El Salvador: vegan pupusas with curtido

It is time to make some vegan pupusas from El Salvador! From our last stop in West Africa, a quick skip over the Atlantic Ocean brings us to Central America where we visit El Salvador. Pupusas are a very popular street food in both El Salvador, neighbouring countries and across the US. Pockets of corn flour are filled with cheese and, in the case of these vegan pupusas, refried beans. Pupusas are served with salsa roja and curtido, a pickled cabbage condiment. Read on to learn a bit more about Salvadoran cuisine and pupusas or jump straight to the recipe.

Salvadoran cuisine

El Salvador is a small country in Central America and the country’s cuisine is quite representative of the region ​[1], [2]​. Indigenous dishes from people like the Pipil, Mayans, and Xinca mix with influences from the Spanish colonizers. Popular ingredients include corn, corn flour, and nixtamalized corn flour (masa harina). Cassava (locally known as yuca), plantain, and rice are other important carbohydrates. Tortillas or bread rolls are served with most meals. Salvadoran cuisine also uses a lot of beans and fresh vegetables such as avocado, tomato, peppers, chilis, and squash.

The Salvadoran kitchen is full of interesting dishes ​[1], [2]​. You will find deep-fried cassava/yuca fritters (often served with ham), many different soups, and a large variety of tamales. Tamales, stuffed and steamed corn packets, are very similar to the chuchitos we made when visiting Guatemala. Salvadoran tamales come with a large variety of stuffing, including chickpeas, capers, potatoes, and olives. There are even tamales filled with sugar or jam. Crazy corn (eloto loco) is a street food grilled corn drenched in cheese, ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, and Worchestershire sauce.

Salvadoran cuisine is filled with stuffed pockets ​[1], [2]​. You will find Salvadoran empanadas which are very different from the Argentinian empanadas we made previously. In El Salvador there is a dessert version where the shell is made from mashed plantains instead of dough and the empanadas are filled with vanilla custard or beans. Pasteles are another little pocket snack where a corn dough is seasoned with tangy achiote powder, filled with meat or vegetables, and deep-fried. But without a doubt, the most popular Salvadoran stuffed pocket food is the country’s national dish, the pupusa.

Pupusas

Pupusas are a popular Salvadoran dish and has been appointed national dish of the country. They are made from nixtamalized cornflour (masa harina) and stuffed with cheese or cheese and finely ground pork, refried beans, or loroca flowers ​[3]​. In El Salvador, pupusas are eaten any time of day: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and as a quick snack. Pupusas are generally served with red salsa and curtido ​[3]​. Curtido is a ferment or vinegar pickle made from green cabbage, onion, garlic, chilis, and seasoned with cumin seeds and oregano ​[4]​.

Pupusas have likely been made in El Salvador for more than 2000 years ​[5]​. The Pipil people, an Indigenous group in El Salvador, used to make an early version of the pupusa, as evidenced by archeological finds ​[6], [7]​. Particularly strong evidence is found at the Joya de Cerén archeological site, a village covered by ash during a volcanic eruption in the 7th century C.E. Here, both ingredients and tools for making pupusas have been found. In the Pipil language, pupusa means “swollen”. Interestingly, the pre-colonial pupusas were usually vegan and filled with vegetables and squash flowers ​[6]​.

Pupusas in other countries

Pupusas are also eaten in El Salvador’s neighbor Honduras which also stakes claim to being the original creator of the dish ​[7]​. Pupusas are also very similar to Mexican gordita, a corn tortilla stuffed with similar ingredients ​[8]​. The name gordita means “chubby” or “little fatty” since the gordita is thicker than a plain tortilla. The pupusa is also related to arepas, which are eaten in the northern parts of South America, such as Colombia. Arepas are thick corn tortillas often stuffed with cheese and usually served with elaborate toppings, turning them into something resembling a sandwich or taco ​[7]​.

In the 1980s, many El Salvadorians fled civil war in the country and ended up in the United States and other countries ​[5]​. Many Salvadorian immigrants opened up pupuserias in their new home cities and since then, pupusas have become a popular street food in the United States.

Vegan pupusas

Pupusas are corn flour tortillas filled with cheese alone or cheese with finely ground pork, refried beans or loroca flowers ​[3]​. To make a vegan pupusas recipe for this post, I opted for Salvadoran refried beans with a touch of vegan shredded cheese. Salvadoran refried beans are very simple to make ​[8]–[10]​. You soak and boil beans with onion and garlic and blend them with the garlic and onion and a bit of the cooking liquid. Finally, you fry the blended beans in a pan to thicken the mixture. To make it even simpler, I used canned beans this time.

