Food in Bolivia: potatoes and corn

What do you eat in Bolivia? To get more information on Bolivia and America, check homeagerly. Potatoes have been the staple food in the highlands for centuries. Corn is also important in the diet. It has also been grown for a long time. It is eaten in many varieties, but drinks such as api are also made from corn. Api is drunk hot and thick and flavored with cinnamon.

Rice, on the other hand, has only been grown since the 1950s, but then also became a popular food, especially in the lowlands and valleys. They eat more cassava than potatoes there. There are also wheat and quinoa.

Typical other ingredients are beans, plantains and peanuts. Do you want to try what Bolivian peanut soup tastes like? You can cook them with our tip ! Fruits grow in many varieties, for example peaches, bananas, papaya, apples and pineapples. They are also used to make freshly squeezed juices.

Chuño

Potatoes are not only eaten cooked with almost every meal, but also as a chuño. This preparation is very old. Potatoes are preserved by removing the water from them. You may know this from other dried foods, for example you can also dry apple slices.

Chuño, however, is dried in the cold (freeze-drying). The potatoes are exposed to the cold Andean nights for five nights, and during the day they lie in the sun. If you wash the frozen potatoes, you get “white chuños”. If you want to prepare chuño then you have to put it back in water. The potatoes then swell. You chop it up and then add an egg, for example.

And what else is there?

Other typical dishes from the Bolivian cuisine are:

• Chairo: A typical dish from the Andes is Chairo. It’s a stew. In addition to beef, also as dried meat (chalona), it contains chuños, beans and corn.
• Cuñapé: Cuñapé are small rolls made from cheese and cassava flour. You can eat them like this or as a side dish.
• Llajua: Llajua (pronounced: Ljachua) is a hot sauce made from Locoto, onions and tomatoes. It is seasoned with Bolivian coriander. They are served with any type of dish, but especially with meat.
• Salteña: Filled dumplings are called empanadas in South America. A special Bolivian variant is the Salteña. The filling consists of meat, but it can also contain potatoes, olives or boiled eggs. Salteñas taste hot because they are seasoned with chilli. It is also typical that they are very juicy. They are mainly eaten in the morning.
• Silpancho: This dish consists of a large piece of meat that is breaded and served over rice and potatoes. On top of that there is a fried egg and a tomato and onion salad.
• Humitas (or Humintas): Corn dough is baked in a corn leaf, making it humita. Sweet they contain sugar and raisins, and hearty they are filled with cheese.
• Sandwich de Chola: The cholitas sell it on the street. Pieces of meat and escabeche (a salad made from onions and carrots) are put in bread.

Tea

In the Andes, people like to drink tea. It is made from coca leaves and is then called mate de coca. It helps to alleviate altitude sickness. The word mate actually comes from the mate bush. Tea is also made from its leaves, mate tea. But it is drunk more in the lowlands of the Gran Chaco. Mate is used in Bolivia and Peru to describe all types of infusion drinks.