National Dish Colombia: Bandeja Paisa (Recipe)
In this article
Bandeja Paisa is not a dish, it is a plate with nine things on it, and the plate is oval because a round one will not hold them. Beans, rice, pork belly, chorizo, blood sausage, fried egg, plantain, arepa, avocado. It was designed for people doing hard physical work in the Antioquia mountains.
About Bandeja Paisa
Bandeja paisa comes from the paisa region around Medellín, and its size is the point. A full portion runs to well over a thousand calories and defeats most people who have not spent the day on a coffee farm.
Colombia declared it the national dish in 2005, which annoyed the coast and the south considerably, since neither eats it.
Ingredients (serves 1–2)
- 150 g red beans, soaked
- 1 ripe plantain
- 150 g pork belly
- 2 chorizos
- 2 slices of blood sausage
- 100 g ground maize for arepas
- 2 eggs
- 1 ripe avocado
- 200 g cooked white rice
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Oil, for frying
Shopping for the ingredients
Masarepa, precooked maize flour sold as Harina P.A.N. or Areparina, is what arepas are made from. Ordinary cornmeal will not work. Colombian chorizo is fresh rather than cured, so a raw Spanish or Mexican chorizo is closer than the dried kind. Pork belly with the skin on gives proper chicharrón.
Preparing the dish
Soak the beans overnight and cook them ahead, since they take the longest. Everything else is fried in sequence and the timing is the real work: nine components, all wanted hot at once. Cook the beans and rice first, then work through the fried items, keeping them warm in a low oven.
Step-by-step instructions
- Cook the soaked beans until tender, then season with salt and pepper.
- Fry the sliced plantain in hot oil until caramelised.
- Prepare the arepas according to the packet instructions.
- Fry the pork belly until crisp, then set it aside.
- Fry the chorizos and blood sausage until browned.
- Fry the eggs to your liking, a sunny-side-up or lightly fried egg works best.
- Now it is time to assemble the bandeja paisa: place a little rice on the plate, then the beans, plantain, arepas, pork belly, the sausages, the egg and finally the slices of avocado.
Gluten-free / lactose-free version
Almost everything here is naturally gluten-free, including the arepa, which is maize. The sausages are the risk: check both chorizo and blood sausage, which often contain rusk. There is no dairy on the plate.
Tips for vegans and vegetarians
Bandeja paisa is built around pork. What survives is substantial: beans, rice, arepa, plantain and avocado make a genuinely good plate on their own, and Colombians eat exactly that combination as frijoles con arroz. Add a fried egg for the vegetarian version.
More tips and tricks
Score the pork skin and start it in a cold dry pan, which renders the fat slowly and gives crisp chicharrón rather than tough leather. Fry the plantain when it is properly ripe, skin nearly black, or it stays starchy. And warm the plate; nine components lose heat fast on cold china.
Adapting the recipe to your taste
Hogao, the Colombian tomato and spring onion sauce, goes over the beans in most households. Ground beef in place of one of the sausages is common. Half portions exist and there is no shame in ordering one.
Ingredient substitutions
Any raw chorizo works. Black pudding replaces morcilla. Tinned red beans cut hours off the preparation and the difference is smaller than purists claim.
Drink pairing ideas
Cold Aguila or Club Colombia lager is what it is drunk with. Fresh lulo juice is the local soft option. Coffee afterwards, obviously, given where the dish comes from.
Serving and presentation ideas
Use the largest oval platter you own and arrange the components separately rather than piling them. The avocado goes on last so it does not warm. Nobody finishes it and that is expected.
A bit of history
The plate grew out of fiambre, the wrapped bundle of food that mountain workers carried, and only became a single arranged dish in the twentieth century as restaurants formalised it. Its promotion to national dish was a government decision rather than a popular one. It anchors Colombian cuisine in the paisa region at least.
More recipe ideas
Summary: Bandeja Paisa
Bandeja paisa is nine components on one oval plate: beans, rice, pork, sausages, egg, plantain, arepa and avocado. Cook the beans ahead, render the pork slowly, and warm the plate.
