Over the years, I’ve gotten lots of invites from people all over the world to come to their restaurants or homes to enjoy a homecooked meal. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do more of! In this video, I do just that. Come with me as a MasterChef winner cooks me a Colombian breakfast in my hometown of Miami, Florida!
My friend Lauren Arboleda is a self-taught Colombian chef who won MasterChef Latino in 2019! I was honored that she’d be cooking me a huge Colombian breakfast this morning. I couldn’t wait to dig in. But first, we had to make everything!
Outside of her home, Lauren has a beautiful garden where she grows tomatoes, scallions, jalapenos, carrots, sage, edible flowers, and more. She cut some scallions for us, and I tried a couple of cherry tomatoes. They were crunchy, juicy, and a little sweet! They’re also very nutrient-rich! Then, I tried an edible flower, which tasted like arugula and wasn’t very spicy. Then we headed inside to make breakfast!
She chopped up the scallions to make hogao, which is a tomato-based sauce. She added some Himalayan salt to four eggs. I helped whisk the eggs, and then she added some homemade ghee and paprika to the pan, along with cumin, pepper, and turmeric.
Next, she added the chopped onions, salt, scallions, and covered them for 5 minutes. Then, she added the chopped tomatoes and whole cherry tomatoes before covering again for another 5 minutes.
Then, we started on the Colombian arepas, which are made with corn flour. She added zucchini, chia seeds, flax meal, Himalayan salt, and water and mixed it by hand to form the dough. Then, she added shredded vegan cheese!
After she patted out her arepa, it was my turn! We patted out a few. You can also roll the dough between some plastic sheets and cut out different shapes. She cut out two thin circles and seared them in a pan. You’ll see women in Colombia and Venezuela making arepas out on the street!
Venezuelan arepas are thicker and usually stuffed, whereas Colombian arepas are much thinner and the ingredients are put on top. Then, she put some in the air fryer and others on the grill. Then, she put some of the hogao in a bowl and then added the eggs to the remaining hogao in the pan. The eggs with hogao, or huevos pericos, contained big chunks of vegetables. They looked so good!
Then, I met Lauren’s husband, Pedro, who takes care of the garden and makes the coffee. Real coffee is always measured. He measured 40 grams of Colombian beans, ground them, and put them in a filter over a pot before pouring hot water over them, drip-style. Colombian coffee is one of the best in the world and should be drunk with no sugar. Then, it was time to dig in!
The coffee smelled incredible. It was light and aromatic and earthy. Then, we had a Colombian arepa topped with cheese, eggs, microgreens. Lauren then took one of my thicker arepas, took out some maza inside, and added ghee, cheese, eggs, and microgreens inside, along with some hogao.
The Venezuelan arepa was crunchy and toasted, and I loved the eggs and herbs. It took me back to my time in Venezuela! The arepa was filling and I loved the chunkiness of the hogao. Then, she added some homemade cashew milk, cheese, arepa, and bread into our coffee!
It was really unique and I loved how everything soaked up the coffee! Next was the Colombian arepa, which was super crunchy. The cheese was excellent, and it was full of toppings. It was messy but so good! Having a Colombian MasterChef winner cook me a Colombian breakfast was such an incredible experience! Huge thanks to Lauren and her husband Pedro for graciously inviting me into their home!
I hope you liked coming with me to meet this amazing MasterChef winner and try a delicious Colombian breakfast! If you did, please give this video a thumbs up and leave a comment below. Also, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and click the notification bell so you don’t miss any of my travel/food adventures around the world!
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