More than vegetarian hallacas, today’s recipe is for my Venezuelan vegetarian hallaca stew. As its name indicates, this hallaca stew or filling is prepared exclusively with vegetables. And the most important thing is that it tastes like the traditional hallacas!
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What are hallacas?
Hallacas are the typical Venezuelan dish for the holiday season. We associate hallacas with the Christmas season. They are our main dish for Christmas Eve, and we eat them until late December, usually New Year’s Eve.
Making hallacas is a cherished family tradition; every family has its recipe. The whole family participates in the making of hallacas. Tasks are assigned to family members, and an assembly line is created to produce large quantities.
Traditional Venezuelan hallacas are made with bright orange and yellow corn dough filled with a robust stew originally made with pork. They are wrapped in plantain leaves, tightened with cotton twine, and cooked in water with salt.
Despite that, they differ from Mexican tamales and shouldn’t be called Venezuelan tamales or traditional Venezuelan tamales because there is no such thing in Venezuela. Here, you’ll find more on the differences between Venezuelan hallacas and Mexican tamales.
Why you will love this recipe
Firstly, this recipe produces a robust, delicious vegetarian stew that tastes like hallaca. That is the most important. This recipe is for you if you are a vegetarian or don’t want to eat red or white meats.
I don’t call this vegan hallaca stew because the Worcestershire sauce I use as part of the condiments has anchovies (more about this at the end of this post.)
In addition to the fact that this stew is prepared entirely with veggies, the cooking method guarantees an unmatched texture. So your vegetarian hallacas will be as delicious or more delicious than a traditional hallaca. I promise they have nothing to envy the others and that you will want to repeat this recipe year after year.
The story of a stew
It occurred to me to make this stew for the first time seven years ago. I did it because my dear Marisela González-Servat, whose husband is a vegetarian, asked me to. Mari wanted to offer a Venezuelan Christmas dinner without animal protein. So I obliged her, and thus, my vegetarian hallacas were born.
The hallacas were a success. For the same reason, the following year, I incorporated them into the menu of hallacas that, for eight years now, I have been making to order.
Here in Miami, my “hallaca season” begins just as the Jewish celebration of Yom Kippur ends. It extends until the end of the year, passing through Thanksgiving and Christmas. My hallacas for sale include the following stews besides the vegetarian: pork, beef, chicken, and any combination in between. I also make fish hallacas.
Ingredients for the Vegetarian Hallaca Stew
To make this vegetarian stew for hallacas, you will need the following ingredients:
- Vegetable shortening
- Onions
- Green onion (scallion)
- Garlic
- Red bell pepper
- Ají dulce (unique Venezuelan sweet peppers)
- Carrots
- Butternut Squash
- Zucchini
- Summer squash
- Tomatoes
- Sweet corn kernels
- Worcestershire sauce
- Red wine vinegar
- Pickles in mustard
- Muscat-type cooking wine
- Papelón (panela, piloncillo or rapadura)
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Ground cumin
- Tomato paste
In addition, you will need Harina P.A.N. (aka arepa flour) with vegetable shortening colored with annatto seeds, papelón syrup, and red pepper juice to make the hallaca dough.
You will also need piquillo pepper stuffed manzanilla olives, slivered almonds, raisins, and non-pareil capers to “decorate” the hallacas when assembling them.
Finally, you will require plantain leaves and pabilo, a thin kitchen twine usually bought at Latino grocery stores, to tighten the hallacas once wrapped. You can also get regular kitchen twine (but I think that is too thick.)
How do I make Vegetarian Hallaca Stew?
I make my vegetarian stew with an onion, garlic, green onions, leeks, red bell peppers, and ají duce sofrito. I add the different vegetables, cut into small pieces,to this sofrito progressively and according to their consistency.
First are the carrots. Then, the butternut squash, zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, and corn kernels. You may also add sweet potatoes and chayote squash. Adding the veggies this way guarantees they are all cooked but firm. Eating the hallaca makes you feel that each vegetable is cooked al dente.
Thus, I am first adding the Worcestershire sauce my grandmother Ligia used so much. Then, the sweet Muscat-type wine, the red wine vinegar, and the mustard pickle.
I prepare this pickle with my pickled jalapeno peppers. And finally, I add the papelón, cumin, pepper, and coarse sea salt.
All these ingredients together guarantee that what would otherwise be a ratatouille is a vegetarian stew of hallacas, which tastes like hallaca.
Like my other hallaca stews, this is a savory stew. But it has the sweet touch that the papelón (piloncillo, rapadura) gives it, distinguishing the Caracas cuisine. It also has the right amount of acidity that the wine, vinegar, and pickles provide.
How do I make Vegetarian Hallacas?
Once all the vegetables are in the pot, they are seasoned like any hallaca stew (or how I season my pork, beef, and chicken stews for my Caracas-style gourmet hallacas).
Once the stew has been cooked, I cover the pot with a clean linen or cotton towel and let it rest overnight at room temperature. This is done so that the flavors merge. And also so that the stew sets without adding arepa flour to thicken it.
Add the tomato paste and stir the following day, and your stew is ready to fill some succulent vegetarian hallacas.
