antipinkkitten Ah, Peru. This isn’t the first time we’ve ventured here during our journey around the world, and it won’t be the last. This time, we are focusing on those Autumn foods that make you long for early darkness, warm blankets and fires – And Baked Potatoes are the easiest source.
Now, this isn’t the traditional Baked Potato you may be thinking of. Instead of a russet, we are using sweet potatoes, and our fillings are region specific: Tomatoes, Lima Beans, Aji Panca Paste and Corn.
Corn in South America
Here is where we play the game “How did that get here?”. This week, we’re discussing corn. Corn is native to Central American. It’s also is a staple crop for most of the Americas, including South America. The easiest answer on how it got to where it was going, was simply trade after domestication of the crop 9000 B.P. The other way is a complicated manner “multiple waves of human-mediated dispersal”, that led to partial domestication of the grain.
What does that mean?
Well, how to do birds and other animals share ingredients from far away? Humans do the exact same thing and we unintentionally brought our “dispersal” with us around the Americas, allowing the crop to grow wildly.
Peruvian Baked Potato
Ingredients
- 4 Sweet Potatoes
- 1 – 350g can of lima beans
- 2 medium tomatoes, diced
- 1 – 150g can of corn
- 1 tbsp of Aji Panca Paste
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Take sweet potatoes and wash/pat dry. Then, pierce with fork in multiple spots on the potatoes. Lay on cookie sheet, uncovered.
- Cook for 45-50 minutes. Prick sweet potato and if the fork goes in easily, it should be fully cooked.
- While potatoes are in the oven, take lima beans, diced tomatoes and corn and mix together. Add Aji Panca Paste, coating the mixture.
- Once the sweet potato is done cooking, slice it lengthwise. Add the bean mixture to fill the inside of these potatoes. Sprinkle with sea salt for taste.
Notes
Try to use sweet potatoes around the same size, and with deep enough pricks. This method had mine fully cooked, but Brad’s was a little bit tough.
Reviews
Meghan’s Review
4 stars out of 5
I really enjoyed this recipe. It was light while also being filling and was so easy to make. It felt like something I could easily eat for a late evening quick meal or mid-day snack. Overall, I would make this recipe again, but I’d probably use a spicer pepper paste.
Brad’s Review
3 stars out of 5
Bake the potato longer if you want to make this. I am not entirely sure how it happened, but half of the sweet potato managed to get baked while the other half didn’t. And I know what you are thinking, the top was baked and the bottom wasn’t. But it was more like one tip of the sweet potato was baked and the other wasn’t. Other than for that, I maybe misremembering Lima beans, but I remember them being smaller, but who knows. The meal itself was ok, I feel like there were too many flavours competing for my tounge. The sweetness from the sweet potato and corn, the bitterness of the tomatoes and the earthy taste of the Lima beans. I am not sure I would use all of the ingredients in the same dish again, but maybe just the sweet potato with corn and chili. I give it a 3 out of 5 oversized Lima beans.
