Peruvian food
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Recipe: Salpicón de pollo (Peruvian chicken salad)
Salpicón de pollo is a salad with chicken, cooked vegetables and mayonnaise commonly found in many Latin American countries. In Perú it’s often served as an entrée but it makes a wonderful main meal particularly during warmer months. This recipe is gluten-free and dairy-free. It keeps well in the fridge for a few days, especially if you dress it just before eating. On that note, I recommend you make your own mayonnaise (it’s super easy!) because most commercial ones are made with less-than-ideal ingredients.
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Recipe: Pastel de choclo con polenta
I recently inherited a bag of polenta that I had to put to good use. Instead of going the easy (Italian) route, I decided to see if I could use it to sub fresh Peruvian corn to make our version of cottage pie. Thus, pastel de choclo con polenta was born. The recipe calls for ají amarillo paste and ají panca paste. If you don’t have ají amarillo I would not bother trying to find a substitute as most chilli pastes will add heat rather than flavour. If you don’t have ají panca for the filling, you can use tomato paste instead. This dish is gluten-free and can be made…
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Recipe: Garbanzos con acelga y chorizo (chickpeas with silverbeet and chorizo)
Last week I posted a recipe for the “regular” version of garbanzos con acelga (see recipe here). Garbanzos con acelga y chorizo is a tasty variation which includes the popular Spanish sausage for the meat eaters out there. Before you start, a few notes on ingredients: Last but not least, as with any stew, this tastes better a day or two later.
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Recipe: Garbanzos con acelga (chickpeas with silverbeet)
Garbanzos con acelga (chickpeas with silverbeet) is a traditional Spanish stew. This recipe is gluten-free, high in fibre and vegan if you use vegetable stock. Like many other dishes from Spain, this one has been adopted and adapted in Peruvian cuisine. We tend to make it with ají panca instead of tomato paste, and serve it with rice instead of bread. My unorthodox contribution is that squeeze of lemon juice at the end to add brightness. Most importantly, the vitamin C from the lemon will help you absorb the non-haem iron present in the chickpeas and the silverbeet (a.k.a spinach in Australia). Last but not least, as with any stew,…
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Recipe: Peruvian hot chocolate
In Perú there’s no such thing as Christmas in July. Instead, we eat and drink all the wintery Christmas stuff in the middle of summer. The large Christmas eve dinner of roasted turkey (or suckling pig), applesauce and/or mash, Russian salad, rice, etc. is followed by hot chocolate and panettone. Peruvian hot chocolate is made with blocks of bitter cooking chocolate that are simmered with spices and then mixed with evaporated milk and sugar. It is not a “light” beverage by any stretch of imagination. However, when the weather cools down, our bodies crave hot beverages that provide energy and comfort. Hence, I’ve created a version of Peruvian hot chocolate…
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Recipe: Menestrón (Peruvian minestrone)
Menestrón is the Peruvian version of minestrone soup, brought to the country by Italian migrants. What makes this soup Peruvian is the addition of native ingredients, such as potato and cassava. This is a pesto-based version of minestrone (as opposed to tomato-based). In addition to the traditional basil and Parmesan, this pesto features spinach and feta cheese . There are no rules as to which beans and legumes are included in menestrón. However, butter beans and broad beans are very common ingredients. As for the pasta, tradition calls for penne. I recommend using San Remo pulse pasta for a gluten-free, high protein, high fibre alternative.
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Recipe: Easy pulpo al olivo
Pulpo al olivo is a typical Peruvian dish made with octopus and olive mayonnaise. It is often eaten as an entrée or appetizer. This recipe is called easy pulpo al olivo because I’ve included a couple of shortcuts. The invention of this dish is attributed to Peruvian-Japanese chef Rosita Yimura. My lazy version involves no cooking and minimal preparation by using the following ingredients: I also used Peruvian botija olives but you may use kalamatas.
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Recipe: My mum’s arroz chaufa (Peruvian fried rice)
Chaufa comes from chao fan, which apparently means “fried rice” in Chinese (not sure if in Mandarin, Cantonese or both). So yeah, arroz chaufa = “fried rice rice”. Arroz chaufa in Perú is very popular (as we have a large Cantonese community) and it comes in many varieties: chicken, pork, chicken + pork, chicken + pork + prawns (a.k.a. “special”) and I’m guessing nowadays also vegetarian/vegan. My mum’s version of arroz chaufa had chicken and egg omelette. Although I didn’t realise this at the time, this was one of my favourite weeknight meals. I would eat an entire serving out of the pot before it even left the kitchen. Mum…
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Recipe: Low sugar pisco sour
Today is pisco sour day. The Peruvian national cocktail is celebrated on the first Saturday in February every year since 2005. I published my standard recipe a couple of years ago. I mentioned in passing that you could use water and stevia instead of syrup but did not give any quantities. This year I decided to make myself a low sugar pisco sour using Raw Earth stevia & monk fruit sweetener. A few notes on ratios and ingredients, rehashed from the original article: Finally, even though this drink is low sugar (even “keto”), it doesn’t mean it’s inherently healthy. It is lower in calories and sugar than the original version,…
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Recipe: Causa de atún (tuna causa)
Causa de atún is one of my favourite variations of causa limeña, a traditional Peruvian entrée. Causa is a cold potato-based dish, made with mashed potatoes that are flavoured with lime and chilli, then used to sandwich the filling. Traditional filling is made with shredded chicken and mayonnaise, but versions with fish and seafood are also popular and tastier, in my opinion. Legend says the name originated when Perú was under Spanish control. Street vendors would sell an early version of the dish “por la causa” (for the cause), the cause being independence from Spain. The recipe calls for ají amarillo (Peruvian yellow chilli) paste, which can be found online…
