Hola and Welcome to My Colombian Recipes. I hope you enjoy your visit!
My name is Erica and I was born and raised in Medellin, Colombia. I moved to the United States in 2000. I live in Connecticut with my husband and our two boys. I am not a professional chef however. My educational background is in Tourism and Hotel Management and Marketing. Although Spanish is my first language, this site is written in English, so please excuse any grammatical errors…I do my best.
I published my first cookbook “I Cook Latin Food: The Best Recipes from 5 Popular Hispanic Cooking Blogs (Spanish Edition)” in 2021 with Penguin Random House.
Growing up in Colombia, cooking was always important in our family. We gathered at mamita’s house every weekend where she cooked traditional Colombian dishes that have remained family favorites years later.
For more facts about me click here.
About the blog
This blog was created in February 2009 and was inspired by my maternal grandmother, who was a very important person in my life and an amazing traditional Colombian cook. I never saw Mamita cooking from a recipe. She made dinner from whatever ingredients she found in the kitchen. My hope is that people from other countries discover Colombian food and learn more about our culture and traditions. Cooking traditional Colombian food connects me to my culture and allows me to share my heritage with my American family.
My recipes are not limited to traditional Colombian food. I have many other recipes for dishes representing other countries that I enjoy cooking for my family and friends, which I will also share with you. The sources of most of my recipes are my family, friends and my own creations and experiments, but if I cook a dish from a magazine, cookbook or TV show, I will list the source. All of the pictures and writing are done by me. The webmaster of My Colombian Recipes is my husband, who doesn’t get a lot credit, but he handles all the technical stuff for the site.
Comments and e-mails
I appreciate all of your comments, feedback and e-mails. I read every single one of them! I am not always able to reply to them all but I will do my best to answer your questions as quickly as possible. Although I appreciate constructive criticism, rude comments will be deleted and not published. Remember, you can also subscribe to My Colombian Recipes by email or feed reader and never miss a post! Thank you for visiting.
This site is also available in Spanish (en español en este enlance)
Paula
Erica, you have a wonderful blog and I’m enjoying looking around. Your recipes are inspirational, keep them coming!
Sarah
I am very happy to have found your blog! My boyfriend is from Medellin and has been here in the USA for three years. We went to Colombia last year but unfortunately, there was not enough time for me to learn the recipes for his favorite dishes from his mama. Now I can attempt Bandeja Paisa as a surprise for his birthday. Thank you so much!
Olga
Hola! I am also colombian, living in the States since 2000. I am a Spanish teacher and this site has helped me a lot. I want to thank you for the effort you put and time to write about colombian food.
Thanks a lot 🙂
Ann
Thank you for this website! I've been looking for recipes from Medellin where my son is from. He and I were "just" talking about finding recipes for a traditional Medellin breakfast which he misses. He loves leftover rice and beans for breakfast with avocado and now the frijoles paisas recipe will be great to make for dinner and have left for breakfast. I can't wait to make this for him! I think it'll be healthier for our whole family as well. Thank you for this!
Shelly
Hola! I just came back from 12 wonderful days in Colombia; from Bogota to Anapoima and back again. Such fresh food and wonderful flavors - I wish some of those unique fruits could be shipped to the US, but they are too fragile. I miss the arepas served every day with the fresh cheese. I am going to try and make my own arepas!
Lina
I’m so thrilled to have found your site! When I came back to the states from Colombia I was so sad thinking I would be forced to learn how to live without my Sunday morning calentao ritual- but now I am able to make it for all my friends and family I’m having so much fun trying your recipes! You make it so fun and easy to make the best food! Keep up the good work!
Kristen
Hi Erica,
I am so happy to have just found your site! I am in the reverse situation as you ... I am an American woman who married a Colombian man (de Medellin tambien) and I want to be able to cook some of his traditional dishes. I actually put together a sudado de pollo this morning for dinner! I have learned a lot of cooking tips from his mother, but as you probably know, it's not in her nature to write anything down or measure! She just cooks by throwing in this and that, and it turns out great ... But that doesn't help me learn ... so I am happy I can supplement with your site.
Thanks!
Kate F.
I was adopted from Bogota, Colombia as a baby. I recently learned that I have a passion for cooking. I want to feel more connected to my culture and I think learning how to cook Colombian food is a start! I am going to try your empanadas recipe this weekend:)
Lucia
You are very inspiring and totally awesome! 🙂
I cannot THANK YOU enough for taking the time to share all your great recipes!
Jennifer Baker
I am frequently asked to try to see if I cam make different things for people. Someone asked me if I could make a traditional Colombian wedding cake for them. I have seen a few descriptions from different websites but not enough for me to try to replicate the cake. Can you give me an idea of what is in this cake or better yet, do you have a recipe?
Elizabeth Amparan
Hello Erica,
I am emailing you from Belgium to tell you that I really enjoy your website and have tried some of your recipes. I, like your husband, am also vegetarian and I am always looking for new tastes around the world. I come originally from California but moved to Belgium because my wonderful husband is from here. I can relate to your learning a new language because I have had to learn Dutch as well to feel more independent in my new country. Well, enough said 🙂 So, if you ever come across vegetarian recipes, a big thumbs up to your great effort and ongoing success with your new website.
Kind regards,
Elizabeth V.
Erica
My friend has a new site called MeatLessDays. I hope you check it out.
Alan
Gregorio
Hola,
Erica my wife is Colombian she is from Bogota and for the past 9 years I have had the pleasure of tasting alot of these wonderful dishes, that I can only say are Delicioso. I just had the Bandeja Paisa on saturday, I would like to suprise her by cooking some of these dishes for her. My wife is currently visiting her mother in Bogota, she also has family (cousins) in the northeast. I look forward to cooking your receipes for her. Thank you a keep up the great work.....
Chao
nancy noble
How to prepared quesito antioqueño? do you have a recipe?
than you.
Jasmin Ortega
!Quihubo! Wow, I'm so glad I stumbled across this website and your twitter page. I am American but my dad is Colombian and my husband is Colombian too. We are newlyweds living here in Bogotá. I am just dying looking at these pics. You've covered a great deal of Colombian food I must say. I do a lot of the American stuff while Rafa does the Colombian dishes. He's an amazing cook. We're just starting off with our baby blog and have only gotten to publish the arepuelas that we made. But we're so thrilled to let the world know about the great food that is here in Colombia. Your blog is so inspiring. Funny you mention grandmothers because I was just going to start visiting mine here in Bogotá so she can teach me all her tricks; if she lets me. She's actually Mexican but has lived most of her life here in Bogotá so I get the best of both worlds. Happy cooking!- Chaito
Laura
I absolutely love your blog & follow it daily. Your recipes are great! I’ve tried a few and everyone has thoroughly enjoyed them. Keep them coming!
Mauricio
Hola Erica
Soy un colombianito tambien....vivo en USA D.C hace unos 5 anio. Soy P trainer y como tal me encanta la cocina tambie....Entre en tu blog en diciembre y me encanto todos esos deliciosos platos que es dificil ver aca!. vi un arroz atollado en tu blog, pero ahora no lo veo mas.... me encantaria prepararlo para mi esposa, sera posible tener la receta de nuevo?
Mil Gracias
wellnessmao.blogspot
Mao:)
Erica
Mauricio- La receta de arroz atollado esta en la lista de platos pricipales (main course)