In Ecuador Día de los Difuntos or the Day the Deceased is celebrated on 2 Th of November and it’s a public holiday. People believe that the spirits of the dead family members will visit them on the day of the deceased and that the spirits should be fed to continue their journey. The traditional way to celebrate this day is to go to the cemetery, clean the family graves and spend some time there. Families also prepare food and leave it on the graves of those who have passed away. There are some old traditional rituals people perform on the graves, but these ritual aren’t performed much anymore.
Guagua, traditional day of the deceased bread in Ecuador
Traditional foods for the day of the deceased are colada morada and guaguas. The colada morada and guaguas are old traditions from the indigenous people. Colada morada is a sweet fruity soup, made of purple corn flour and fruits. Guagua means baby in Quechua and they are human or animal shaped sweet breads.
This year I made first time colada morada with my father in law. I was looking from the centrum to buy some colada, but didn’t find it and when I mentioned this to my father in law he said he knows how to do it. So we went to the market and bought the ingredients and cooked a huge pot of colada morada yesterday. I think we made about 10 liters of it, so we have plenty! Here is how we made it. Notice, this recipe makes a huge pot, now I understand why it’s eaten only once a year, after we finish this pot I’m going to be sick of colada morada.
Guagua and Colada Morada
Colada Morada
3 pounds of Purple Corn Flour
Water, as much as needed, you don’t want to make really heavy soup
1 pineapple chopped into small cubes
1 pound of strawberries sliced
1 pound of black berries
1 cup of blueberries
1 naranjilla, which we forget to put but it tasted good anyway
Bunch of herbs, I have no idea what herbs we used but lemongrass and lemon balm might be good
Not a Finnish saunavihta, but the herbs we used for the Colada Morada
2-3 star anis
5 allspice
3 pieces of cinnamon bark
4 cloves
Panela or brown sugar to taste
Mix the purple corn flower with hot water, put enough water to make it a light mixture. Add the fruits and berries to the cornflower soup and boil about 30 minutes on a low heat. Stir the mixture often and add water if the soup feels too heavy.
On another pot cook the herbs and spices in water. Boil also about 30 minutes. Remove the herbs and spices from the water. Mix the herb water into the cornflower soup. Add panela or brown sugar as much as you like. Serve cooled with guaguas.
I took also some colada for my daughter before adding the herbs, spices and panela. She liked it too.
