Venezuelan Sancocho

 I remember this soup that my friend’s mom made for me in Venezuela many years ago. It was so good that I could still remember what it tasted like so many years later after only having it once. It was a broth based soup with a variety of root vegetables including yucca and a rich cilantro flavour. When I saw yucca being sold in the stores, I finally decided to see if I could figure out what it was and ended up finding this soup called Sancocho that is made with different variations in Puerto Rico, Columbia and many other Latin countries including Venezuela. 

I followed the recipe for Easy Venezuelan Sancocho fromMommy’s Home Cooking. It was just what I was looking for. I’ve made it twice now (the second time without the yucca since it wasn’t available) and both time it was amazing. We get our beef butchered straight from the farmer so I replaced the Hind Shank with a beef bone and stewing beef and it was a good fit. I remembered my friend’s mom had put in a purple root vegetable and we happened to grow Purple potatoes in our garden this past summer so I threw some of those in as well. It was the right decision. 

It took me a while to figure out what the Yautia/ Ocumo was in the recipe. Around here it is called Taro Root and is usually available in the stores. Checking out is always fun because the cashiers never know what it is and can’t find it on their code sheet. The only thing that was different is that this recipe was a bit sweeter than my memory’s soup was and I think it is because of the corn. I don’t think my friend’s mom put corn in that time. One of these days maybe I’ll try it without the corn and see how it is. But all in all, it is delicious and I really love it!

I wish I could have served it with Cassabe crackers like we would have in Venezuela, but I don’t have that so I chose some other Venezuelan favourites. I served the soup with arepas, a typical Venezuelan fried cornmeal pancake. Yum! So simple and easy!

And all of my family loves the Venezuelan tejadas, pan-fried sliced plantain bananas. So yummy!