Yuli’s Causa Limeña, in Honor of Her Mother and Childhood in Peru
- July 2025
- By Isabel Vargas
- Recipe from Peru
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Causa limeña is one of Isabel Vargas’ favorite dishes, personally and professionally.
Personally because making this recipe takes Isabel, who everyone calls Yuli, right back to Lima, Peru. More specifically, to her childhood home, where she loved to watch her mother in the kitchen. Her mom was happiest there, remembers Yuli, making all a wide range of traditional Peruvian dishes, she tells Familia Kitchen. Including this one.
Professionally, Yuli loves causa limeña because this former lawyer turned caterer regularly makes this dish to great acclaim for her culinary clients in Kentucky, where she now lives.
What Is Causa Limeña?
Causa limeña is a traditional Peruvian appetizer made with layers of mashed and seasoned potatoes, sliced avocado, and chicken or tuna salad. Yuli especially loves shaping the final bit of potato mash into small ball-shaped scoops to decorate the top layer of this dish. Like so many of Peru’s iconic recipes, causa limeña uses aji amarillo, Peru’s essential chile pepper, which turns everything bright yellow.
“I have many favorite dishes [from Peru], but there is one very special to me because it reminds me of my childhood when I helped my mother, María Flora — everyone calls her Florita. She had an innate love and art for cooking,” says Yuli. ”She always did it while listening to music and very cheerfully, so for me it was fun to help her in the kitchen. I learned many cooking secrets from her, but the one that impacted me the most was making this causa limeña. It’s because she played with the potato dough and the mixture of lime and oil that ran through the pressed potato,” molding it into beautiful forms.
Yuli remembers watching her mother work wonders with aji amarillo. “In my mind, the sound of the blender and the aroma released by the yellow chile is inexplicable. I also remember that when she didn’t have a potato press, she did it with a fork, and she did it with such joy.”
This childhood memory is especially meaningful because Yuli’s mother now has Alzheimer’s. “Sometimes I ask her about some recipes, trying to see if she remembers something,” says Yuli. “It seems that it has remained a lovely memory because she gives a gesture of joy” when her daughter mentions making causa limeña together.
In Celebration of Yuli’s Peruvian Cooking Roots
From those early days watching her mother in her Lima cocina, “my love for cooking was born,“ says Yuli. “I always cooked with a lot of passion, but when I reached the age of choosing what to study for my future, I leaned towards studying law, which was another of my passions. I was able to work for a good time in it, but due to a twist of fate, I had to emigrate to the United States and then a few years to Canada.
In a second twist, Yuli left law and has become a full-time caterer, alongside her husband, Eddy. “He takes care of making all kinds of Peruvian desserts. He has the patience and talent to make delicious sweets. We are a complement to each other. I focus on the main dishes, and he on desserts.” Today, they run their Peruvian food catering company called La Limeñita.
Cause limeña remains one of the most popular dishes they serve clients. “Nowadays, when we cater for local universities or institutions, we have the privilege of narrating the story of each dish or typical Peruvian dessert, and its preparation with each ingredient,” says Yuli, proudly. ”What we make is truly Peruvian, from our authentic and traditional gastronomy.”
In honor of her mother, Yuli reached out to Familia Kitchen, sharing this recipe and culinary memory in heartfelt appreciation. “I feel fortunate to have shared very good moments with her in the kitchen. While other girls my age played. I preferred to be with her. At that time, we cooked so many varieties of food every day, usually breakfast, lunch, and snacks. We were many siblings, and the amount cooked was a lot, especially for family gatherings.’
Whether for family or her clients, Yuli continues making her favorite Peruvian dishes she learned in her mother’s kitchen. Like the potato rounds she carefully shapes for each causa limeña’s top layer, “I make it all by hand. It takes time, but I enjoy it. It makes me happy. Cooking is my great joy. I do it with love. That’s the important thing. You have to have mucha paciencia y amor.”
To try dishes from more Peruvian homecooks in our Familia Kitchen community, check out Susana’s delicioso lomo saltado, and Ceci’s papa a a huancaina and mazamorra morada dessert made with dried-purple corn.
Ready to Make Yuli’s Causa Limeña Peruvian Recipe?
Yuli’s Causa Limeña, in Memory of Her Mother
6 to 8
servings20
minutes40
minutesIngredients
2 lbs potatoes, peeled
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup lime juice
1 to 2 Tbsp aji amarillo paste
1 1/2 tsp salt, divided
1 tsp white pepper
1 avocado, sliced
3 eggs, hardboiled, sliced, for garnish
4 parsley sprigs, for garnish
8 black olives, for garnish
- If Making Chicken Salad if Filling
2 to 3 chicken breasts
2 cups mayonnaise
1 carrot, peeled and chopped into chunks
1/2 onion
1/4 stalk celery
2 cups mixed vegetables, diced: peas, carrots, corn, green beans
1 1/2 tsp salt, divided
1/2 tsp white pepper
- If Making Tuna Salad for Filling
3 cans tuna, solid, in oil
2 cups mayonnaise
1/2 onion, diced
1 lime, juiced
3 Tbsp cilantro, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
Directions
- For the Potatoes
- Peel and boil the potatoes in water to cover until fork tender. Then drain.
- Pass boiled potatoes through ricer or masher and let cool to room temperature.
- In a large mixing bowl, place potatoes. Add vegetable oil, lime juice, and aji amarillo paste. Stir to combine.
- Season with ½ tsp salt and 1/3 tsp white pepper. Set aside.
- For the Filling: If Using Chicken
- Put chicken breasts in pan with water to cover. Bring to a boil with carrot, onion, celery and 1 tsp salt.
- When cooked (in about 15 minutes), remove chicken. When cool to the touch, shred.
- In a bowl, add the shredded chicken. Mix with mayonnaise, diced vegetables, 1/2 tsp salt and white pepper. Set aside.
- For the Filling: If Using Tuna
- Drain solid tuna from oil.
- In a bowl, add the tuna. Mix with onion, lime, cilantro, salt and white pepper. Set aside.
- Putting It All Together: Build Your Causa Limeña
- In your serving bowl, spread 1/2 the potato mixture to make the base layer. Use a glass bowl so you can see the layers of ingredients in this dish.
- Add the sliced avocados in a layer to cover the potatoes. Season with the lime juice, ½ tsp salt and 1/3 tsp white pepper.
- Spread a layer of the chicken or tuna mixture, gently flattening it.
- Finish with the remaining potatoes, spreading them into a smooth top layer. Season with the final ½ tsp salt and 1/3 tsp white pepper.
- Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour, minimum.
- Garnish with hard-boiled egg slices, parsley sprigs and olives.
Notes
- Yuli recommends using Idaho potatoes because they hold their shape . “They are the most like Peruvian potatoes,” she says. “Don’t use white potatoes. Those are too soft.”
- Aji amarillo paste can be found in most Latino grocery stores or easily ordered online. Familia Kitchen uses aji amarillo paste made by Inca’s Food, a Peruvian brand easily available in the U.S.
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