Peruvian squash Locro recipe

Locro is a traditional dish of the gastronomy of Latin America in general, being a prominent recipe, especially in Argentina, Peru and Bolivia. Although the most popular recipe is the meat locro, the truth is that we can prepare it with multiple ingredients, like the one we share in Free Recipes.

The pumpkin locro is one of the most appreciated dishes for its simple preparation, low cost and high nutritional value. Depending on the country in which its ingredients are prepared, they may vary slightly, however, all of them follow the same production process. As we say, this preparation is very nutritious for the vegetables it contains and, in turn, it is vegetarian. In this way, for those who follow a vegetarian ovo-dairy diet, this recipe is perfect. Keep reading and discover with us how to make locro of Peruvian squash, at the end we indicate how to prepare the Argentine and Bolivian versions as well!

Ingredients to make Peruvian squash Locro:

 1 onion

 1 carrot

 500 grams of pumpkin

 1 small potato

 1 yellow corn (cob)

 100 grams of canned peas

 300 cubic centimetres of drinking water

 1 pinch of fine salt

 1 teaspoon of yellow pepper

 1 pinch of oregano

 100 cubic centimetres of heavy cream or evaporated milk

 50 cubic centimetres of neutral oil

 Fresh cheese

How to make Peruvian pumpkin locro:

We wash and peel the vegetables. Then, we cut all the ingredients that need to be chopped, so they will be ready to make the pumpkin locro recipe faster.

In a pot we put the oil and, when it is hot, we add the onion to sauté it.

Then, we add the carrot to the onion, salt to taste and sauté both ingredients.

We place the teaspoon of ground chilli pepper and stir to continue with the preparation of the Peruvian locro. In this recipe, yellow pepper is usually used, however, in other countries it is common to opt for other types of pepper. In Argentina, for example, sweet pepper is used.

Add the pumpkin and potato to the pot, season with oregano and season a little more. Then we stir. We can make this recipe with any type of squash, so we don't necessarily have to choose a Peruvian squash. In Argentina, squash is often used to make the locro, for example.

We pour the 300 cc of drinking water and stir again. We cover the pot and let the Peruvian locro cook for 10 minutes.

When time passes, uncover and add the cut corn together with the green peas, add salt if necessary. We leave the pumpkin locro covered again until all the ingredients are cooked.

Finally, add the cream or evaporated milk, stir and leave the preparation on the fire for a few more minutes. Then we turn off the heat and put the pot aside. The traditional Peruvian locro recipe is made with evaporated milk, however, if we don't get it, we can opt for heavy cream. Likewise, we can make evaporated milk at home by following this simple step by step.

Just before turning off the heat, add a piece of fresh cheese to the pot. Then we serve and enjoy this magnificent dish! As we have seen, the pumpkin locro is easy and inexpensive, since we need products that we can all have in our pantries and all we have to do is cut them and add them to the pot.

Tip: Serve the pumpkin locro with boiled rice to complete the dish.

If you liked the recipe for Peruvian squash Locro, we suggest you enter our category of Cooked Recipes. You can also visit a selection of the best Peruvian recipes.

How to do Peruvian locro - Tips to make it more practical

As we have already mentioned at the beginning of the recipe, cutting all the ingredients before starting is much more practical than doing it on the fly, then we only have to add them in order and, in addition, we can see if we are missing any. Many times it happens that we start to make preparation and, just halfway through cooking, we realize that we do not have any ingredient, and perhaps what we are missing is something essential. For this reason, getting everything ready in advance is undoubtedly one of the keys to success.

For this particular recipe, we recommend that the squash not be cut too large, so it will come apart faster. On the other hand, before rectifying the seasoning of the preparation, it is essential to taste it when it is almost ready, and not before, to ensure that it is really necessary to add a little more salt, perhaps it is enough and we should not add more.

This is a dish considered vegetarian ovo-dairy because it contains milk cream. However, if you want to make the vegan pumpkin locro, just skip this ingredient and add soy milk instead. The same goes for fresh cheese, we will have to eliminate it or use vegan cheese.

Argentine squash locro

The recipe that we have learned to prepare is the traditional one from Peru, however, the pumpkin locro is also a popular dish in Argentine cuisine. In this country, it is traditional to make it with milk cream instead of evaporated milk, with sweet pepper and no cheese. Likewise, it is customary to use a variety of squash anco.

In Argentina, it is typical to prepare this dish with meat, so if you want to learn how to prepare the authentic Argentine locro, don't miss this other recipe.

Bolivian pumpkin locro

Likewise, the pumpkin locro is a very popular recipe in Bolivia, where they also have their own preparation. For this recipe, squash evaporated milk and fresh cheese are usually used. You may be interested to read about the pineapple tiramisu recipe/ beef salad bowl recipe/ Italian apple cake recipe/ rice puddings recipe/ chestnut cookies recipe.