Papa a la Huancaina is a spicy Peruvian potato salad dish originating from Huancayo. Traditionally made with yellow potatoes and a rocoto cheese sauce, it is now commonly made with aji almarillo and fresh cheese. It is best served cold and often accompanied by hard-boiled eggs, black olives, corn, and parsley.
Papa a la Huancaina is an appetizer originating from the country of Peru. It is usually considered a salad dish and is mostly made up of potatoes with a creamy sauce. Unlike other salads, however, Papa a la Huancaina has a spicy flavor, instead of a sweet or sour taste that many salads have. This dish is best served cold.
The name Papa a la Huancaina may mean “potatoes, Huancayo style,” with Huancayo referring to a Peruvian city where the dish originated. Unsurprisingly, the dish comes from this city, as Huancayo is very close to the Mantaro Valley, where potatoes are grown abundantly, along with corn and carrots. Traditionally, the dish uses yellow potatoes, but the white variety can also be a good substitute.
According to a local story, the dish can be traced back to the late 1800s when the train that connected Huancayo to the city of Lima was built. It was said that female vendors would go about the site, selling their wares to hungry workers. There was a specific woman who offered a single dish made of boiled potatoes topped with a cheese-like sauce, along with a few slices of egg. The dish became a crowd favorite and, at lunchtime, the workers would ask, “A che hora llega la papa de la Huancaina which means “What time will the lady arrive with the potatoes from Huancayo
Originally, the sauce for Papa a la Huancaina is made from rocoto, a variety of hot peppers, and some cheese and milk. The cheese was crushed by a mortar and pestle, so the original sauce could have been textured. Queso fresco, or fresh white cheese, was the particular preference for the dish. Over time, the recipe started to change and rocoto was replaced with aji, specifically aji almarillo, or a variety of yellow chili. The use of oil and lemon has also been added in many recipes, perhaps to better bind the ingredients of the sauce.
The use of fresh cheese has mostly been retained, although some modernized versions of Papa a la Huancaina use other cheeses such as Swiss or Monterey Jack. Many modern recipes also call for evaporated milk, perhaps to counteract the spicy flavor with some sweetness. The usual presentation for the dish is to place boiled potatoes on top of some lettuce leaves, with a generous amount of cheese and chilli sauce being poured over the potatoes. Hard-boiled egg slices are used as a side dish, along with some black olives, corn, and parsley. Some recipes even suggest that the sauce can be used for first courses.
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