Sopa de Quinchoncho

The pigeon pea soup of western Venezuela: dried quinchonchos cooked soft with pork ribs, green plantain, and pumpkin, coloured with onoto, and finished with coriander

Origin: Lara, Falcón & Western Venezuela

From the journey of Pigeon Pea.

Venezuela has its own name for the pigeon pea, quinchoncho, and its own country for it: the states of the centre-west and the north-west, above all Lara, Falcón, Yaracuy, and the Andean state of Trujillo, where the town of Boconó is often credited with the soup. There the pale, cream-coloured dried peas are cooked for hours into a thick soup with pork ribs or dried meat, green plantain, pumpkin, and root vegetables, seasoned with a sofrito of onion, sweet pepper, garlic, and cumin, and coloured red-gold with onoto, the Venezuelan name for annatto. In Falcón, sopa de quinchoncho is served with a peeled arepa and crumbled goat's cheese from the dry country around Coro, and in Yaracuy the peas even go into the Christmas hallacas. It is a dish of the home rather than the restaurant.

Ingredients

Soup

  • 400 g dried pigeon peas (quinchonchos), soaked overnight
  • 500 g pork ribs, cut into pieces
  • 2.5 litres water
  • 1 green plantain, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 300 g pumpkin (auyama), peeled and cut into chunks
  • 250 g yam or potato, peeled and cut into chunks

Sofrito

  • 2 tbsp oil coloured with onoto (heat 2 tbsp oil with 1 tbsp annatto seeds and strain)
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 sweet pepper, finely chopped
  • 3 spring onions, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 0.5 tsp ground cumin

To Finish

  • 3 tbsp chopped coriander
  • Salt and black pepper

To Serve

  • Arepas and crumbled white goat's cheese, to serve

Method

  1. Drain the quinchonchos and put them in a large pot with the ribs and water. Bring to the boil, skim, and simmer for 1 to 1½ hours, until the peas are soft. (A pressure cooker takes about 35 minutes.)
  2. Heat the onoto oil and cook the onion, sweet pepper, spring onion, garlic, and cumin gently for 10 minutes, until soft.
  3. Add the sofrito, plantain, pumpkin, and yam to the pot and simmer for 30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and the pumpkin has partly dissolved to thicken the soup.
  4. Season with salt and pepper, stir in the coriander, and serve hot with arepas and goat's cheese.

Notes

Dried beef or smoked pork can replace the ribs. Some cooks mash a ladleful of the peas against the side of the pot to make the soup thicker.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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