanca, or any other pre-cooked cornmeal or corn flour
2 1/2 cups warm water
Pinch of salt
Vegetable oil for frying

For the filling:

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons cumin
2 plantains, cut into half width-wise and then into 1⁄4 inch strips
More vegetable oil
1 ripe avocado, chopped
1 small onion, diced (I like yellow but you do you)
1 jalepeño, seeded, cored and finely diced
1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper

  1. Mix arepa ingredients until combined. Allow to sit for at least 15 minutes to incorporate.

  2. While dough is resting, make the plantains, beans, and guacamole. Heat a very small layer of oil in a large pan over medium heat. Fry the plantains, sprinkling one side with a little salt, until golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels.

  3. Dump out all but a tiny bit of the frying oil. Mix in the beans, cumin, garlic, and salt and pepper, and heat through. Then remove mixture from pan.

  4. Mash guacamole ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. Alternatively, blend them together in a blender, substituting 2 tablespoons white vinegar for the lime juice, adding another handful of cilantro and 2 tablespoons of olive oil at the end. This is more guasacaca style than guacamole, more runny than dollop-y. What do you feel like? Either way it’s still avocado sauce — I mean come on, you’re going to propose marriage to it.

  5. Heat oil over medium in the same large pan — not a ton of oil, this isn’t a deep or even a shallow fry — enough to just wet the bottom of the pan. I used a paper towel to achieve this. Scoop out small handfuls of dough, patting them together to form 1/4- to 1/2-inch thick disks, with no cracks or creases. Fit as many as you can in the pan, and cook until the bottoms start to change color. Flip, and cook on the other side until slightly golden, and a bit springy to the touch.

  6. Slice the arepa open from the side to stuff it, or lay it down on a plate to pile things on top of if you’re lazy or uncoordinated. Fill (or top) with a scoop of black beans, a few strips (or rounds) of fried plantain, and a bunch of sauce. Consider moving to Venezuela and never coming back.

Photos by Mark Weinberg