Arepas are Colombia’s daily bread: golden corn cakes with crisp griddled shells and soft, steamy centres, eaten at breakfast, lunch and midnight. Split and stuffed with melting cheese, or piled with avocado and hogao, they are three-ingredient cooking that delivers far beyond its maths.
What you need
- Masarepa: precooked white or yellow corn flour, the non-negotiable base (not cornmeal, not masa harina)
- Warm water and salt
- Butter for the griddle, and grated melting cheese, mozzarella stands in for queso costeño
The method
- Mix masarepa, salt and warm water into a soft dough: rest five minutes.
- Shape palm-size discs about 1cm thick, smoothing cracked edges with wet fingers.
- Griddle in a little butter over medium heat, five minutes a side, until golden and speckled.
- For arepas de queso: split while hot, stuff with cheese, and return to the pan until molten.
Hogao, the essential sauce
Hogao is Colombia’s tomato-scallion sofrito: tomatoes and scallions cooked down slowly in oil with garlic and cumin until jammy. Spooned warm over a split arepa, ideally with avocado and a fried egg, it turns the corn cake into a complete meal. Make double: it keeps a week and improves everything from rice to eggs.
A formula, not a recipe
Across Colombia and Venezuela arepas carry everything: shredded beef, black beans, chicken and avocado, or nothing but butter and salt. The cakes freeze beautifully raw or cooked, reheating on the griddle in minutes, which makes a batch of arepas the most useful thing a corn-loving kitchen can bank. Master the dough once and breakfast is solved indefinitely.
Save these golden cakes, and griddle through more world recipes on Plumeo. Daily inspiration at @Plumeoblog.