vanlife_recipes_

Though this is by no means a Chilean recipe, it was the rice dish we made the most in Chile by far, as it uses ingredients which are easy to find all over the country, and only requires one pan. It’s also delicious cold, so we always make double portions, to avoid having to worry about lunch the next day.

Couscous is readily available throughout Chile, and is also the only carbohydrate I know of that doesn’t need to be heated. This comes in handy if you’re looking to save on gas, or if you don’t have a cooker.

I use to make this one all the time back home, when I fancied something creamy and comforting. Here however, fresh mushrooms aren’t so easy to find, plus they aren’t cheap either. ​ If you’re in the south at the right time of year, you may be able to get your hands on some cheap wild mushrooms in the markets. The ones you want are the impressive Loyo mushrooms, from the porcini family. ​ For the most part, we ended up using tinned mushrooms. I won’t try and claim that these are the real thing, however they do have the advantage of being cheap, easy to find, and of course, lasting forever. By all means, use fresh if you can, but if not don’t be afraid to give these a go, you may be surprised. All the other ingredients for this recipe are also long life, so you can think about this one in the supermarket, and then forget about it till a rainy day.​

This is pretty much the hot sauce that you’ll see on every table. It’s dead simple, fresh and delicious. It is made with huacatay leaves, a Bolivian herb with quite a unique flavour. Traditionally this sauce is made with a special hand blender, that gives the sauce a chunky blended texture. However, I was shown it can also be made with a grater.