Cocina Criolla · From the Coast to the Andes

Peruvian Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Step into the criolla kitchens of Peru, where the coast meets the sierra and every pot begins with good olive oil, gently rendered lard, or real butter. Honest ingredients and deep flavor, the way Peruvian homes have always cooked.

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Olive Oil✦ Manteca✦ Real Butter
A wide pan of seafood rice with prawns, mussels, and lemon wedges
✦ Arroz con Mariscos
From the recipe collection
Aceite de Oliva

Olive Oil and Butter

The criolla table leans on olive oil and real butter, fats with flavor of their own that carry aji, garlic, and lime the way nothing refined ever could.

Manteca

Slow Rendered Manteca

Manteca, the gently rendered lard of the Andean larder, gives breads, beans, and fried sweets a warmth no bottled oil can imitate.

Nunca

Never Vegetable Oil

No seed oils, no shortcuts. Only the traditional fats that the picanterias and mountain kitchens of Peru have trusted for generations.

🌿 Natural Wellness

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✦
From Our Kitchen

Peruvian Criolla Recipes

Six beloved dishes from the Peruvian coast and the high Andes, each cooked with the honest fats that bring out the best in every ingredient.

Lima Lomo Saltado, seared beef strips with onions and tomatoes in a dark pan sauce

Lomo Saltado

Fire seared beef stir fry

40 min·4 servings·Medium

The proudest dish of the Lima kitchen. Strips of beef thrown over a screaming hot flame with red onion, tomato, and aji amarillo, finished with soy and vinegar and served over rice.

Ingredients

  • 600 g beef sirloin, cut into thick strips
  • Salt, black pepper, and a pinch of ground cumin
  • 3 tbsp beef tallow or ghee
  • 1 large red onion, cut into thick wedges
  • 2 firm tomatoes, cut into wedges
  • 1 aji amarillo, seeded and sliced (or 1 yellow chile)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • A handful of cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
  • Cooked white rice and thick cut potatoes fried in tallow, to serve

Instructions

  1. Season the beef with salt, pepper, and cumin and let it sit while the pan heats.
  2. Melt the tallow in a wide pan or wok until it just begins to smoke.
  3. Sear the beef in two batches, tossing only once or twice, until browned outside and still juicy. Set aside.
  4. In the same pan, toss the onion, garlic, and aji for 1 minute so they char at the edges but keep their bite.
  5. Return the beef with the tomato wedges, then pour in the soy sauce and vinegar and let everything hiss and steam for 30 seconds.
  6. Shower with cilantro and serve at once over rice, with the fried potatoes tumbled through or alongside.
Costa Sudado de Pescado, fish simmered in a deep red tomato and aji broth

Sudado de Pescado

Coastal steamed fish stew

35 min·4 servings·Easy

The fisherman's pot of the Peruvian shore. Fillets of white fish laid over a sofrito of onion, tomato, and aji amarillo, then left to sweat gently in their own fragrant broth.

Ingredients

  • 4 thick fillets of sea bass or other white fish
  • Salt, black pepper, and juice of 2 limes
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large red onion, sliced into thick half moons
  • 3 ripe tomatoes, sliced
  • 2 tbsp aji amarillo paste (or 1 yellow chile, minced)
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 250 ml fish stock or water
  • A handful of cilantro sprigs
  • Boiled yuca or white rice, to serve

Instructions

  1. Season the fish with salt, pepper, and half the lime juice and set aside.
  2. Warm the olive oil in a wide pot and soften the onion and garlic for 5 minutes without coloring.
  3. Stir in the aji amarillo paste and cook 2 minutes until it smells sweet, then add the tomato slices.
  4. Pour in the stock, season, and let the base bubble gently for 5 minutes.
  5. Lay the fillets over the vegetables, cover, and let them steam in the broth 8 to 10 minutes until just cooked.
  6. Finish with the remaining lime juice and the cilantro, and carry the pot to the table with yuca or rice.
Huancayo Papa a la Huancaina, boiled potatoes dressed in a creamy golden aji sauce

Papa a la Huancaína

Potatoes in golden aji cream

30 min·4 servings·Easy

The beloved starter of the central Andes. Boiled yellow potatoes blanketed in a silky sauce of fresh cheese and aji amarillo, blended smooth with olive oil and evaporated milk.

Ingredients

  • 800 g yellow potatoes, scrubbed
  • 200 g queso fresco (or mild feta)
  • 3 tbsp aji amarillo paste
  • 120 ml evaporated milk
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 small clove garlic
  • Salt, to taste
  • Butter lettuce leaves, to line the plate
  • 2 hard boiled eggs, halved
  • A few black olives

Instructions

  1. Boil the potatoes in well salted water until tender, about 20 minutes, then peel and slice thickly.
  2. Blend the queso fresco, aji amarillo paste, garlic, and evaporated milk until smooth.
  3. With the motor running, pour in the olive oil slowly so the sauce turns pale gold and creamy.
  4. Taste for salt; the sauce should be gently spicy and rich enough to coat a spoon.
  5. Line a platter with lettuce, lay the warm potato slices over, and spoon the sauce generously on top.
  6. Crown with the halved eggs and olives and serve just barely warm.
Sierra Sopa de Quinua, a rustic Andean quinoa and vegetable soup in a deep bowl

Sopa de Quinua

Andean quinoa soup

45 min·6 servings·Easy

The everyday comfort of the high sierra. Quinoa simmered with potatoes, carrots, and fava beans in a buttery broth, finished with fresh cheese and mountain herbs.

