Calentado is what Colombians do with leftovers. Whatever was on the table yesterday goes into a pan the next morning with fresh tomato and onion, gets fried until it catches slightly at the bottom, and is eaten for breakfast with a fried egg on top.
The word just means "heated up". This version uses leftover sancocho, which makes a chunkier, heartier calentado than the usual one, since the meat, cassava, plantain and potato are already in there.
Calentado is a method, not a recipe
Worth understanding, because it explains why no two are the same. Calentado is not a dish with a fixed ingredient list. It is the practice of frying yesterday's food into today's breakfast.
The best known version is calentado paisa, from Antioquia: leftover rice and beans fried together until the rice crisps at the edges. That is what most Colombians picture when they hear the word, and it is why calentado is so often described as a rice and bean dish.
But sancocho, lentils, stewed beef, plain rice and almost anything else all become calentado the next morning. This page is the sancocho one, and there is no rice in it at all.
It comes from farm kitchens where nothing got thrown away and breakfast had to carry a person through a morning of work. That is also why it is heavy for a breakfast by most standards.
Drain the broth first
This is the one instruction that decides whether you get a calentado or a bowl of reheated soup, and the recipe gives it without explaining it.
Liquid stops food browning. As long as there is broth in the pan, everything sits at boiling point and steams. Drain it off and the pieces of meat and root make contact with hot metal, catch a little, and pick up colour and a bit of crust.
Keep the broth if you like. It is good on its own in a cup, which is how it gets drunk in Colombia anyway.
The fresh part
Tomato and onion go into the pan first, on their own, for five minutes. They are the only fresh thing in the dish and they are doing real work: yesterday's food has flattened out overnight, and a quick sofrito puts an edge back on it.
Give them long enough that the onion goes soft and the tomato collapses. Raw onion in a calentado is harsh against everything else, which is soft and long-cooked.
Chopping the sancocho pieces smaller before they go in is optional and worth doing. A whole piece of cassava next to a whole piece of chicken heats unevenly, and smaller pieces mean a bit of everything in each spoonful.
Do not add salt
The sancocho was seasoned yesterday, and salt goes on distributing itself overnight. Reheated food generally tastes saltier than it did the day before, not blander.
If it still needs lifting, the answer is not salt. Chopped garlic and a pinch of cumin in with the sofrito, cilantro at the end, a squeeze of lime, or a spoonful of ají all do more.
Keeping the sancocho safely
Since the whole dish depends on food cooked the day before, it is worth being straightforward about this.
Get the sancocho into the fridge once it has stopped steaming rather than leaving the pot out overnight, and plan to use it within three or four days. When you make the calentado, heat it right through until it steams rather than just until it is warm. If it is going to sit longer than that, freeze it: sancocho freezes well, though the potato softens.
How it is served
A fried egg on top, almost always. Then an arepa, slices of avocado, and hot chocolate or coffee.
The hot chocolate is worth mentioning because it catches visitors out: Colombians drop a piece of fresh cheese into it and eat it with a spoon once it has gone soft. Salty cheese in sweet chocolate sounds wrong and is not.
Where to get the sancocho
- Chicken sancocho — the classic, and the one most likely to leave leftovers.
- Beef sancocho — heavier, and makes a very good calentado.
- Fish sancocho — the coastal one. Less suited to reheating, since the fish falls apart.
- Traditional beans — if you want to make the classic rice and bean calentado instead.
Calentado FAQ
Colombia's leftover breakfast. Whatever was eaten the day before gets fried up in a pan the next morning with fresh tomato and onion, and served with a fried egg and an arepa. The name simply means "heated up". It is everyday home cooking rather than a restaurant dish, and it is how most Colombian households start the day.
That is the classic, and what most people picture: leftover rice and beans fried together, often called calentado paisa. But the principle applies to whatever is in the fridge. This version uses leftover sancocho, which makes a heartier, chunkier calentado because the meat and root vegetables are already in it.
Because liquid stops anything browning. With the broth in, the pan steams and you end up with reheated soup. Drained, the pieces sit against the hot pan, catch slightly and take on a bit of colour, which is the whole difference between a calentado and yesterday's dinner warmed up.
No. The sancocho was seasoned when it was made, and it has had overnight for the salt to distribute. Taste before you reach for the salt cellar, because reheated food usually tastes saltier rather than blander. Cumin, garlic, lime or ají are better additions if it needs lifting.
A fried egg on top is close to obligatory. Alongside: an arepa, slices of avocado, and hot chocolate or coffee. In Colombia the hot chocolate often comes with a piece of fresh cheese dropped into it, which surprises people the first time.
Refrigerate it as soon as it has cooled rather than leaving it out overnight, and use it within three or four days. When you make the calentado, heat it right through until it steams, not just until it is warm. Beyond that window, freeze it instead.
📖 Recipe
Calentado de Sancocho (Colombian Leftover Breakfast)
Imprimir Pin ComentarIngredients
- 2 cups leftover sancocho, drained of broth (drain it well: broth steams the pan instead of letting things brown)
- 1 tomato, finely chopped
- ½ onion, or 2 scallions, finely chopped
- 5 teaspoons oil (about 1½ tablespoons)
Notas
Instructions
- In a pan over medium heat, fry the tomato and onion for about 5 minutes, stirring, until the onion is soft and the tomato has broken down.
- Add the two cups of sancocho. Chop the larger pieces smaller first if you like, so everything heats evenly and there is a bit of each thing in every spoonful. Cook for another 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until it is heated right through and the bottom has started to catch and brown slightly. That browning is the point of a calentado.
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