El Salvador: Recipes and Cuisine

Salvadoran dancers
Image by sjb5

This tiny country on the Pacific coast has made a rich contribution to Central American cooking. The cuisine of El Salvador is similar to that of its neighbors, with a strong reliance on indigenous foods like corn, beans, squash and tomatoes. The influence of Mayan culture is quite strong, mixed in with contributions from the Spanish kitchen. Pupusas and curtido may be the most well known Salvadoran dishes, but other tasty dishes include pavo salvadoreño, atol de elote, quesadilla and semita.

Salvadoran Cuisine: A Background

El Salvador, once known as Cuscatlán (the land of beautiful jewels), is on the west coast of Central America, bordering Guatemala and Honduras. Seven million people are squeezed into a country the size of Massachusetts, with an additional 3 million living abroad.

A tropical climate prevails in the coastal lowlands, while the highlands and plateaus of the interior enjoy cooler, drier weather. The landscape is dotted with volcanos, and many rivers cut their way from the highlands to the Pacific shore.

Over the centuries, the native and European populations of El Salvador so thoroughly intermarried that today most Salvadorans are mestizo, or of mixed blood. As in so much of the New World, this mixing of peoples also led to a melding of cuisines. While several new ingredients were introduced by Europeans (onions, cheese, beef), the mainstays of the Salvadoran diet are still corn and beans, as they have been for millenia.

The Mainstays: Corn and Beans

Corn is ground into masa for tortillas, pupusas, and tamales. Pupusas, thick tortillas stuffed with cheese, beans, pork or other ingredients, are without doubt the most famous Salvadoran food. The classic accompaniment is a cabbage salad called curtido. Tamales are special occasion food, and in El Salvador they contain a wide variety of fillings including chicken, pork, black beans (tamales pisques), yucca flowers (tamales de flor de izote), and chipilín leaves (ticucos). They are made with fresh corn and left unstuffed for tamales de elote. Tamales are usually seasoned with a variety of sauces or spice pastes (recaudos), and in El Salvador, banana leaves encase tamales more often than corn husks. They lend a deep tropical flavor to these steamed corncakes.

Beans are eaten with almost every meal and can be simmered whole or pureed and served as refritos. The red bean (frijol rojo) is the most popular, but black beans are also common and are mixed with rice in a dish known as casamiento.

Fruits and Vegetables

A wide variety of fruits and vegetables find their way onto the Salvadoran table: potatoes, yuca (cassava root), squashes, cabbage, carrots, onions, chipilín (a leafy green), tomatoes, peppers, plantains, bananas, pineapple, coconut, mangos, guavas, nance (a cherry-like fruit), and pacalla (palm flowers). Ground pumpkin seeds (alguashte) and sesame seeds thicken stews.

Meats, Poultry, Fish and Dairy

Pork and chicken are the most common meats and are used in tamales, soups and stews. Chicharrónes (crispy fried pork) fill pupusas. Beef is eaten on occasion and is commonly grilled (carne asada) or simmered with vegetables as in lomo entomatado. Salvadorans make their own variety of spicy chorizo sausage. Turkey (pavo) is popular at Christmastime and is roasted and served in the Salvadoran manner with a rich sauce and olives and capers. Fish is most often breaded and fried. Shrimp is used to make the ever popular ceviche.

Salvadorans make use of a variety of simple cheeses such as queso fresco, quesillo and duro blanco. Salavadoran sour cream, or crema Salvadoreña, is particularly luscious, with a soft yellow hue, a rich texture and a subtle tang not unlike French crème fraiche.

Desserts and Beverages

Pastries hold a special place in the Salvadoran heart. The semita is a coffeecake-like pastry often filled with a variety of jams and preserves. Salvadoran quesadilla – unlike the Mexican snack with the same name – is a sweet poundcake flavored with parmesan cheese and sour cream. Pastelitos are small baked turnovers filled with custard or fruit preserves. Children find an easy sweet chewing on small pieces of sugarcane.

Many beverages in El Salvador are based on corn. For atoles, cornflour is mixed with water or milk, sweetened and served hot or cold. Atol shuco, made with purple corn, is particularly popular. Chicha is a mildly alcoholic beverage made with fermented ground corn. Café de maíz is made by brewing toasted corn kernels with hot water. Other popular beverages are hot chocolate, coffee and fruit milkshakes called batidos. The names of the favorite Salvadoran beers are Regia, Bahia and Pilsener.

