Fanesca or Ecuadorian Easter soup
User Reviews
4.9
228 reviews
Excellent
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Prep Time
2 hrs
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Cook Time
2 hrs
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Additional Time
1 d
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Total Time
3 hrs 40 mins
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Servings
20 portions
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Course
Main Course, Soup
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Cuisine
South American, Ecuadorian
Fanesca or Ecuadorian Easter soup
Report
Fanesca is a rich Ecuadorian Easter soup featuring a mix of soaked salt cod, a variety of cooked beans, tender squashes, and starchy vegetables all blended into a thick, creamy base enriched with milk, cream, and cheese. This hearty dish celebrates traditional ingredients by combining pureed vegetables with whole beans and seasoned cod, delivering a complex texture and balanced salty and savory flavors. It serves as a festive centerpiece for Easter gatherings.
Description
The recipe begins with desalting salt cod over 24 to 48 hours with frequent water changes, then cutting it into medium pieces. Squashes such as zucchini and butternut or kabocha squash are cooked separately until very tender, and shredded cabbage is briefly boiled. These vegetables along with cooked rice are blended into a thick puree to form the soup’s base.
The cooking liquid includes milk and optionally reserved vegetable broth. The cod is gently cooked in this liquid, blending its salty flavor. A rich combination of cooked beans and fava beans is added, along with seasonings like cumin, oregano, and black pepper. Roasted peanuts, heavy cream, cream cheese, and queso fresco introduce creaminess and body.
Fanesca is traditionally served with sliced hard-boiled eggs, fried ripe plantains, white onion curtido, empanadas de viento, aji criollo hot sauce, fresh cheese slices, avocado, and hot peppers, enriching the experience with different textures and complementary flavors.
This recipe can serve a large group and often includes additional cooked legumes like chickpeas or lentils depending on availability.
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Ingredients
- 2 lbs salt cod bacalao seco or dried
- 6 cups squash zucchini, about 2 ½ lbs, diced, sambo or fresh variety
- 6 cups squash about a small sized squash butternut squash or a large kabocha squash, diced, zapallo variety
- 2 cups cabbage shredded
- 4 cups fava beans cooked and peeled
- 4 cups corn kernel cooked
- 3 cups green peas cooked
- 2 cups lima beans cooked
- 2 cups cannellini beans alubias or cannellini, cooked
- 2 cups lupini beans peeled, chochos or lupini
- 2 cups rice cooked in abundant water and very tender, cooked
- 8 tbs butter
- 1 tsp annatto powder achiote or annatto
- 1 cup white onion diced
- 1 cup red onion diced
- 10 garlic crushed, cloves
- 1 tbs ground cumin
- 1 tbs oregano dry
- 1 tsp black pepper ground
- 2 cups peanuts roasted
- 10-12 cups milk you can also use less milk and replace it with the broth where the veggies were cooked for a lighter version
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 8-12 oz cream cheese adjust to taste
- 1 cup queso fresco can use feta cheese as a replacement, crumbled
- ½ cilantro finely chopped, about 6 tablespoons, or parsley, bunch
- salt to taste
Other additional ingredients (optional and added if you like them or have them available):
- chickpeas mellocos (an Andean small tuber), lentils, hominy corn, other types of beans - all ingredients should be previously cooked, garbanzos or chickpeas
Serve with:
- egg hardboiled, sliced
- plantains fried, ripe
- Empanadas de viento or Ecuadorian fried cheese empanadas
- hot peppers sliced
- aji criollo hot sauce
- white onion curtido style, marinated in lime juice
- fresh cheese queso fresco or fresh, sliced
- avocado slices
Instructions
- Soak the salt cod in water for 24 hours (or even up to 48 hours if you want a very mild salt cod flavor), changing the water every 6-8 hours. Each time the water should be less and less salty, at the end cut the cod into medium sized pieces (if it doesn’t come already cut).
- Cook the diced butternut squash (or kabocha) and fresh squash/zucchini separately, with a just enough water to cover them, cook until they are very tender. Save the water from cooking the squash and other veggies if you would like to use it (in place or in addition to the milk in the recipe)
- Boil the shredded cabbage with a small amount of water for about 3 minutes.
- In a food processor or blender, add the cooked squashes, the cooked rice, and the cooked cabbage. Blend until you have a thick puree, you can add some of veggie broth or water from cooking them, if it’s very thick.
- In a sauce pan, bring 6 cups of milk to boil, add the pieces of soaked and desalted cod, and cook on a low/medium boil for about 8-10 minutes.
- Blend the roasted peanuts with 2 cups of milk, save until ready to add to the soup.
- To begin cooking the soup, in a large stock pot or soup pot, heat the butter over medium heat to make a refrito or base for the soup. Add the onions, garlic, achiote, cumin, oregano and pepper and cook until the onions are tender, about 5 minutes.
- Add the squash, rice and cabbage puree and mix well.
- Add 2 to 4 cups of milk and mix well.
- Add the fava beans, corn, green peas, lima beans and cannellini beans (and any of the other optional ingredients: cooked lentils, garbanzos, mellocos, etc)
- Mix well and let simmer for about 15 minutes, stir frequently to avoid the ingredients from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Add the milk where you cooked the cod to soup. You can also add all the cod, lightly shredded (for a full flavor cod fanesca) or just a small amount for a more mild fanesca. If just adding a little bit of the cod, save the rest for later, then sauté it and serve a little with each bowl of soup.
- At this point you want to taste the soup and add salt if needed, how much you need will depend on the whether you add the salt cod to the soup or not (as well as how well you soaked and rinsed the cod). Keep in mind that you will be adding queso fresco (or feta) at the end so don’t oversalt the soup.
- Add the blended milk and peanut mix to the fanesca soup, cook for another 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
- About 5 to 10 minutes before serving, add the chochos or lupini beans, the cream and the cheeses, stir to help the cheeses dissolve.
- Add the chopped cilantro or parsley and stir well. Taste and add additional salt and pepper if needed.
- Serve the fanesca with the shredded or small pieces of fried salt cod (unless they were already added to the soup), hardboiled egg slices, lime marinated white onions, fried ripe plantains, slices of queso fresco, fried cheese empanadas, avocado slices or cubes, and Ecuadorian hot sauce or slices of hot peppers. These can be added on top of the soup or on the side.
Notes
- Soak salt cod for 24 to 48 hours with frequent water changes to reduce saltiness before cooking.
- Serve with traditional accompaniments such as hard-boiled eggs, fried plantains, empanadas de viento, fresh cheese, and aji criollo hot sauce.
- The recipe portions shown serve approximately 10 to 12 people, suitable for large family gatherings.
Genuine Reviews
User Reviews
Overall Rating
4.9
228 reviews
Excellent
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