Kapchi of habas, broad beans, is a typical dish in Cuzco. It symbolizes the city, yet is only rarely found in local restaurants. It is not prepared often. This delicious dish is made from various nutritious ingredients from our city, potatoes, broad beans, milk, and white rice.
Potatoes are a very important and necessary food in Cuzco. They are used in the majority of our dishes. We have various kinds of potatoes was with their own characteristics. You just need one potato of a variety in order to sew them. Farmers will often grow a variety of potatoes in their fields. We also use potatoes as chuño or as papa helada, particularly in the highlands. These are freeze-dried forms.
Green fava beans are a food that is much grown around Cuzco. It is found in almost everyone’s fields.
We use fava beans, also known as broad beans, in many of the typical dishes of Cuzco. They are also served as a first course before a main dish at lunch, in the company of mote, or once dried corn that has been rehydrated.
People will dry the mature broad beans and with those you will get a dish of fried favas with salt. These salted and toasted broad beans are found throughout the city in small packages you can buy for just one sol.
Milk is also used in kapchi. At the same time it is found in others of our dishes such as the Friday soup served in Holy Week. This soup is one of the twelve dishes commonly served in that feast.
People also make delicious yoghurts from milk; these are found in many vegetarian restaurants. There are also women who bring cans of fresh milk to the city to sell to clients. They bring it from the dairy region above the city on the plains of Anta, about an hour outside of the city.
White rice accompanies all the preparations of our menu. There are various types of rice, cholo, extra, gallito, break the pot (rompe olla), and others.
Besides the kapchi of broad beans we also make one where we add setas, our fresh, wild mushrooms. These only grow in humid places during the rainy season. You can buy them in our markets, especially Vino Canchon, where gatherers bring them to sell fresh.
Here is a recipe:
Mi Abuelita would make a dish as close to this as she could. We live in USA and in rural state. I saw this on a food show and went searching and found your article. Thank you, for a moment her love was more vivid. She came back to life and I was wrapped again in love learning to cook in her kitchen. Thank you!