Christmas Eve: 3 salads with Peruvian ingredients that cannot be missing in your Christmas dinner

The night of December 24 is one of the most anticipated moments of the year. The food is definitely the star. Most households favor the traditional turkey, but there are also those who prefer the pig. Although Russian salad and applesauce have been the official companions for decades, many – secretly – would like to break this custom. Advantage of El Comercio spoke with Palmiro Ocampo, Flavio Solórzano and Nilo do Carmo. The three cooks shared their salad recipes with Peruvian ingredients with which you can get out of the routine on Christmas Eve. Let’s do it!

1. Sweet and sour quinoa and vegetable salad, by Flavio Solórzano

Each serving of this recipe provided by the Señorío de Sulco chef provides 30% of the recommended dietary fiber in a day and contains more protein than two glasses of soy milk and 9 times more antioxidants than a broccoli. Makes up to 4 generous servings.

Fried quinoa ingredients

• White quinoa 50 grams
• Water 150 ml
• Vegetable oil

Vinaigrette ingredients

• Water 50 ml
• Red vinegar 60 ml
• Chopped smoked bacon 60 g
• Honey or brown sugar 30 g
• Mustard grains 30 g
• Vegetable Acceptance 100 ml

Salad ingredients

• Pink quinoa 150 g
• Water 200 ml
• Purple cabbage 200 g
• Red onion 50 g
• Carrot 60 g
• Guindones 40 g
• Blueberries 50 g
• Fried Quinoa 50 g

Preparation

fried quinoa

Cook the quinoa together with the water for eighteen minutes, strain the excess water, spread out on a plate and let it dry completely.

Fry little by little with the help of a strainer, immersing in hot oil for a few seconds before removing.

Place on absorbent paper to remove excess oil. Reserve.

Vinaigrette

In a saucepan place the water, vinegar, and chopped bacon and cook over low heat for ten minutes until the texture of the bacon is softened and the liquid has reduced by almost half.

Add sugar or honey, mustard and oil: mix well.

Remove the pot from the heat, cool and emulsify with the help of a whisk. Reserve.

Salad

Place the quinoa (unwashed) together with the water in a saucepan, cook for eighteen minutes until grated.

Chop the cabbage finely, soak in salted water for 30 minutes and strain before using.

Chop the onion very finely and reserve in water.

Cut the carrot into two-centimeter strings, chop the chilli and cut the blueberries into halves or quarters.

Mix everything, add the vinaigrette and serve.

2. Yucca and potato salad with greek yogurt vinaigrette with coriander, by Nilo do Carmo

The chef always has Peruvian ingredients and flavors on his mind. Currently, he is outside the country leading the kitchen of the Crowne Plaza de Asunción (Paraguay).

Ingredients

• 500 gr of cooked and fried cassava and cubed
• 400 gr of diced cocktail potatoes
• 2 apples in cubes
• 3 sliced ​​oranges
• 200 grams of peanuts peeled and roasted
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 cup of Greek yogurt
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• Cumin to taste

Preparation

Boil potatoes and yuccas. Place them in a pot and cover them with enough water. Let cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes until slightly soft. Remove them from the heat and once they cool, you can peel them and cut them into small cubes.

For the vinaigrette, pour lemon juice, orange zest, Greek yogurt, coriander, salt, pepper, cumin (to taste) and a dash of olive oil into a bowl. Stir very well with a spoon. Booking.

In a large bowl, place the potatoes and yuccas in cubes together with the apple -with or without skin- and the orange slices. Then add the peanuts. Mix everything very carefully as the potato could fall apart and everything would be in a puree. Add the vinaigrette that you prepared previously and mix again so that all the ingredients are integrated.

Serve in small individual bowls and enjoy right away. You can add banana slices to decorate and give it an extra touch of flavor.

Be careful: peanuts can be added at the time of serving, since if you spend a lot of time with the salad juice they become watery. Also, if you want to save the salad for later, it will take on a flavor that may not be pleasant.

3. Christmas Salad, by Palmiro Ocampo

The founder of Ccori Cocina Óptima points out that this recipe is ideal to accompany meats with a crunchy touch such as turkey or roast suckling pig.

Salad ingredients

• Not so ripe banana and its peels
• Green apple
• Blueberries
• Orange wedges
• Papa Yungay
• Celery, chopped in half
• Celery leaves

Vinaigrette ingredients

Preparation

The strawberries are cut into quarters and placed in a bowl. Sprinkle with sugar and rosemary to taste. The bowl is placed in a water bath (covered) until obtaining a strawberry sauce. This mixture is passed through a strainer and we are only left with the coolie. To this salt, oregano pepper, balsamic vinegar, mayonnaise and olive oil are added. Once everything is mixed you get the vinaigrette for the salad.

For the salad you should mix the banana chopped into small slices, the green apple cut into half moons, the yungay potato also chopped, the celery cut in half, and the blueberries.

To decorate, chop the banana skin and wash it well. Then boil it for five minutes. Once this type has passed, the banana skin is drained and cooked in the strawberry syrup left in the bowl until caramelized. After removing it from the bowl, salt is added and cinnamon is sprinkled on it. Place the banana skin on the salad in the shape of a crown.