🇧🇴 Bolivia · La Paz and the Bolivian altiplano
ChairoBolivian chuño and meat soup
A substantial soup of La Paz and the Bolivian altiplano built on chuño (freeze-dried potato), with lamb and/or chalona (dried lamb), and in some versions chicken, pork or beef, with potatoes, white hulled corn (mote) and vegetables, eaten very hot with a chile sauce.
Origin and history
Chairo is a soup of La Paz and the altiplano whose base is chuño, the freeze-dried potato of the Andes, with chalona (dried meat). Los Tiempos says its exact origin is unclear but that it comes from the altiplano. A history in Pagina Siete, republished by Bolivian Thoughts, tells that it was first shared between Indigenous people and Spaniards around the founding of La Paz in 1548, and credits the first Spanish woman in the city with adding broad beans, peas, potato strips, onion, mote, mint and parsley; these are traditional accounts. It places chairo paceño in the picanterías by the late 19th century.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 servings
- Total time
- 1 h 45 min
- Hands-on
- 40 min
Ingredients
- 1 piece, about 700 g1.5 lb lamb shoulder (espalda de cordero), on the bone, cut in pieces
- 250 g9 oz chalona (dried lamb), rinsed; soak briefly in warm water
- 400 g14 oz chuno (freeze-dried potato), soaked overnight, peeled, rinsed, lightly crushed
- 100 g3/4 cup cooked white corn (mote)
- 100 g3/4 cup cooked wheat berries
- 2 carrots, grated
- 1 turnip (nabo), whole or grated
- 2 handfuls shelled peas (arvejas)
- 1 handful shelled broad beans (habas)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 potatoes, cut in strips
- 1 handful parsley, chopped, plus a little mint if you like
- salt and pepper, to taste
- llajwa or locoto chile sauce, to serve
Method
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1. Soak the chuno overnight in cold water, then peel it, rinse it several times, squeeze it and crush each piece lightly so the bitterness washes out.
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2. Put the lamb in a pot with water and salt and simmer for 1 hour.
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3. Add the grated carrot, onion, turnip, peas, broad beans and the chalona, and simmer 20 minutes more.
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4. Add the prepared chuno, the potato strips, the wheat and the mote, and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.
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5. Taste for salt and pepper, ladle into deep bowls with a piece of meat in each, and sprinkle with parsley.
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6. Serve very hot with llajwa or locoto sauce.
Notes
- Quantities follow the Cocineros Argentinos recipe for four (it lists no weight for the lamb shoulder and no turnip in its ingredients, though its method uses one whole turnip). The colombia.com version for five uses a lamb shank, 1/4 kg of beef brisket, a strip of chalona, celery, paprika, oregano, mint and parsley, and finishes with slices of cheese.
- Los Tiempos describes the classic chairo as a mix of three meats (lamb, chicken and pork) with chuño, potato and peeled white corn, so the meats vary; the recipes and the Pagina Siete history here use lamb and chalona, sometimes with beef. Use the three-meat mix if you want the fuller version.
- Chuno is sold in Andean and Latin markets; it has no real substitute, but extra potato and a little more corn will give a milder soup.
- Chairo is served very hot, in popular eateries and restaurants. According to the Pagina Siete history, the original broth was served in clay bowls (chúas) with llajwa, and depending on the season with mote de habas or slices of fresh cheese.
Adapted from Cocineros Argentinos, Gastronomia boliviana: huarjata y chairo and Colombia.com, Chairo Paceno boliviano.
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.