🥔 Vegetarian Pupusas w/ One Potato Curtido Slaw and a side of Plantains

BONUS RECIPE for all subscribers! Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with a recipe for Pupusas, traditional Salvadoran street food. Yum!

As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 through October 15, it’s a perfect time to explore the rich culinary traditions from across Latin America. Pupusas are a traditional, beloved street food from El Salvador — essentially, a corn pancake stuffed with savory fillings. They can be stuffed with a variety of fillings, like cheese, beans, and pork, and served with a side of tangy curtido (pickled cabbage slaw). In our vegetarian One Potato pupusa recipe, we fold cheese into our homemade dough and top the pupusas with black beans, fresh curtido (cabbage slaw), salsa verde, and other delectable accompaniments that are sure to make your mouth happy!

Great News! We’ve improved our One-Click Grocery Shopping through Instacart! To save you time, we pre-fill your cart with all the ingredients you need to cook up the weekly One Potato recipes. It’s now easier than ever. One Potato is a reader supported publication, to receive all the One Potato recipes and shopping lists, plus community profiles and articles about raising a heathy family, consider upgrading your subscription:

Hispanic Heritage Month gives us an opportunity to celebrate the cultures, histories, and contributions of the Hispanic and Latino communities in the United States, highlighting the vibrant diversity that enriches our shared experience. Salvadoran independence is also honored during this period. El Salvador celebrates its independence from Spain on September 15, 1821, alongside other Central American nations. This historical moment laid the foundation for the country’s cultural and national identity, and today, Salvadorans around the world commemorate it with parades, festivals, and, of course, delicious food like pupusas.

This recipe features our homemade One Potato Curtido and One Potato Salsa Verde, but with all of our recipes you’re welcome to use your favorite store-bought alternatives to save time when getting dinner on the table.

Meal Prep Tips:

1. Prepare salsa verde in advance: Make a batch of One Potato Salsa Verde up to a week ahead. This will save time on the day you plan to cook.

2. Pre-make curtido slaw: These pupusas feature our One Potato Curtido Slaw recipe. This slaw can be made a few days ahead and stored in the refrigerator, allowing the flavors to meld beautifully. However, just like in our shredded chicken arepas recipe, we’ve included a quick tossed cabbage/broccoli slaw for crunch and flavor; but if you have time we recommend making the curtido slaw for that extra oomph.

3. Chop and store vegetables: You can dice the vegetables (onions, garlic) ahead of time and store them in the fridge. This makes cooking the beans and preparing the slaw quicker.

Time Savers:

1. Store-bought alternatives: We’re busy, too, and don’t always have time to make homemade salsa verde, guacamole, or pico de gallo. Purchase pre-made guacamole, pico de gallo, and salsa verde from the grocery store to save prep time.

2. Purchase pupusas: You can likely find different flavors of already formed pupusas from your local Whole Foods, Latin American market, or order online.

3. Use already seasoned black beans: We’re a fan of these Somos Mexican Black Beans, and you can usually find already seasoned canned black beans at your local store.

4. Goya-brand side of cooked plantains: To save time frying plantains, you may be able to find already cooked frozen plantains at your local Latin American market.

Make Extra:

1. Make extra pupusa dough or make ahead: You can keep pre-made pupusa dough in the freezer for up to 4 months. After preparing the dough and before cooking, place on a sheet tray and freeze for 30 minutes or until frozen solid, and then transfer to a freezer-safe bag. When ready to use, defrost in the fridge for 24 hours and cook your pupusa dough as directed, following the recipe.

2. Make extra curtido slaw: You can store curtido in an airtight container or mason jar for up to 1 week in the fridge, and add it to tacos for a taco night, for extra crunch on a black bean burger or a burrito bowl, getting an extra meal or two out of these ingredients.

Don’t forget our mantra: we recommend reading through the full recipe and taking out all the ingredients before you begin cooking.

Vegetarian Pupusas w/ Curtido and Plantains

For 4 Servings

PREP TIME: 15 MINUTES | COOK TIME: 25 MINUTES

TOTAL TIME: 40 MINUTES

One Potato Kitchen Tools: 2 large sauté pans, small sauce pan, paper towel, chef’s knife, cutting board

From Your Pantry: salt (kosher or sea), pepper, canola oil, olive oil, rice wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, white sugar

Ingredients: 

• For Pupusa Dough:

  • 2 cups masa harina (corn flour)

  • 1 1/2 cups water

  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

  • 1/3 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend

• For Seasoned Black Beans

  • 1 can (15 oz.) black beans (drained, rinsed)

  • ½ c. water 

  • ½ small onion

  • ½ Tbsp garlic (minced)

  • 1 tsp adobo seasoning 

  • 1 Tbsp fresh cilantro (chopped, optional)

  • 1 tsp red wine vinegar

  • Salt (to taste)

• 1 package cabbage or broccoli slaw (or curtido*)

• 4 ripe yellow plantains

• guacamole (for serving)

• pico de gallo (for serving)

• oaxaca cheese (shredded, for serving)

• sour cream (for serving)

*One Potato Curtido (optional)

*One Potato Salsa Verde (optional - or store bought)

Printable Shopping List Here

Directions:

Prepare Pupusa Dough:

1. Make the Dough: Combine the masa, water and salt in a bowl and stir to combine into a dough.

2. Divide and Shape Dough: Divide the dough into enough pieces for each person to have two pupusas, each dough ball approximately 2-3 inches (there will be enough dough for 6 balls). Shape each piece into a ball, then press your thumbs into the center of each ball to create a well. Place 1 Tbsp of shredded Mexican cheese blend into each well and carefully pinch the edges of the dough together to enclose the cheese.

