Pupusas with Curtido & Tomato Salsa, El Salvador’s #1 Food

Pupusas are the nationally famous dish of El Salvador, enjoyed any time of day and stuffed with a delicioso range of savory fillings. Sold almost everywhere they go back home, Salvadoreans love pupusas so much they’ve even designated a national holiday for the masa harina-stuffed treat. The Central American nation celebrates National Pupusa Day on the second Sunday of November every year.

Because we love pupusas here at Familia Kitchen, we asked one of our favorite Salvadorean homecooks, Estela Medrano Benitez (check out her delicioso pollo en pinol, made for special occasions and Salvadorean holidays), to show us how to make her favorite pupusa. Below is her recipe for cheese pupusas or pupusas de queso, which we plan to make regularly and especially every second Sunday in November.

Estela explains that she always fills her pupusas with cheese because they are her family’s absolute favorite. Other popular pupusa stuffings include:
• cheese and beans,
• cheese and chicharron (pork rinds),
• cheese and loroco (a native Central American climbing vine with edible flowers. Loroco tastes something like artichoke or asparagus),
• cheese and chicken

But First a Word on What Pupusas are Not

Pupusas are often confused with other popular Latino ground corn flour stuffed-masa street foods. Here’s a quick overview of the other dishes that pupusas are sometimes mistaken for — and how they are different.
Pupusas are sometimes confused with:
• Arepas, which are nationally beloved in both Venezuela and Colombia. But the type of corn flour (precooked cornmeal vs. masa harina) is different and arepas are not stuffed before cooking.
See how to make arepas here.
• Gorditas, and we have to admit they look very similar. Both are made with masa harina. But ”the difference between a gordita and pupusa is how you cook them,” explains Vivi Abeja, one of our favorite Familia Kitchen Mexican cooks. ”With pupusas, you put the filling in the raw masa, and both masa and filling are cooked together on the hot comal. With gorditas, first you cook the raw masa with no filling, and once it’s toasted and nice and golden, you slice it open, and add whatever filling you want. Then, you cook the gordita again to heat the filing.”
See how to make cheese and bean gorditas here.
• Tortillas, because both are made with masa harina. But a pupusa is fluffier, thicker and stuffed. Corn tortillas are not filled with anything, of course.
See how to make Mexican corn tortillas here and how to make Panamanian corn tortillas here.
• Empanadas. Both are stuffed with traditional Latino ingredients, and both are regularly sold by street vendors in their home countries. But empanadas are made with wheat flour, not corn, and are usually fried or baked, not cooked on a griddle, stoptop pan, or comal.
See how to make empanadas here.

Want to go deeper into the differences between Latin America’s favorite corn and wheat stuffed foods? We write all about it in this Familia Kitchen essential guide: “How are Arepas, Pupusas and Empanadas Different?“

And now, back to pupusas. Read on for how to make and cook this delicioso Salvadorean staple.

How to Make Pupusas, Salvadoreans’ Go-to Snack

The main ingredient in pupusas is masa harina, a type of dried and finely ground field corn flour that has gone through a process called nixtamalization. (The leading masa harina brand is Maseca, easily found in most — we want to say all — grocery stores in the U.S.) Mix the masa harina with water and shape the resulting masa dough into 2”-size small balls, each slightly cupped so that it can hold the filling. Add your choice of stuffing and then fold the masa around it to seal the filling inside. The last step to form and cook your pupusa is to use your hands to flatten the masa ball into a thin disc, brush it with vegetable or olive oil, and brown it on both sides on a griddle or comal that’s bien calientito.

The Pupusa’s Best Pals: Curtido and Tomato Salsa

Now, let’s talk about the pupusa’s eternal sidekicks: Curtido and tomato salsa.

Curtido is a coleslaw-like, slightly fermented mix of shredded cabbage, carrots, chopped onion and vinegar. Tart, crunchy and juicy, curtido is absolutely essential when taking the first bite of any pupusa. Salvadorean curtido is not complete without a spoonful or two of the nation’s beloved tomato salsa. Blend tomatoes, garlic, onion and a hint of chile and simmer on the stove for about 10 minutes. Drizzle the salsita de tomate on top of the cabbage, carrot and red onion mixture for a tasty hit of acid and sweet to complement the cheesy richness of every pupusa.

