Name: Grilled Corn Cakes with Salsa (Arepas con Salsa)
Yield: Makes 7 Arepas
Cuisine: Colombia
Ingredients: ½ green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and very finely diced (see Note); ½ medium-size sweet onion, very finely diced (see Note); 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted; 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, or more as needed; Coarse salt (kosher or sea); 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar; 7 arepas, thawed if frozen; ⅓ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro (see Note); 1 clove garlic, minced (see Note); ½ red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and very finely diced (see Note)

Preparation info

Makes
7
Arepas

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Planet Barbecue

By Steven Raichlen

Published 2010

About

Cross polenta with pita bread and you get one of Colombia’s national snacks—a street food, side dish, and culinary treasure: arepas. (Think Mexico’s tortillas on steroids.) During my stay in Colombia, I sampled at least eight different varieties of arepa, some as crisp as soda crackers, others as softly creamy inside as cornmeal mush. The toppings varied, too—salsa, hot sauce, butter, and cheese, for example. There’s even a sweet version doused with butter and cinnamon sugar.