Vegan Hallacas (Week 9, Venezuela)

This recipe is a part of my Global Vegan Challenge where each week I research and develop a recipe from a different country in the world. Many of these recipes are veganized based off their omnivore counterparts. While not all of these recipes are a one for one what you’ll find in their country, I hope you’ll still find them delicious!

Recipe Notes:

This recipe takes a long time between ingredient prep and assembly. If you’re cooking this alone and don’t want to spend 3 to 4 hours in the kitchen you can prepare both the dough and filling a day or two in advance. Just be sure to wrap the filling tightly in plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out.

I went a little heavy on the annatto so these hallacas are very orange. From the research I’ve done this seems a bit brighter than hallacas usually are, so feel welcome to use less. That said, the extra annatto doesn’t impact the flavor at all and results in a very vibrant color.

I used canned jackfruit in syrup for texture, but you can feel welcome to omit it and add more beans instead. If you go the bean route, you may want to add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar to make up the missing sweetness from the jackfruit.

For meatier hallacas you can use a mix of minced seitan and beans. This is more on the beany side than meaty side in texture, even with the jackfruit.

In the final cooking process of the hallacas you can opt to boil or steam them. I had a lot of breakage in my banana leaves so I opted to steam instead of boil them to minimize breakage of the leaves. If you choose to boil them I would recommend boiling them in vegetable broth instead of water.

Any extra hallacas you don’t eat immediately you can freeze for up to a month. Just allow to fully thaw in the fridge before reheating.

Vegan Hallacas

Yield

12 – 20, pending hallaca size

Prep Time

30 Minutes

Cooking Time

1 hour 40 minutes

Assembly Time

2 hours

Filling Ingredients

20 ounce Canned Jackfruit in Syrup
16 ounces Cooked or Canned Black Beans
1 cup Vegetable Broth (I use Better Than Bullion No Chicken)
2 Vine Tomatoes
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Leek (white part only)
3 Green Onions
6 cloves Garlic
2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil
1 tablespoon Smoked Spanish Paprika
1 tablespoon Oregano
1 tablespoon ground Cumin
2 teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Chipotle Powder
1 teaspoon White Wine Vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper

Filling Instructions

Heat up a stock pot on medium high heat.
Slice leek in half and wash thoroughly. Slice into thin 1/8 inch half moons. Set aside. Slice green onions into 1/2 inch pieces and set aside with leeks. Mince garlic, set aside with leeks.
Half green bell pepper and remove seeds. Dice pepper and set aside.
Dice tomatoes and set aside.
Once pot is up to temperature add vegetable oil and coat bottom of pot. Add leeks, green onion, and garlic. Saute until leeks start to become translucent.
Add bell pepper and tomato. Saute until it begins to soften.
While sauteing drain liquid out of can of jackfruit and beans. Place jackfruit on cutting board and shred with a fork until you have shredded pork-like strands. Set aside.
Add black beans, jackfruit, and vegetable broth to pot. Mix well.
Add oregano, cumin, salt, chipotle, white wine vinegar, and black pepper. Mix well and bring to a low simmer. Simmer until broth reduces and thickens. while simmering prepare dough.
Remove filling from heat once most of the liquid has thickened. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to assemble.

Dough Ingredients

3 1/2 cups White Corn Flour
2 cups Vegetable Broth (I use Better than Bullion No Chicken)
1 cup Vegetable Shortening
1 ounce Ground Annatto Seed
1 tablespoon Salt

Dough Instructions

Mix corn flour with vegetable broth in a large mixing bowl by hand until well mixed.
Add vegetable shortening, ground annatto, and salt. Thoroughly mix by hand. Once dough is fully mixed it should barely stick to your hands and your hands should be shiny.
Set aside until ready to assemble.

Assembly Ingredients

1 batch Dough (above)
1 batch Filling (above)
48 ounces Frozen Banana Leaves, thawed
1/2 Red Bell Pepper
1 small Yellow Onion
1/2 cup Capers
1/2 cup Sliced Green Olives
1/2 cup Vegetable Shortening
1/2 cup Black Raisins
1 Small Bunch of Parsley
2 teaspoons Ground Annatto
Wax Paper
Paper Towels
Cotton Twine

Assembly Instructions

Once banana leaves are fully thawed, carefully unfold on a large working space. Moisten a paper towel with water and clean off each side of the leaves. You’ll want minimal amounts of breakage in the leaves to ensure you have big enough pieces of leaves to work with to assemble your hallacas in.
Once leaves are clean you’ll want to get the most amount unbroken “sheets” as you can, roughly 10 to 12 inches wide. Tear the leaves along where they are naturally breaking already to get these banana leaf if possible. You’ll want to avoid breakage in the center of your squares.
Save the smaller pieces as these will be used as belts to help wrap the hallaca (these belts should be around 3 inches thick). For your large leaf squares and belts you’re aiming for 20 or more. Any other pieces between the belt size and your sheets keep in case you have any breakage in your larger sheets you need to patch in assembly later. Set aside.
Take your dough in small hand fulls and roll into balls. Pending how many sheets of banana leaves you have will determine how many balls you roll, approximately 12 to 20. Set aside.
Take red bell pepper, remove core and seed. Slice into 1/4 inch strips. Set aside.
Remove skin from onion. Slice into 1/4 inch rings. Set aside.
Place vegetable shortening in a small bowl and heat in the microwave for 15 seconds at a time until it becomes liquid. Once it liquefies add annatto until well mixed. (Please note as you assemble your hallacas you may need to periodically reheat your shortening to liquefy it throughout the assembly process.)
To assemble take your banana leaf and place a small amount of annatto shortening in the middle and make a small circle. Place a ball of dough in the center of your shortening circle. Next, place a sheet of wax paper on top. You’ll want to then press the dough down with a book, heavy pan, or another flat surface to press the dough until it is very thin.
Once your dough is about 1/8 inch thin, remove wax paper and place a small amount of filling (see picture below). On top of your filling add two slices of bell pepper, 2 to 3 onion rings, a sprinkling of capers and olives, and a couple springs of parsley.
Once you have all your filling set fold the banana leaf in half, enclosing the ingredients in the dough. Fold up the top and bottom of the banana leaf to close the ends, then roll the leaf until it’s fully wrapped. Do not roll your leaves too tight or you may wind up accidentally breaking the leaf. If this happens wrap up the breakage in a new leaf to ensure it’s fully sealed. Once wrapped, take one of the scrap belts to hold the ends of the banana leaves in place. From there, you’ll want to take your cotton twine to tie the leaves in place. Be sure to wrap the twine around the leaves several times to ensure all your leaves are fully secure. For a visual for assembly of how I folded my hallacas check out the video below or on Twitch here. Repeat until you run out of banana leaves, dough, or filling.
Once all of your hallacas are assembled fill the bottom of a large pot of water with a steamer basket. Place hallacas vertically in basket. Bring water to a boil and steam for one hour.
Remove pot from heat and allow hallacas cool before removing from pot. Serve hot and garnish with remaining parsley (optional). Remaining hallacas may be frozen up to a month to eat later.