Make sure to use organic potatoes; here colorful, strangely shaped native varieties are available which don’t require nasty chemicals, but they can be difficult to find.

Many “locros” are eaten in the Andes, but a superior one which is also wonderfully quick and simple is made from potatoes in Ecuador. Tourists will remember a colorful almost orange soup, thick and creamy (and amazingly with no cream), topped with a thick slice of avocado and, if lucky, served with red chile tamarillo salsa.

I am happy to share my recipe for the favorite of all potato soups.

“Locro de papa” Creamy Ecuadorian Potato Soup

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon annatto oil (gives the characteristic golden hue, but could be left out)
2/3 cup chopped scallion
2 lbs. Yukon gold or other mealy potato, peeled (approx. 6 medium potatoes)
1½ cups milk
6 cups hot water
salt and pepper
1 cup “queso blanco”, crumbled or grated (substitute cow’s milk feta)
(optional – 2 sprigs cilantro)

In a heavy 4-5 qt. saucepan, heat vegetable and annatto oils. Add scallions and sauté over low heat until transparent.

Slice half of the potatoes thinly. Cut the others in 1½ inch chunks. Add all the potatoes to the sauce pan and stir constantly, over médium-high heat for 5-10 minutes until potatoes are somewhat browned and transparent. Let them stick somewhat, that gives flavor.

Add the milk, when boiling add the water, salt and pepper. Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes or until the sliced potatoes have partly disintegrated and thickened the “locro”. (This process can be helped along by mashing some of the potato against the sides of the saucepan with a wooden spoon.)

Just before serving, heat with the cheese and cilantro.
Make sure to top the soup bowl with a thick avocado slice and serve with your favorite salsa.

Makes 4 main dish servings.

The same thing happens in tamales, but they are much more labor intensive and always have carbohydrate dough, often with a corn base. In the jungle the purest and simplest way of using leaves was a superb treat, freshly caught fish cooked in a special leaf. That was all!

These days even in urban areas of the jungle, leaf-wrapped packets called “maytus” are served, usually steamed. They make a festive meal and along with them come boiled plantains and yuca (manioc, cassava) and onions sliced paper thin and pickled in the juice of tiny limes — you know, the ones that you squirt into Corona.

Before the times of mass produced plates, all food was served on leaves – a great sustainable idea, from the jungle and back to the jungle and all within the family’s compound. No dishes to wash or need for soap, no transportation involved either! The peoples of the jungle knew how to live and minimize carbon footprints.

Yuca (also called cassava or manioc) is peeled and then boiled.  Once cooked soft, women chew it, spit it out and let it ferment.  With only the addition of water, it becomes a drink.  When hunting no longer provides game or fish, this yuca “chicha” becomes the mainstay of the population.  I must admit it is not my favorite and yet it is amazing how healthy the population looks, as they subsist mainly on this fermented drink.  At least It has no sugar or salt added, and is certainly not a processed product coming from the industrialized food chain.