This blueberry limonada is inspired by chicha morada—a traditional Peruvian drink that families from Lima to the Andes mountains make with a purple corn elixir and lime juice that is sweetened and spiced with fruit peel and cinnamon. Corn is one of the primary foods that my Inca ancestors cultivated, and purple corn is rich in antioxidants. I now live in Oregon, so I wanted to make a drink that honored chicha morada but with local ingredients. Here, blueberries are native to the Pacific Northwest, have the same deep purple color as the corn in chicha morada, and are also rich in antioxidants. The aromatics in chicha morada are infused into the syrup with cinnamon, cloves, and orange peel. The vibrant color of the drink celebrates the summer seaon, and the garnish of a lime round, fresh mint, and blueberries on a toothpick gives the drink a cocktail vibe.
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Vegan Tallarines Rojos
Thanks to Italian immigrants who settled in Lima in the 1800s, the city’s working class adopted tallarines rojos (red spaghetti), a dish with a tomato sauce that evolved from Italy’s Bolognese sauce. Over time, Lima’s cooks added creole spices such as cumin, cinnamon, and bay leaves. My grandmother prepared this dish for beach picnic outings during my mom’s youth in 1940s Lima, and my mom prepared this dish for our picnic outings when I was a child. Today, I carry on the tradition and prepare tallarines rojos for my family. In this vegan version, cooking red lentils in the sauce provides protein and a creamy consistency, while agave adds a hint of sweetness. Since tomatoes are native to Peru, this dish also represents a culinary journey. The tomato travels from Peru to Italy and returns as a sauce. For a hearty combinado, serve with vegan papa a la huancaina.
Vegan Papa a la Huancaina
Peru’s Indigenous people have cultivated hundreds of native potato varieties in the Andes for centuries. They boil, fry, roast, and bake potatoes in earthen ovens. And they make potato salads with various dressings. One is papa la huancaina, or potatoes in the style of Huancayo, a town in Peru’s Andes. Boiled potato rounds are bathed in a creamy cheese sauce that street food vendors make with milk and queso fresco. Ground aji amarillo, Peru’s native yellow hot pepper adds color and heat. One story goes that women from Huancayo prepared this dish for workers that constructed the railroad line from Lima to Huancayo. Served on a bed of lettuce, this vegan version has the same aji amarillo and onion aderezo base, while the mixture of oat milk, coconut yogurt, and nutritional yeast (nooch) replaces the savory profile in queso fresco. For a hearty combinado, serve with vegan tallarines rojos.
El Capitan Variations
El Capitán
El Capitán is a pisco and sweet vermouth cocktail with several spirit-forward variations. 19th century Italian immigrants in Lima served a room temperature aperitif with equal parts pisco and sweet vermouth. Named after cavalry captains in Peru’s sierras, the drink evolved into a Manhattan-like cocktail that’s popular at Lima’s bars. The classic drink calls for equal proportions pisco and vermouth; the reverse variation adds more vermouth to make it sweeter; and the so-called perfect variation use a split base of both sweet and dry vermouth.
Vegan Pisco Sour
The Pisco Sour is the classic cocktail of pisco, lime juice, simple syrup, and egg whites. The American bartender Victor Morris popularized the cocktail at his bar in Lima during the 1920’s. But an early recipe appears in the Peruvian creole cookbook Nuevo Manual De Cocina a La Criolla (Lima, 1903). Here, replacing the egg whites with aquafaba makes the cocktail vegan. Instead of a shaker, use a blender to crush the ice and make a frothy aquafaba foam.