Ecuadorian inspired potato soup "Locro de papa"

Hello Hive friends.

Recently an empty business near by, has announced that they are opening an Ecuadorian restaurant. It is in the making right now. I am concerned. This location has been home to four different restaurants in the last 5 years. I hope they can pull it off.

When we saw that it was Ecuadorian restaurant, we both questioned, what do they eat in Ecuador. I had never thought of a specific cuisine from Ecuador. I would have guessed, fish, chicken, beef, all tropical fruits and vegetables rice and roots. I would guess that it would be the same as all Latin American country's cuisines.

I wanted to experience something close to what I could eat in Ecuador as a vegan.

I did some recipe research, and found a recipe, that I could veganize using ingredients that I already had.
It reached -10C so going out shopping, is not inspiring.

Fortunately I have an abundance of potatoes. I have mini red potatoes, included in my last post, and yellow potatoes which I use for this recipe.

This soup is my version of a soup known in Ecuador called, "Locro de papa". This is a simple potato and cheese soup. I happened to have a cup of vegan mozzarella cheese left over. I imagine in most cases, the real cheese would be a white queso.

The potatoes were peeled and cubed. They are mashed later so they don't have to be perfect. Just roughly the same size to cook evenly.

I always make sure I have onion and garlic. If my supply runs out, then I run out the door to get more.

I think most people around the world would be lost at least without onion in the kitchen.

Ecuadorian inspired potato soup
1 1/2 pounds potato
200g onion
40g garlic
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp pepper
1/4 cup annatto/achiote oil
1 litre vegetable broth
2 cups soy milk
1 cup vegan cheese
Salt to taste
Cilantro ( only had a couple of sprigs so I added dill and green onion)

I used more garlic than recipes call for. We like garlic.

Most of the recipes do not include chili powder, but I wanted a little kick without adding hot peppers.

An ingredient that is found in this soup, is annatto powder or Achiote. I could only get annatto seeds. I debated whether to grind this into a powder, but I decided to make an oil with it.

Annatto oil
1 1/2 cup oil
3 tablespoons annatto seeds

In my research I found that the ratio between oil and seeds differ between recipes. I just chose an amount and it worked out. To make the oil I added the seeds to the oil and heated it on medium high heat until I got a nice colour and I could smell it. The taste is mild.

Most Canadians, don't use annatto, and many wouldn't know what it is, unless they come from a background that uses this item.

I am sure if this soup would be without annatto,i t would just be any kind of potato soup found anywhere.

After heating the annatto oil in a pot, I added the onions.

When the onions were translucent, I added the garlic.

When the onion and garlic were cooked, I added the potato and spices.

I had barely any cilantro left. All the recipes call for cilantro. I added dill, which is not part of this soup's recipes. I kept most of it for garnishing at the end.

After stirring and braising the potatoes for five minutes, I decided to deglaze with a splash of beer. This was an after thought. I remembered a video with a guy deglazing this particular soup with beer, so in it went.
The recipes vegan or non vegan do not call for this.

Many of the recipes use just water for cooking the potatoes but some use broth.

I always use vegetable broth if I can. I try to make it as often as possible.

This particular broth was a combination of onion, garlic, parsley, peppercorns, bay leaf, carrot, celery, dried mushrooms, banana peppers(not spicy), salt and also tomatoes. They were covered in water, boiled then simmered for an hour or so, then strained.

The broth had been made a few days prior to this. Normally I do not use peppers, tomatoes or mushrooms. I happened to have it available at the time.

When I added the broth, the potatoes were already slightly tender. I had covered it on medium low, without liquid for around 10 minutes.

After thoroughly cooking the potatoes, I mashed them roughly, as it is usually done for this soup.

I suppose a hand blender would have worked well but, most recipes seem to call for mashing the potatoes by hand and leaving chunks.

At the end I stirred in the milk. In most cases it would be heavy cream, as well as cheese. I kept the cheese as a garnish only, as I didn't have much left. It's vegan cheese so it wouldn't behave the same as real cheese that would traditionally stirred in.

I imagine the traditional version would be quite heavy and rich. This was quite light.

I garnished the soup with avocado and vegan cheese. I also added some sweet orange pepper, just because I had to use it. On the side was a broccoli salad with toasted almonds.

To ensure that it had a more south of the border taste I added a generous squeeze of lime.

I feel that there is no real distinction between Ecuadorian and any other Latin American cuisine. I guess I would be set straight by those who actually know. I'm just a dumb Canadian that likes food.

Thanks for dropping by.

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Photos taken with a Nikon D7500