This popular potato salad is as delicious as it is colorful. Perfectly tender small potatoes with a creamy dressing made with yellow pepper paste and queso fresco!
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Isn’t it time you added a new and different potato salad to your summer repertoire? Yeah, I thought so too.
This is the famous Papas a la Huancaina, a typical dish from Peru which I loosely translated to Peruvian potato salad.
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The sauce is super easy to make and can be mixed in the blender or with an immersion blender (one of my favorite inventions ever!), so other than searching for a few of the ingredients, it’s a no-brainer.
It’s such a common meal, according to my friends from Peru, that there are as many recipes as grandmothers, all claiming to be the real one.
This is one of my favorite potato salads ever, so I say go for it and try it, at least once.
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Main ingredients in this recipe.
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- Potatoes: I use small potatoes that come in different colors and sizes (image above). They bake faster and fall apart less. But you can use any small potato or regular ones, the one you always make potato salad with.
- Queso fresco: it’s made from cow’s milk and is white and has a somewhat crumbly grainy texture (image below, left). It is not a soft cheese. You can buy it online.
- Yellow pepper paste: this is the star of this dish and the ingredient that, in my opinion, sets it apart (image below, right). The yellow chili peppers used are not the regular ones you usually see in the market, brother to the green and red, no, this is a small orange-yellowish one, similar to the jalapeño in size. You can buy the paste online too.
- Crackers: salty or water crackers are used to thicken the mixture. Any type that is plain in flavor will do. Breadcrumbs can be used too, but I think the crackers are easily found and superior in texture.
- Other ingredients: the rest of the ingredients are hard boiled eggs, parsley, black olives (which I didn’t use but is typical)
Steps for making the sauce:
- Lightly sautée onion in oil.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the same pan, or transfer it all to the blender.
- Blend or mix with enough olive oil to make a paste.
- Mix with the potatoes, hard-boiled eggs and rest of the ingredients.
Type of potatoes to use.
Use a starchy potato, one that will not completely disintegrate.
I find that small potatoes always work better than large ones. But any type you regularly use for your favorite potato salad will work just fine.
Depending on where you live, you’ll find different types of potatoes.
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Here in Argentina, we don’t have a ton, but we do have small potatoes (second image from top) that come in different shapes and colors. They’re grown in the North, near Peru, so I use them when I find them.
There are two kinds of potatoes too. Did you see the gorgeous yellow/red ones? The flavor is slightly more bitter and less creamy than the regular one but basically the same; they add a nice touch, more festive, and a simple potato salad acquires more of an identity.
Tips & tricks for this recipe.
- Potatoes: use small potatoes if you can find them. They have a better structure. But the potatoes you use for making your favorite potato salad will work.
- Yellow pepper paste: you can make a batch and keep it in the fridge. Here’s a link to a homemade recipe. Or you can buy it online since the Peruvian yellow peppers might be hard to find.
- Olives: do use them if you have some. They add to the final dish.
- Queso fresco: it should be somewhat crumbly. You can buy it online.
- Substitutions: though they are not exactly the same, you can sub a mix of regular yellow pepper with habanero peppers (for heat, or any other spicy yellow pepper you like), and the queso fresco for firm ricotta with some cream cheese. It will work once you blend everything.
- Evaporated milk: I use regular whole milk when I don’t have evaporated. It works just fine.
Other recipes you might like:
Let me know if you make this recipe! I’d love to hear what you think about it.
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PinDescription
This Peruvian Potato Salad is delicious, colorful and easy to make. Tender potatoes in a creamy dressing made with yellow pepper paste and queso fresco!
Scale
Ingredients
- ½ an onion
- 6 Tbs yellow pepper paste (homemade recipe)
- Salt
- 9 oz (250g) queso fresco, (see notes below)
- ¼ to 1/3 cup olive oil + a few Tbs extra
- ½ cup evaporated milk or whole milk
- 3–4 water crackers or saltines
- 4 eggs, hard-boiled (see notes below)
- 2 pounds assorted small potatoes (skins left on)
- 1/2 cup of black olives (I didn’t use them, but they are typical)
- ½ a lime
- Chopped fresh parsley, to serve
Instructions
- In a skillet, sautée onion in a few Tbs olive oil over medium heat, until starting to get golden.
- Add the pepper paste and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
- Transfer the mixture to a blender, or use an immersion blender directly in the pan.
- Add queso fresco, milk, crackers, salt and pepper to taste, and ¼ cup olive oil. Blend until smooth. Add lime juice and check seasonings, adjusting if necessary.
- Add the rest of the olive oil if you want a thinner consistency.
- Meanwhile, cook potatoes in a large pan of salted water. Drain, transfer to a large bowl, add the lime juice and a couple of tablespoons olive oil, toss and let cool.
- Potatoes and eggs can be made in advance if you want a cold salad.
- In a serving bowl put potatoes and add some of the pepper sauce. Toss.
- Add some more sauce, sprinkle with parsley and arrange the eggs, cut into quarters, around the edges of the bowl.
- Scatter olives on top if using.
- Serve with a bowl of extra sauce drizzled with olive oil if you want.
Notes
Tips & tricks for this recipe.
- Potatoes: use small potatoes if you can find them. They have a better structure. But the potatoes you use for making your favorite potato salad will work.
- Yellow pepper paste: you can make a batch and keep it in the fridge. Here’s a link to a homemade recipe. Or you can buy it online since the Peruvian yellow peppers might be hard to find.
- Olives: do use them if you have some. They add to the final dish.
- Queso fresco: it should be somewhat crumbly. You can buy it online.
- Substitutions: though they are not exactly the same, you can sub a mix of regular yellow pepper with habanero peppers (for heat, or any other spicy yellow pepper you like), and the queso fresco for firm ricotta with some cream cheese. It will work once you blend everything.
- Evaporated milk: I use regular whole milk when I don’t have evaporated. It works just fine.
- Hard-boiled eggs: put eggs in regular tap water with a sprinkling of salt (this prevents the white from escaping in case of the eggshell breaking while cooking), and cook for 10 minutes exactly after it starts to boil. Drain, rinse in cold water for a few minutes and peel.
Keywords: Peruvian potato salad, pepper potato salad, papas a la huancaina
Is the yellow pepper paste spicy? This peruvian potato salad looks like it is bursting with yummy flavors!
★★★★★
Not spicy really. The flavor is very unique though.
Gosh this sounds like such a fun twist! Potato salad is my favorite and I am totally trying this out.
I love a potato salad and I am loving this twist on it. The sauce sounds amazing.
★★★★★
This is such a great alternative to the classic! It’s fun trying new things. Looks fantastic!
★★★★★
ooooh we love a good potato salad! perfect for a light Saturday lunch….
Papa a la Huancaína is one of my favorites, and yes, it's a family food, but you can find on local restaurants, also on fancy restaurants, but the presentation is very different, more fancy than the one you can have at home.
We also use that "Salsa" with pasta, ohhh…sooo good.
we also have it as appetizer, so we can simmer into the salsa small potatos, corn, and fried "yuca".
This is one stellar potato salad and the pepper paste and cheese sounds amazing in it. This would be a great side dish for so many mains and a fun dish to pass. Hands down I would prefer your version compared to the usual mayo version. Take Care, BAM
I'm not kidding, Keith and I were just talking about craving potato salad. I've always made a pretty traditional version, but this, this! I'm going to make it this week…
This is a great spin on traditional potato salad, Paula! I also respect people who get up early and get going. When I was in school I was tired all the time. All the time. So happy those days are over.
So nice to see a potato salad without mayonnaise! Sounds wonderfully delicious and I love how light this is.
sounds like a delicious potato salad!