Pupusas
El Salvador's national dish. Unlike arepas or gorditas, which are split and filled after cooking, here the filling is sealed inside the dough before cooking. The whole difficulty comes down to one thing: masa has no gluten, so it does not stretch — flattened too thin it splits and the cheese escapes. The dough should be as soft as modelling clay, and the ball is shaped into a cup, not a disc.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Curtido (pickles in the background) 5 min
- Filling 15 min
- Dough and shaping 25 min
- Cooking 30 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneMake the curtido and set it aside
Pour boiling water over the shredded cabbage, carrot and onion for a minute, drain and mix with the vinegar, oregano and salt. Leave 30 minutes. Scalding softens the cabbage enough for the vinegar to penetrate in half an hour rather than several days. It pickles while you make the filling and the dough.
Ingredients: 400 g white cabbage · 1 pcs carrot · ½ pcs onion · 120 ml vinegar · 1 tsp oregano · 1 tsp salt
Cook the beans to a thick paste
Fry the onion with the garlic and cumin, add the beans and mash to a thick, firm paste. It must hold its shape on a spoon — loose beans burst the dough from inside during cooking.
Ingredients: 250 g mozzarella · 250 g red beans · ½ pcs onion · 2 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp oil · ½ tsp cumin
Knead the masa to a clay-like dough
Mix the masa harina with the warm water and salt and knead 5 minutes. The dough should be soft and moist but not sticky — test it: a ball flattened in your palm must not crack at the edges. If it cracks, add water a spoonful at a time. Divide the dough into 10 balls of about 95 g, and the filling — beans and cheese — into 10 portions as well.
Ingredients: 400 g masa harina · 550 ml water · 1½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil
A flattened ball with no cracked edges — that is the test.Shape a cup and fill it
Oil your hands, take one ball (a little larger than an egg) and hollow it into a cup with your thumb. Add a portion of beans (about a tablespoon) and about 25 g of cheese, then close the dough over the filling and roll it back into a ball. Oiled hands are essential — masa sticks to everything.
Ingredients: 250 g mozzarella · 250 g red beans · ½ pcs onion · 2 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp oil · ½ tsp cumin
A cup, not a disc — the filling goes inside.Flatten carefully to 1 cm
Flatten the ball between your palms, turning it as you go, to about 1 cm thick and 12 cm across. Too thin and it splits and the cheese runs into the pan. Pinch any small cracks at the edge closed before it goes on the griddle.
Ingredients: 400 g masa harina · 550 ml water · 1½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil
Cook on a dry, hot griddle
Heat a dry, ideally cast-iron pan over medium-high heat and cook the pupusas in batches (3–4 at a time) 4 minutes a side, until dark blistered spots appear — about 30 minutes in all. No fat: a pupusa is baked rather than fried, and those spots from direct contact with hot iron are its flavour. Keep the finished ones under a cloth.
Ingredients: 400 g masa harina · 550 ml water · 1½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil
A dry pan and dark spots — no oil.Serve hot with curtido
Serve immediately, with a heap of curtido on top. The cheese firms after a few minutes and a pupusa then loses the best thing about it. The sour cabbage is not optional — it cuts the richness of the cheese and the weight of the corn.
Ingredients: 400 g white cabbage · 1 pcs carrot · ½ pcs onion · 120 ml vinegar · 1 tsp oregano · 1 tsp salt
Before you start
Masa harina, not cornmeal
Two different things. Masa harina is made from nixtamalised corn, cooked in water with slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) — that is what makes the dough cohere and shape. Ordinary cornmeal simply crumbles in your hands.
Cheese that stretches
El Salvador uses quesillo. Mozzarella is the closest substitute; you can also mix it half and half with a mature cheese for more flavour. Feta will not work — it softens rather than melts.
Freeze them raw
Shaped, uncooked pupusas freeze on a tray and then go into a bag. Cook from frozen over lower heat, adding 3 minutes a side — the best route to a fast weekday breakfast.
