With soup season here, Colombian sancocho de res is an amazing soup filled with vegetables and beef. This is a filling soup thats overflowing with nutrients, protein and flavor.
Why you'll love this Colombian sancocho
- One pot meal
- Perfect for meal prepping
- Freezer friendly
- Great for feeding a crowd
- Healthy soup thats perfect for keeping warm during soup season
What exactly is sancocho?
Sancocho is a hearty meat and vegtable stew. Colombian sancocho is a simple stew that typically consists of bone-in protein and nutrient rich vegetables.
What to serve with this Colombian soup
This Colombian soup is typically served with white rice, Colombian encurtido and avocado.
Ingredients needed for this sancocho de res Colombiano
- Water
- Beef short ribs
- Beef for stew
- Cumin
- Salt
- Corn
- Yuca
- Green plantains
- Red potatoes
- Green onion
- Tomato
- Bijol
- Bay leaves
Instructions needed for this Colombian beef soup
In an 8 quart pot or caldero, Add 1 tablespoon of canola oil and set to medium heat. Add in your beef and sear the meat. Depending on the size of your pot, you may need to sear the beef in batches, keeping in mind that you're not trying to cook the meat just simply give it some color.
Once all the meat as been seared, add all of the meat back into the pot and add the salt, water, bay leaves cumin. Drop the heat to medium-low. As the soup simmers, skim the foamy brown fat off the top of the stew using a small fine mesh strainer or spoon.
After 10 minutes, add in 1 cup of chopped green onion and cup of tomato then drop the heat to low and cover the pot with a lid.
Peel the green plantains and cut them into about 2 inch thick slices. Cut your corn into 2 inches pieces as well.
After 2 hours, add 4 additional cups of water the corn and plantains.
While the soup is cooking, peel your potatoes and and cut into large cubes. Cut your yuca into quarters and be sure to remove the hard center core from the yuca. Leaving the core in imparts a bitter flavor to the soup.
After 30 minutes, add the yuca and potatoes. Cook until the potatoes and yuca are fork tender.
Serve in a large bowl and top with a slice of avocado, encurtido and white rice.
Top tips
It will be very tempting to stir around your soup once you've added in your vegetables. However, the more you stir the more the vegetables will breakdown and change the consistency of the soup. If you want a thicker soup/stew then feel free to mix mix mix.
The order in which you add your root vegetables matters. The plantains and corn take longer to cook. The yuca and potatoes cook quickly and fall apart when they are overcooked.
Variations/Substitutions for this sancocho Colombiano
Don't like beef? Feel free to swap out the beef for pork or chicken.
Want a sancocho trifasico? Instead of using 4 pounds of beef, opt instead for a 1.3 lbs of beef, 1.3 lbs of pork meat and 1.3 lbs of chicken.
If you want a thicker stew? Cook the root vegetables for longer so they can get slightly mushy.
Want a spicy sancocho? Add in some fresh jalapeño or your choice of hot sauce to the soup.
Want more vegetables in your soup? Feel free to add calabaza squash, malanga, boniato or whatever root vegetable you'd like.
Storage for this sancocho recipe
Store your sancocho in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
You can also store this vegetable and beef stew in the freezer. Place it in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw the sancocho in the refrigerator overnight then heat it up on the stove.
Check out these other soup recipes
Sancocho De Res
Ingredients
- 14 cups water separated
- 2 lbs bone-in beef short ribs
- 2 lbs beef stew meat
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 3 tablespoon salt
- 3 ears of corn cut into 2-3 inch chunks
- 1.5 lbs of yuca
- 3 green plantains cut into 2-3 inch chunks
- 1 cup green onion chopped
- 4 red potatoes peeled and cut into cubes peeled and cut into cubes
- 2 roma tomato chopped
- 1 teaspoon of bijol
- 2 bay leaves
Instructions
- In an 8 quart pot or caldero, Add 1 tablespoon of canola oil and set to medium heat. Add in your beef and sear the meat. Depending on the size of your pot, you may need to sear the beef in batches, keeping in mind that you're not trying to cook the meat just simply give it some color.
- Once all the meat as been seared, add all of the meat back into the pot and add the salt, 10 cups water, bay leaves cumin. Drop the heat to medium-low. As the soup simmers, skim the foamy brown fat off the top of the stew using a small fine mesh strainer or spoon.
- After 10 minutes, add in 1 cup of chopped green onion and cup of tomato then drop the heat to low and cover the pot with a lid.
- Peel the green plantains and cut them into about 2 inch thick slices. Cut your corn into 2 inches pieces as well.
- After 2 hours, add 4 additional cups of water the corn and plantains.
- While the soup is cooking, peel your potatoes and and cut into large cubes. Cut your yuca into quarters and be sure to remove the hard center core from the yuca. Leaving the core in imparts a bitter flavor to the soup.
- After 30 minutes, add the yuca and potatoes. Cook until the potatoes and yuca are fork tender.
- Serve in a large bowl and top with a slice of avocado and white rice.
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