10 Peruvian recipes to try at home!
Peruvian restaurants in Cusco are a great place to try amazing Peruvian food if you live in Cusco during your Spanish immersion course. Students living with a host family have even more opportunities to taste the authentic Peruvian meals day after day. Do you want to incorporate Peruvian food into your weekly menu when you are back home? You don’t have to stop enjoying the lovely Peruvian cuisine you discovered on your travels: you can learn to prepare some great Peruvian dishes for your family and friends back home!
Here are 8 Peruvian dishes to try when you want to bring a piece of Peru home.
1. Peruvian Ceviche
Let’s start with what might be the most famous recipe of all: ceviche! The ceviche dish is a pinnacle of Peruvian culinary culture. It’s even recognized as an expression of Peruvian cuisine by UNESCO!
The ceviche consists of pieces of fresh white fish marinated in citrus juice and seasonings, typically lemon or lime. More precisely, the Peruvian ceviche is marinated in “leche de tigre”. You make it by mixing together lemon and lime juice, garlic, pepper, onion, and the juices of the fish you’re using for your recipe. Ceviche can be eaten as an appetizer or served as a main course with boiled sweet potato or corn.
The recipe is pretty simple and should take you about an hour if you have a good-quality knife. There is one hazard you should be careful of: raw fish can contain bacteria or parasites, which are usually eliminated by cooking. You should make sure the fish you use is fresh and safe: you can usually find it in markets, but you should always be careful and ask locals for advice.
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2. Ají de gallina
Our second entry on this list is part of the most popular Peruvian comfort foods. It is a chicken stew, composed of a base of sautéd red onions, garlic, and ají amarillo to which you add shredded chicken and stock. You thicken it with bread soaked in milk, evaporated milk, cheese, and peanuts. This dish is served as a main course, with rice and slices of boiled potatoes. You often find it accompanied by olives in restaurants. A great choice for a comforting meal!
3. Causa limeña de atún
Potatoes are omnipresent in Peruvian cuisine, and this third dish represents that. Causa is a cold starter made with layers of mashed potatoes and tuna with mayonnaise, sometimes with avocado layers, too. You can eat it with salad, olives, or boiled eggs. Instead of atún, you can also use chicken to prepare causa de pollo.
Another pretty easy recipe that shouldn’t take over an hour, though you should plan two hours to refrigerate it before enjoying eating it!
4. Lomo saltado
With this next dish, you’ll discover the chifa tradition: a blend of Chinese and Peruvian cuisine. Lomo saltado a stir fry of strips of beef steak with french fries, tomatoes, onions, typically served with rice. It is a bit harder to prepare, but doesn’t require many ingredients, making it a great choice. The marinade is a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar, and spices. I had the opportunity to taste it at a restaurant next to Amauta Spanish school… and it’s really yummy! Highly recommended.
5. Papa a la huancaína
Once again, potatoes take the place of honor with papas a la hauncaína, or “Huancayo style potatoes”. Huancayo is a city in the central highlands of Peru and the birthplace of the sauce huancaína, the key ingredient in this recipe. It is a creamy sauce, both cheesy thanks to ‘queso fresco’ and spicy thanks to ‘ají amarillo’. You make it by mixing the cheese, yellow pepper, garlic, and other ingredients until smooth. You then pour it over boiled potatoes, which are served with eggs and lettuce. You can eat it hot or cold, as a first or main course, and can even take it on picnics.
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If you don’t have a mixer, thinly slicing the ingredients and warming them together makes for a pretty good substitute. The dish is really comforting and a nice vegetarian option, too!
Recipe link papa a la huancaina
6. Arroz chaufa
Let’s talk a bit more about chifa tradition with the arroz chaufa, a fried rice dish. Chaufa is a word derived from Chinese 炒饭, which literally means “fried rice”.
The dish is a mix of fried rice with vegetables, eggs, and meat (usually chicken, but sometimes pork) cooked in a wok with oil and a bit more soy sauce. Piece of advice: use leftover rice if you have some! The beauty of this dish is that you can compose it with whatever you like: substitute the chicken with pork, beef, or shrimp, or even all of them! Use carrots, onions, scallions, or whichever vegetable you like. You can also make it vegetarian or even vegan, depending on what you use!
7. Tallarines verde
Given that tallarín means noodle, we’re going to talk here about a pasta dish. The “green” part is because of the sauce: its main ingredient is spinach. This is sort of a Peruvian pesto! You can add basil, garlic, and onions, mix it, and eat your pasta with this sauce, some oil, and some cheese.
You can serve it with steak or simply on its own as another vegetarian option in Peruvian cuisine!
8. Tacu-tacu
This Peruvian dish is simple: you’ll only need rice and beans. You cook and mix those two and get a sort of rice omelet. You can fry it to make it crispier, serve it with a fried egg, or add spices to suit your taste. This is a nutritious option from Peru’s Quechua heritage!
This concludes our look at Peruvian dishes that are entirely possible to cook at home. Try them for yourself, and don’t hesitate to give us feedback! Hope you enjoy Peruvian cooking, and, of course, savoring your delicious Peruvian home-cooked meals!
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