Pupusas Recipe
Level
Easy
Time
4 hrs
SERVES
4-6
Pupusas- El Salvador’s National dish
Whenever you feel like indulge in travel nostalgia this tasty and simple Pupusas recipe is for you!
Pupusas – without a doubt our most frequently eaten dish in El Salvador! Pupusas have a long-standing tradition in El Salvador that date back centuries. Tools to prepare the delicious dish have even been found in Joya de Ceren, America’s Pompeij.
Pupusas are not only the cheapest, easiest, and most commonly found dish in El Salvador, but they also come with various fillings.
Curtido, a spicey cabbage-carrot salad usually accompanies the savory-filled masa. Traditionally you would ferment the curtido. But for this recipe, we’ll go with a quicker alternative. Because of its many variations, you can enjoy them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
– beans and cheese
– cheese and chorizo
– chicken and cheese
Flor de Izote (Did you know that El Salvador is actually the only country to use its national flower for cooking)
Loroco con queso (our favorite, unfortunately, you can only eat it in El Salvador)
Ingredients
For the pupusas’ dough
- 2 cups of masa harina ( a healthier form of maize flour)
- 1,5 cups of water
- a pinch of salt
For the filling
- 1/2 cup grated cheese
- 1/2 cup red or black beans
- 1 garlic glove
For the curtido
- 1-2 carrots, grated
- 1/2 shredded cabbage head
- 1/2 thinly sliced onion
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- a pinch of salt
- chili according to taste
- a pinch of brown sugar
Instructions
Start with the curtido
Place grated carrots, onions, and shredded cabbage head in a bowl. Combine the remaining ingredients to dressing and pour over the cabbage-carrot mixture. Place the bowl in the fridge and let it rest for at least 3 hours. It tastes even better the next day if you have a chance to give it a little longer.
For the pupusas:
Start by cooking the beans for 20 minutes before, add garlic before roughly blending the beans. Add the cheese. The consistency should be pretty doughy.
Making the dough is really simple. Combine masa harissa, water, and salt and form a flexible, not too dry dough. You can toy around with the masa and water until the mixture has a perfect consistency.
Form eight, golfball-sized little balls. Use your thumb to create a little cub. Add one teaspoon of the filling and close carefully. The most challenging part starts now: Try to get the pupusas as flat as possible without exposing its fillings.
My favorite Latin American cook books
The Latin American Cookbook
Rarely has the incredible range of cuisines from Mexico’s tropical coasts to the icy islands at the foot of South America been documented as comprehensively as in this collection. Global star chef and Peruvian sensation Virgilio Martínez curates, with a personal deep dive into each region’s food culture, culinary delicacies, and local ingredients.
The Central American Cookbook
Come take a journey with us into the delights of easy cooking. The point of this cookbook and all our cookbooks is to exemplify the effortless nature of cooking simply.
In this book we focus on Central American cooking. The Central American Cookbook is a complete set of simple but very unique Central American recipes. You will find that even though the recipes are simple, the tastes are quite amazing
Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America
Gran Cocina Latina unifies the vast culinary landscape of the Latin world, from Mexico to Argentina and all the Spanish-speaking countries of the Caribbean. In one volume it gives home cooks, armchair travelers, and curious chefs the first comprehensive collection of recipes from this region.
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