The dough is simple to make and is already vegan: simply mix masa harina, salt and water until you have a dough of the correct texture ​[10], [11]​. Then pat the dough between your hands to flatten it. Youtube user Views on the road shows how it is done in this clip. When you have a nice flat dough piece, you create a pouch, add your beans and cheese and seal it up. Flatten again and fry until golden.

Curtido

Curtido is a traditional Salvadoran fermented condiment similar to sauerkraut ​[4], [10], [11]​. Curtido is served alongside pupusas and other dishes. The traditional way to make curtido is to ferment green cabbage with onion, garlic, jalapeño, carrot, and spices like cumin seeds and oregano. A faster way to make curtido is to replace the fermentation step with a vinegar pickle, reducing the time from days to hours. I opted for this faster approach here in this post.

Vinegar pickling makes the curtido less similar to sauerkraut but more similar to Swedish pizza salad. Yes, Swedish pizza salad is a thing. If you order pizza at almost any Swedish pizzeria, you will get a bowl of shredded green cabbage with a few slices of roasted peppers, drenched in vinegar and seasoned with oregano.

Conclusion

These vegan pupusas were delicious and it is easy to see why they are such a popular street food. Floral notes of masa harina combines well with the mild beans and cheesy gooey-ness of the vegan grated cheese. Pupusas are a great vehicle for scooping salsa. I also really liked having the curtido as a condiment. I ended up eating all four curtido in a single sitting and the sour and spicy curtido was a great pallet cleanser to go with the meal.

I am not always a big fan of vegan shredded cheese but I decided to use it anyway in this dish. Sometimes it works. I did not add a lot though. If you’re a big fan of vegan shredded cheese, you can of course add much more. You can even skip the refried beans and make cheese-stuffed pupusas.

The bottom line: I’m glad I got to try vegan pupusas and I will make them again, or maybe try some Mexican gordita next time.

Vegan pupusas recipe

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Vegan pupusas with curtido

Course Snack, street food

Cuisine Central American, Latin American

Keyword beans, masa harina, street food

Ingredients

Curtido

• 300 g green cabbage
• ½ carrot
• ¼ onion
• ½-1 jalapeno
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 200 mL pickling vinegar, 5%
• 200 mL water
• 1 tsp salt

Refried beans

• ½ can black beans
• 1/4 onion
• 1 clove garlic
• salt to taste
• oil for cooking

Pupusas

• 400 mL masa harina
• salt to taste
• 350 mL water
• oil for frying
• 3 tbsp shredded vegan cheese

For serving

• red salsa, homemade or store-bought
• curtido recipe here

Instructions

Curtido

• Prepare curtido the day before you plan to make the pupusas.
• Shred the cabbage and cut the carrots into match sticks. Slice the jalapeno.

Salsa

• Blend tomatoes, onion, garlic, and chilies until smooth.
• Heat oil in pot or a pan. Add the blended vegetables and cook for 5-10 minutes. Add salt to taste.
• Let cool. Can be prepared the day before as well.

Refried beans

• Blend beans, onion, and garlic with salt. Add water if needed but sparingly.
• Heat oil in a pan. Cook the bean puré for 10-20 minutes or longer on medium heat. Stir to prevent burning. It should thicken and adopt a texture similar to Play-doh. It will thicken more as it cools.
• Let the beans cool. The beans can be prepared the day before.

Pupusa dough

• Prepare the pupusa dough by adding the masa harina and salt to a bowl.
• Add water, a bit at a time to the masa and work into the flour.
• Keep adding water to the dough until it adopts a stiff, somewhat sticky texture. To test, you should be able to form the dough into balls that hold their shape and don't all apart. The dough should not stick to your hands.

Make the pupusas

• Take a bit of dough and form it into a ball.
• Create an indentation in the ball using your fingers.
• Add some refried beans and some vegan cheese to the hole.
• Close the pupusa by working the sides upward into a bowl shape and then closing the bowl. Pinch of any surplus dough.
• Work the filled pupusa back into a ball shape and then flatten it. You can wet your hands with oil or water to make sure the dough doesn't crack.
• Fry the pupusa in a lightly oiled pan. A few minutes per side to create a slightly browned surface.
• Serve the pupusas with curtido and a red salsa of your choice.

References