Ingredients

  • 200 g quinoa, rinsed well
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp aji panca paste or sweet paprika
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • 150 g fava beans or peas
  • 1.5 liters vegetable or chicken stock
  • 100 g queso fresco, crumbled
  • Salt, black pepper, and fresh oregano or huacatay

Instructions

  1. Melt the butter in a soup pot and soften the onion and garlic for 5 minutes.
  2. Stir in the aji panca or paprika and cook 1 minute until fragrant.
  3. Add the quinoa, carrots, and potatoes and turn them in the butter to coat.
  4. Pour in the stock, bring to a simmer, and cook gently for 20 minutes.
  5. Add the fava beans and simmer 5 to 8 minutes more, until the quinoa uncurls and the potatoes are tender.
  6. Season, ladle into deep bowls, and finish each with crumbled queso fresco and a scatter of herbs.
Ayacucho Pan Chapla, rustic Andean flatbreads dusted with flour

Pan Chapla

Andean hearth flatbread

2 hr 30 min·8 flatbreads·Medium

The soft, blistered flatbread of the Ayacucho ovens. A simple dough enriched with a spoonful of manteca, flattened by hand and baked hot until it puffs and browns.

Ingredients

  • 500 g bread flour
  • 100 g whole wheat flour
  • 1½ tsp instant yeast
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp honey or sugar
  • 380 ml warm water
  • 2 tbsp manteca (lard) or soft butter, plus more for the tops
  • 1 tsp anise seeds, optional
  • Flour, for dusting

Instructions

  1. Stir the flours, yeast, salt, and anise together, then add the honey, water, and manteca and mix to a soft dough.
  2. Knead for 10 minutes until smooth and supple, then cover and rise about 1 hour 15 minutes until doubled.
  3. Divide into 8 pieces, roll into balls, and rest 15 minutes under a cloth.
  4. Flatten each ball by hand into a round about 1 cm thick, dimpling the center with your fingertips.
  5. Rise 30 minutes more on floured trays while the oven heats to 250°C (480°F) with a baking stone or heavy tray inside.
  6. Bake in batches 8 to 10 minutes until puffed and spotted brown, then brush the hot tops with a little melted manteca or butter.
  7. Cool under a cloth so the crusts stay tender, and eat warm with cheese or fresh from the hand.
La Feria Picarones, golden rings of fried squash dough soaked in spiced syrup

Picarones

Squash doughnuts in spiced syrup

1 hr 30 min·6 servings·Medium

The night market sweet of Lima. Airy rings of squash and sweet potato dough, fried golden in coconut oil and bathed in a dark syrup of raw cane sugar, cinnamon, and orange peel.

Ingredients

  • 300 g butternut squash, peeled and cubed
  • 200 g sweet potato, peeled and cubed
  • 1 tsp anise seeds
  • 2 tsp instant yeast
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 350 g all purpose flour
  • ½ tsp salt
  • Coconut oil or manteca, for deep frying
  • 250 g panela or dark raw cane sugar, for the syrup
  • 1 cinnamon stick, 2 cloves, and the peel of 1 orange

Instructions

  1. Boil the squash and sweet potato with the anise seeds until very tender, then drain, saving a cup of the cooking water.
  2. Mash to a smooth puree and let it cool to warm, then stir in the yeast and sugar.
  3. Work in the flour and salt, adding splashes of the reserved water, until you have a very soft, elastic, sticky dough. Cover and rise 1 hour.
  4. Meanwhile, simmer the panela with the spices, orange peel, and 300 ml water until it turns to a loose, glossy syrup.
  5. Heat a deep pot of coconut oil to 180°C (355°F). With wet hands, pull rings of dough and slip them into the oil.
  6. Fry each ring until deep gold on both sides, turning once, and drain on a rack.
  7. Stack the warm picarones in shallow bowls and pour the spiced syrup generously over the top.
Fresh ingredients and a simmering pot in a warm home kitchen
Our Kitchen

The Kitchen Behind Luadik Cocina

Luadik Cocina is a small home kitchen devoted to the criolla cooking of Peru, where the fish of the cold Pacific meets the potatoes, corn, and grains of the high Andes on one generous table. We write these recipes down the way they are still cooked in family kitchens from the coast to the sierra, slowly, simply, and always with a good pot and a hot flame.

Our only house rule is an old one: olive oil for the sofrito, manteca rendered gently on a low flame for the breads and the frying, butter from the churn and nothing else. Vegetable oil never comes through our door, because it never sat on the tables we learned from.

Buen provecho, may it feed you well.

✨ Wellness

Complete Your Wellness Journey with Nexburn

Your Peruvian kitchen already feeds you with real, wholesome ingredients. Nexburn takes that foundation further, with gentle natural support for your metabolism and an active, balanced life.

Starter
Nexburn 2 Bottles
2 Bottles
Was $358
$79/bottle
Total: $158
⚡ Fast Shipping
Order Now
Standard
Nexburn 3 Bottles
3 Bottles
Was $537
$69/bottle
Total: $207
You Save $330!
🚚 Free Shipping
Order Now
Best Seller
Nexburn 6 Bottles
6 Bottles
Was $1074
$49/bottle
Total: $294
You Save $780!
🚚 Free Shipping
Order Now
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60-Day Money-Back Guarantee. Try Nexburn completely risk free.