3. Flatten Dough Balls: Using your hands, press and flatten each dough ball, making it into a ¼” thick disk. Repeat with the remaining dough balls.

Cook Pupusas:

4. Heat and Cook: Coat the bottom of a large sauté pan with oil. Add pupusas and cook for 4-5 minutes on each side, until golden. Don’t overcrowd the pan. Unless your pan is large enough, you’ll need to cook the pupusas in two batches. Once the pupusas have finished cooking, place them onto a paper towel-lined plate.

   Pro Tip I: To prevent sticking, lightly oil your hands before you start working with the pupusa dough.

   Pro Tip II: You can keep the pupusas warm in a 250˚F oven for up to 20 minutes prior to serving.

Prepare Curtido Slaw or Cabbage/Broccoli slaw:

5. Marinate slaw: If you don’t want to make homemade curtido slaw, substitute with this quick cabbage slaw to add that crunch to your pupusas. Place the cabbage or broccoli slaw in a serving bowl. Dress lightly with a dash of rice wine vinegar, olive oil, equal parts salt and white sugar to taste. Stir and set aside to marinate.

Prepare Plantains and Beans:

6. Peel & Cut the Plantains: While the pupusas are cooking, peel the plantains. Using a sharp knife, cut off both ends, then slice deeply down the peel and use your thumb to pull the skin off completely. Cut the plantains lengthwise into 3” pieces.

7. Cook Plantains: Coat the bottom of a large sauté pan with oil and cook plantains for 3-4 minutes over medium to high heat on each side, or until golden. Remove from heat and transfer to a serving plate.

8. Sauté Ingredients for Black Beans: In a medium saucepan, heat canola oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic, sauté until soft, about 2 minutes.

9. Cook Beans: Add black beans, water, adobo seasoning, and red wine vinegar. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low simmer, cover, and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste and season with salt. Remove from heat, add fresh cilantro (optional), and set aside until ready to assemble the pupusas.

   Pro Tip: Omit the cilantro or substitute with parsley if you or members of your family are not fans of cilantro.

Serve:

10. Assemble and Enjoy: Remove pupusas from the oven. Have fun building your pupusas! Have each family member top their individual pupusas with any combination of black beans, guacamole, salsa verde, pico de gallo, curtido or other slaw, Oaxaca cheese, and sour cream. If you have a lazy Susan, this is the perfect time to use it!

Serve with the plantains on the side. Enjoy!

Substitutions and Dietary Considerations

• Dairy free: Omit the cheese and sour cream, or use a vegan cheese substitute. 

• Gluten-free: This is a GF recipe. The masa harina used in the pupusa dough does not contain gluten. 

• Add protein: Pupusas can be topped with anything you like - Latin BBQ shredded chicken, pulled pork, crumbled chorizo, or even crumbled tofu or vegan chorizo.

Getting Kids Involved

• Kids can slice plantains (after they’ve been peeled) and be flavor tasters of the black beans.

• Kids can help form the pupusas, fill them with cheese and smash them flat - it's a tactile delight. 

• Kids can also set up the toppings bar. 

Pro Tips

• Picky Eaters? Have younger diners sample each of the toppings separately so they can discover which ones they like best. Then they’ll feel confident about what they like when they build their own pupusa.

• Spiciness levels: For kids who are sensitive to spicy foods, you can forego the salsa verde as a topping, or have them taste just a little bit at a time.

• Masa harina vs corn flour: Make sure that you buy masa harina for the pupusa dough, an ingredient frequently used it Latin American cuisine. Though both masa harina and cornflour are made from corn kernels, the process is different. Masa harina is created through a process called nixtamalization, where the corn kernels are soaked and treated with limewater and then milled. Regular cornflour is basically hulled and finely ground corn kernels, and not suitable for recipes that call for masa harina.

---

Tips for using our online Shopping List

For this recipe, we’ve saved you time by filling your shopping cart! All you need to do to have the ingredients quickly delivered is

1. Select your preferred store and delivery service (Instacart will show you how many items are available at your preferred store; if you would prefer organic, a different brand, or if the ingredient is not available at that store, simply click “show alternatives”)

2. Confirm the items and quantities that you want to purchase - Click “Add # Ingredients to Cart”

3. Check out and schedule your delivery

4. Feel free to message us with any questions

Follow us on IG @onepotatobox