Arepas de Choclo with Carnitas

Arepas. What are they? Why are they so good? And more importantly, why aren’t they already a mainstay of your diet.

Let’s dissect.

What are Arepas? They are dish that predates colonization in South America and the dish has its roots in Colombia and Venezuela. Arepas are made from ground cornmeal and water typically, the variety that I used in this dish are made with sugar and raw kernels as well to give it a delicious almost cornbread like flavor. The best way to describe the consistency of an Arepa is to think of it as a much thicker tortilla, and the Arepa de Choclo variety has a sweet almost cornbread like flavor. They’re heavenly. They’re often eaten at breakfast but you can really eat them for any meal.

Why are Arepas so good? Because they are satisfying, insanely simple, and the perfect vessel for whatever flavor you want to create. Cheese? Perfect. Meat? Even better. Veggies? You just went to flavortown.

Often times people like to stuff Arepas and fill them with cheese and meat, or they will use it as a pseudo sandwich bread. Arepas are essential in Venezuelan cuisine, and many value it’s importance based on its pre-colonization roots.

So why aren’t these delicious things a part of your diet? Because for some reason South American food hasn’t yet taken over the U.S., but slowly slowly we’re seeing a rise in amazing South American cuisine. In Baltimore, Alma Cocina serves up Arepas and it’s been a very popular location for local diners.

Arepas are fairly simple to make, but you don’t always have time to go through the effort of making them. Many international grocery stores sell them pre-made, Lotte in Howard County sells them near their dairy section. It was there where I stumbled upon their Arepas de Choclo which are sweet and made with sweet corn, let’s just say it was love at first BITE. I prefer these over the standard Arepas everyday of the week, it’s heavenly.

The dish I’ve created is insanely easy to make, you can make the arepas from scratch, but I just use pre-made ones so it becomes a very easy process.

Ingredients (these are really suggestions, this whole thing is completely flexible)

Arepas de Choclo

There are plenty of recipes online if you want to make them from scratch.

Pulled Pork or Carnitas

Cheese

Method

Step 1- Set up your fixin’s.

Step 2- Heat up your arepas, I like to heat them up with a little bit of warm butter in a pan about 45 seconds a side, be careful to not burn the arepas as the sugar in the dough is quick to burn. You can also opt to bake them on a cookie sheet.

Step 3- Assemble your meal and enjoy!