The rest of the process, I summarize it in a few basic steps:
- Prepare (cut, classify, and clean the banana or plantain leaves with a damp cloth.)
- Make the flavorful dough and prepare the dough balls.
- Roll each dough ball out in the plantain leaf base.
- Fill the center of the dough with the stew and garnishes, and wrap and tighten the hallacas.
- Cook the hallacas in boiling water with salt.
What “adornos” do vegetarian hallacas have?
Since my hallacas are Caracas-style, these are the garnishes or toppings (we call them adornos) I put on them:
- Two manzanilla olives stuffed with piquillo pepper.
- About 10-12 baby capers
- About 20 raisins
- Blanched almond sticks.
How do I cook hallacas?
Once the hallacas are made and wrapped in plantain leaves, they are cooked in boiling salted water for about 20 minutes. The cooking time, although it seems short, is adequate. Remember that the stew is cooked, and the dough is made with pre-cooked corn flour.
After 20 minutes, the leaves will have bulged a little. Remove the hallacas from the heat, drain them, and let them cool completely so that they set. Once the hallacas are set, they must be refrigerated until ready to serve.
In this video, you can see, in detail, the process of assembling, wrapping, tying, and cooking the hallacas. Watch it until the end because I give you my tricks there, so all the hallacas look the same.
How long do hallacas last in the refrigerator?
The hallacas can last up to a month in the fridge or refrigerator. They remain fresh, and neither their flavor nor texture are altered. Banana leaves have natural preserving agents that help the hallacas to last.
I don’t have empirical evidence for this last fact, but I know that hallacas last a long time in the refrigerator.
How do I reheat Hallacas?
When you are going to serve them, the hallacas are heated in boiling salted water for 10 minutes. Then comes the most longed-for moment. Removing the sash and wrapping begins when the wicks are cut. The treasure is revealed. And then, on the base leaf, the most delicious hallaca is served.
Can I freeze Hallacas?
Hallacas can be frozen perfectly and last up to a year in the freezer. And believe me: there is nothing tastier than eating a hallaca in the middle of the year. To prevent the leaves from burning in the cold, I freeze the hallacas individually, covered with plastic film.
To defrost them, 12 hours before serving, transfer the hallacas from the freezer to the refrigerator. Then you heat them just like a hallaca that has never been frozen.
A separate note on Worcestershire sauce
I must warn you about Worcestershire sauce if you are a vegan who does not eat honey because bees make it. One of its ingredients is anchovies.
I don’t know the proportion or amount of anchovies this sauce has. I also have no idea how much anchovy there is in the four tablespoons of stew that a hallaca contains. I know that for every seven pounds of vegetables, not counting the sofrito, my recipe calls for one cup of Worcestershire sauce.
I have seen recipes for vegan Worcestershire sauce. One of them is this one on Martha Stewart’s page.
More hallaca recipes
Don’t miss my other hallacas recipes:
- No-Knead Hallaca Dought
- How to make melado de papelón
- How to color lard or shortening with annatto seeds
- Pork Venezuelan Hallacas – Caracas-Style
- Beef Venezuelan Hallacas – Caracas-Style
- Chicken Venezuelan Hallacas – Caracas-Style
- And, of course, my unrivaled bollitos de hallaca picantes
Best Vegetarian Hallaca Stew Recipe
What follows is my recipe. I hope you like it as much as I do.
And as always, thank you very much for subscribing to my YouTube channel and visiting my Amazon shop.
Vegetarian Hallaca Stew
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
- 2 cups chopped onion
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 cup green onion chopped
- 2 cups leeks chopped
- 2 ½ cups red bell pepper deveined and seeded, chopped
- ½ cup ají dulce deveined and seeded, chopped
- 1 pound carrots cut into ⅓-inch cubes
- 1 pound butternut squash cut into ⅓-inch cubes
- 1 pound zucchini cut into ⅓-inch cubes
- 1 pound summer yellow squash cut into ⅓-inch cubes
- 2 ½ cups tomatoes peeled and seeded, cut into ⅓-inch cubes
- 1 ½ cups of sweet corn kernels about 3-4 ears, shelled
- 1 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
- ½ cup mustard pickles
- 1 cup Muscat-style cooking wine
- 1 cup papelón panela or piloncillo
- 5 teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 5 teaspoons ground cumin
- 4 tablespoons tomato paste
Instructions
- Process the onion and garlic, green onion, leeks, red bell pepper, ají dulce, and mustard pickles in a food processor.
- Over medium-high heat, melt the shortening in a large pot and add the sofrito ingredients. Cook for about 5 minutes until the sofrito begins to wilt.
- Add the carrots and cook for about 8-10 minutes.
- Add the butternut squash and cook for 5 more minutes.
- Add the zucchini, squash, corn, and tomatoes, and stir.
- Add the Worcestershire sauce, wine, vinegar, papelón, cumin, pepper, and salt, and stir.
- Cook uncovered over medium heat until it comes to a boil.
- Once it comes to a boil, lower the heat to medium-low and cook uncovered for 1 more hour.
- Remove from the heat and let it sit overnight, covered with a cotton towel.
- The following day, add the tomato paste and stir to combine.
- Reserve refrigerated until the hallacas are made.
Video
Nutrition
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