Salvadoran Dining Habits

The typical Salvadoran eats a simple breakfast of refried beans, tortillas and a little cheese with coffee. But breakfast can also be a quite substantial affair, adding eggs, plátanos fritos, a slice of ham and a large dollop of crema Salvadoreña. Lunch is usually the largest meal of the day with tortillas, pupusas or rice, a vegetable, beans and maybe some pork or chicken. A refreshing horchata, atole or other beverage helps to wash it down. The evening meal is often again a simple affair of tortillas and beans.

Typical Salvadoran Dishes

A list of typical Salvadoran dishes and foods. Use it to help you plan a Salvadoran-style meal, party or festival.

Soups and Stews

  • Caldo de Pescado (Fish stew)
  • Caldo de Pollo (Chicken stew)
  • Caldo de Res (Beef stew)
  • Sopa de Pata (Cow’s foot soup)

Salads

  • Curtido (Cabbage salad)

Poultry

  • Pavo Salvadoreño (Roast turkey with sauce)
  • Pollo Encebollado (Chicken simmered with onions)
  • Pollo Guisado con Hongos (Chicken with mushrooms)

Meats

  • Carne Asada (Grilled steak)
  • Lomo Entomatado (Beef with tomatoes)
  • Pastel de Carne (Meat pies)
  • Salpicón de Res (Shredded beef with tomatoes, chiles and cilantro)

Fish and Seafood

  • Ceviche de Camarones (Lime-cooked shrimp)
  • Pescado Empanizado (Breaded, fried fish filets)

Vegetables and Beans

  • Casamiento (Black beans and rice)
  • Chiles Rellenos (Stuffed chile peppers)
  • Frijoles Refritos (Refried beans)
  • Pacalla (Batter-fried palm flowers with tomato sauce)
  • Plátanos Fritos (Fried ripe plantains)
  • Yuca Frita con Chicharrón (Fried yuca with pork cracklings)

Breads and Grains

  • Casamiento (Black beans and rice)
  • Pupusas (Stuffed masa flatbread)
  • Tamales de Elote (Fresh corncakes)
  • Tamales Pisques (Tamales stuffed with black beans)
  • Tamales Salvadoreños (Tamales stuffed with chicken and potatoes)
  • Ticucos (“Travelers” tamales)
  • Tortillas (Corn flatbread)

Sauces and Condiments

  • Salsa Roja (Tomato sauce)
  • Vinagre de Piña (Pineapple vinegar)

Desserts

  • Arroz con Leche (Rice pudding)
  • Atol de Elote (Corn pudding)
  • Flan de Leche (Caramel custard)
  • Maria Luisa (Jam-filled layer cake)
  • Pastel de Tres Leches (Cake of three milks)
  • Pastelitos (Filled turnovers)
  • Quesadilla Salvadoreña (Sweet cheese poundcake)
  • Semita (Jam-filled coffee cake)

Beverages

  • Atol de Elote (Corn beverage)
  • Atole de Piña (Pineapple beverage)
  • Atol de Shuco (Purple corn beverage)
  • Batido (Fruit milkshake)
  • Café de Maíz (Toasted corn “coffee”)
  • Cerveza (Beer)
  • Chicha (Fermented corn beverage)
  • Horchata (Sweet rice beverage; see recipe notes)
  • Kolashanpan (Salvadoran cola)

Salvadoran Recipes

Vinagre de Piña 
(Central American pineapple vinegar)

Quesadilla Salvadoreña 
(Salvadoran sweet cheese poundcake)

Salsa Roja 
(Salvadoran tomato sauce)

Horchata de Arroz 
(Latin sweet rice beverage)

Curtido 
(Salvadoran cabbage salad)

Pupusas 
(Salvadoran, Honduran stuffed masa flatbread)

Chismol 
(Central American fresh tomato, pepper and onion salsa)

Pastel de Tres Leches 
(Central American cake of three milks)

Torta Maria Luisa 
(Latin marmalade-filled layer cake)

Salpicón de Res 
(Central American shredded beef salad)

Pollo Encebollado 
(Central American chicken simmered with onions)

Plátanos Fritos 
(Latin fried ripe plantains)

Carne Asada 
(Central American grilled steak)

Flan de Leche 
(Latin caramel custard)

Tamales de Elote 
(Central American fresh corncakes)

Semita de Piña 
(Salvadoran jam-filled pastry)

Pavo Salvadoreño 
(Salvadoran roast turkey with sauce)

Casamiento 
(Salavadoran black beans and rice)

Atol de Elote 
(Central American corn beverage)



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