Estela hopes you love her pupusas de queso as much as her family does. Funnily enough, she tells Familia Kitchen she only started making pupusas after she moved to the States. Pupusas are so popular and found literally almost everywhere back in El Salvador, she never had to make them herself.

But now that they live in Maryland,  her husband and son beg her to make pupusas all the time, and she gives in about once a month, she says. Why not more often? ”Es que engordan,” Estela smiles. Pupusas are not especially waist-friendly. So she saves them for a special treat every so often.

On the lucky days when she announces she’s making pupusas, everyone comes running into the kitchen to scoop a hot one off the griddle and eat it with curtido and salsa, she reports. Pupusas are the taste of El Salvador, no matter where she and her family live, says Estela.

Ready to Make Estela’s Traditional Pupusas de Queso?

Pupusas with Curtido & Tomato Salsa, El Salvador’s #1 Dish

Recipe by Estela Medrano Benitez

5.0 from 1 vote

Cuisine: El Salvador

Servings

20 to 25

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

30

minutes

Ingredients

• For the Curtido

• 1/2 head cabbage, sliced

• 1 carrot, shredded

• 1/2 red onion, sliced

• 2 Tbsp white vinegar

• 1 tsp salt

• For the Pupusa Masa and Filling

• 4 cups masa harina

• 4 cups water, warm

• 3 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

• 3 Tbsp olive oil, divided

• 1 (optional) jalapeño, thinly sliced wheels, for garnish

• For the Tomato Salsa

• 8 Roma tomatoes

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1 Tbsp salt, or to taste

• 1 Tbsp cumin

• 1 tsp ground chipotle chile powder (or 1/3 Tbsp)

• 4 Tbsp olive oil

Directions

• Make the Curtido
• Mix the cabbage, carrot and red onion in a bowl.
• Add the vinegar and salt.
• Toss and set aside to let the vegetables cook soak in the vinegar and start to slightly ferment.
• Prep the Pupusa Masa
• In a bowl mix the masa harina and the slightly warm water.
• When the masa and water are well blended and moist to the touch, set aside to let it sit for a few minutes.
• Make the Tomato Salsa
• Chop the tomatoes.
• Add the tomatoes, garlic, salt, cumin and chile powder in a blender. Pulse until well blended and the mixture turns a dusty pink color.
• In a saucepan, warm the olive oil over low heat.
• Pour the tomato sauce mixture into your saucepan and simmer 10 minutes, until the ingredients blend together, the sauce turns an orangy-red color, and a savory aroma fills your kitchen.
• Prep the Cheese Filling
• Place the mozzarella cheese into a bowl.
• Warm the cheese in the microwave for 1 minute.
• Add the olive oil and work it with the cheese with your fingers or a spoon to soften it. Set aside.
• Shape and Fill the Pupusas
• Preheat a griddle or a cast-rion pan to medium hot. Add a little oil to create a slick surface that won’t stick when you start cooking the pupusas: about 1 Tbsp.
• With your hands, scoop up about 3 Tbsp of the masa harina from the bowl and form it into a ball about 2 inches wide.
• Using your palms, gently press the ball of masa back and forth between your two hands until it is flattened into a disc about 1/4 inch thick and 4 inches long.
• Use your fist to make a small indentation in the middle of the disc.
• Fill the indentation with about 2 Tbsp of the softened cheese.
• With your fingers, pull the masa edges over the stuffing so that the cheese is completely sealed within a small ball of the masa mixture.
• Press the ball of masa between your two palms, gently tossing it back and forth, to flatten the masa into the same thin disc as before: about 1/4 inch thick and 4 inches long.
• Cook the Pupusas on a Griddle, Pan or Comal
• Place each pupusa on the preheated griddle or pan. Sprinkle a few drops of olive oil on the top of each one.
• When the first side turns pale golden brown, in about 2 miutes, flip and cook the seond side.
• Serve each person 2 golden-brown pupusas, with a side of the curtido fermented slaw, topped with 1 to 2 Tbsp of the tomato sauce, and (optional) 1 to 2 thin slices of jalapeño.

Notes

• Estela uses ground chipotle powder in her tomato salsa. Because her family does not like their pupusas with too much chile heat, she stays away from stronger serrano or  jalapeño chiles, which are traditionally used.