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Inside Peru Home - About Peruvian Food - Peruvian Cooking Tips

Peruvian Cooking 

Tips, Ingredients, and Substitutions

In Peruvian Cooking there are a lot of ingredients that are not usually found in your local grocery store. Don't panic! Here are some hints:



Many of the ingredients have substitutes that you can find in your area.

Peruvian Cooking
Peruvian Cooking - Aji Limo
  Lin Belaunde Morla via Flickr CC


Or you may be able to find a more specialized store with the ingredients you need.

Try this: Your local grocer will order some of the ingredients if you can convince them there is a need (non-perishables especially, like spices and flavorings).

On this page, we offer tips, definitions, explanations of ingredients, and substitutions where possible.

However, we need your help!

If you have found ingredients that substitute well for those found in Peruvian cooking, PLEASE SHARE!

Also see what others have said and ask questions of our "expert contributors."

Peruvian Cooking Tips as well as ingredients, definitions, and substitutes used in Peruvian Cooking:

Bananas (variously called "platanos" "maduros" "verdes" "guineos," etc.
There are a great number of different sizes and shapes of bananas. Basically, there are two types
1 - plaintains (platanos) - used for cooking, which are bigger than eating bananas and have pointy ends. They can be green (verdes) or ripe (maduros). 
2 - eating bananas (guineos, bananas, platanos) - these ones we are more familiar with and are eaten ripe and raw. 
Chorizo - Sausage.
-Many types of sausages are used in Peru from local or "casero" sausages to sausage imported from other countries. Unless specifically stated, a medium hot sausage can be used in recipes calling for chorizo.
rocoto - A pepper
- Rocoto is a pepper shaped like a bell pepper but hot. It has thick walls and is usually red. Smaller ones are green and not as commonly used.
Maize, Corn (choclo)
- The sweet corn that we are accustomed to eating is rarely seen or used in Peru. The varieties of corn are legion. The corn, or choclo used in Peruvian cooking may be tougher than "sweet corn," but it really has more flavor. It is not usually taken off the cob to cook. Even in soups, the whole cob is cut into sections and cooked cob and all. This adds a flavor that can be achieved no other way.

 PS - Lin and I are looking for a person with a little bit of web page knowledge and a love of cooking to help us keep these tips up to date. It is really not much work. Just occasionally updating submitted recipes and tips. Contact us if you are interested.

Share Your Great Peruvian Cooking Tips and Questions

Do you have a great tip for cooking Peruvian style? Or a question about ingredients? Any corrections to the recipes, etc? Add them here!

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See Also:

Index of Peruvian Food Recipes

Return to About Peru Food from Peruvian Cooking Tips

Return to Inside Peru Home page from Peruvian Cooking Tips

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