10 Peruvian recipes to try at home!
Peruvian restaurants in Cusco are a great place to try the amazing Peruvian food when you live in Peru during your Spanish immersion course in Cusco. Students living with a host family have even more opportunties to taste the authentic peruvian meals day after day. Do you want to incorporate Peruvian food to weekly menu when you are back home? You don’t have to stop enjoying the lovely Peruvian kitchen discovered in your travels: you can learn to prepare some great Peruvian dishes for your family and friends back at home!
Here are 8 peruvian dishes to try out when you want to bring back home a piece of Peru with you.
1. Peruvian Ceviche
Let’s start with what might be the most famous recipe of all : ceviche ! Ceviche dish is a pinnacle of the culinary culture of Peru. It’s even recognized as an expression of peruvian cuisine by UNESCO !
The ceviche consists of pieces of fresh, white fish marinated in citrus and seasonings, typically lemon or lime juice. 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 you can serve it 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 bacterias or parasites usually eliminated by cooking it. You should make sure the fish you use is fresh and safe: you can usually get some in markets, but you should always pay attention and ask locals for advice.
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 them agremented with 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 of layers of mashed potatoes and tuna with mayonnaise, with sometimes layers of avocado 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 an 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 of the central highlands of Peru and the home city of the sauce huancaína, the key of 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 together until the texture is 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.
If you don’t have a mixer, thinly slicing the ingredients and warming them together makes for a pretty good substitute. The dish is then 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 that comes from Chinese, 炒饭, that literally means fried rice.
The dish in itself is a mix of fried rice with vegetables, eggs, and meat (usually chicken, but sometimes also pork) cooked in a wok with oil and some more soy sauce. Piece of advice : use leftover rice if you have some ! The beauty of this dish is 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 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 like that as another vegetarian option for peruvian food!
8. Tacu-tacu
This Peruvian dish is a simple one: 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, and serve it with a fried egg, or add spices according to your taste. This is a nutritious option coming from the quechua heritage of Peru!
This concludes our insight into Peruvian dishes that are totally 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!