Tacu tacu is a simple, comforting and wonderfully tasty Peruvian rice and bean cake/patty. It's a great use of leftovers and uses only a few ingredients. Add your favorite toppings to make it a main dish or enjoy for breakfast, as you might in Peru.
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I often think some of the most creative dishes are those that use leftovers. In many cultures you'll find dishes that are incredibly simple, without too many ingredients, that transform those last bits of cooked food or things like bread that are soon going stale. And often with really tasty results.
Some great examples are Mexican migas, using leftover salsa and tortillas, Spanish sopa de ajo (garlic soup), using stale bread, arancini, using leftover risotto, and of course various forms of fried rice, like Indonesian nasi goreng. Many of these dishes are pure comfort food, too, and this tasty Peruvian dish is no different.
Origins of tacu tacu
Tacu tacu's origins go back to the colonial era and is a dish developed by enslaved Africans working on farms in the South of Peru, specifically the Chincha and Cañete valleys. They took the leftover rice and beans from the night before and with a few simple additions and preparation, made it into a tasty dish.
As for the name, you will find a few different ideas on the origins. The one that seems to be most common is that it derives from Quechua, one of the ancient languages of the Andes, and means crushed or mashed. But that doesn't totally fit in geographically.
Either way, it's a dish that like many in Peruvian cuisine, has a history rooted in the immigrants to the country. Taking what was available, and drawing on dishes that were familiar, and creating something new.
Ingredients for tacu tacu
The core dish itself is incredibly simple:
- Cooked rice - not a creamier one like arborio but most others will work.
- Cooked beans, and depending on whether they have some liquid, a little stock.
- Onion - red onion is the most typical.
- Garlic - crushed or grated into a paste, but finely chopped also works.
- Chili - typically aji amarillo, either finely chopped or as a paste.
- Oil for cooking - a neutral oil works best.
These are likely generally familiar, but a couple things worth noting about a couple of them. What are sometimes referred to as "Peruvian beans" are Mayacoba or canary beans and are probably the most common kind used here. But you can also make it with others such as lima beans, pinto beans (as I did here) or navy beans.
If you have leftover cooked beans, great, but you can also use canned beans for this, as I did here. Just drain them and then add in some stock as you cook since they won't have the cooking liquid in the same way.
You'll find a few different chilis used in Peruvian cooking, but aji amarillo is probably the best known and widely used. It can be hard to find outside Peru as a fresh chili but the paste is becoming easier to find and you can buy it online, too. I do highly recommend getting some for this dish as other chilis don't quite have the same color or flavor.
The chili paste keeps well in the fridge and is great for lots of other tasty Peruvian dishes including tiradito (sashimi with a chili lime sauce), papas a la Huancaina (potatoes with a creamy chili-cheese sauce) and more.
Making this rice and bean patty/cake
As well as having just a few ingredients, this is also easy and pretty quick to make. First, you soften the onion in some oil, add in the garlic and aji amarillo, then add the beans. You want to mash the beans so many of them break up, but leave some of them whole so there's a bit more texture.
Add in the rice and season then mix so the rice takes on all those flavors. If the beans didn't have more of a brothy sauce to them, then add in some stock to loosen up the mixture. The bit of liquid helps the broken up beans become more of a glue to hold the mixture together in the next step. Cook a couple minutes so the liquid evaporates.
Then, divide up the mixture into patties or rounded/oval cakes. It's often easiest to remove the whole mixture from the skillet/pan at this point, then just return the amount you will be cooking just now. I like to clean out the skillet a bit, too. Alternatively, remove part and leave in what you will cook.
If you are only using part immediately, store the mixture at this stage in a container in the fridge for a day. Then warm through and crisp up when needed - they can actually be easier to get them to hold together after being chilled.
You want to make sure you have some space as you cook so you can easily get a spatula under for flipping. Plus, space helps them crisp effectively, too. Add some more oil to help the patties/cakes crisp up, flip when the underside crisps and cook on the other side as well.
Then they're ready to serve with your favorite toppings/sides!
How to serve tacu tacu
You can serve these in a few different ways, depending on what you have, diet and to a point time of day. Salsa criolla - a simple lime dressed onion garnish - is a classic accompaniment, then you can vary the rest. Adding a fried egg and some fried sweet plantain on the side works well for a tasty vegetarian meal. Or you could go a bit lighter with some sliced avocado and/or salad.
If you don't mind it not being vegetarian, another common way to serve it is with a thin steak or cutlet (eg pork), either simply grilled or fried or first breaded, maybe with the egg as well. It's a heartier meal but a tasty one!
Tacu tacu is a wonderfully simple yet delicious Peruvian rice and bean cake that is perfect for leftovers, but is also worth making the rice especially for it. It's comforting, flavorful and perfect for adapting how you serve it. So be sure to enjoy it soon.
Try these other tasty rice dishes:
- Spanakorizo, a tasty Greek side or main with lots of spinach and bright with lemon.
- Arroz verde, another green rice but this time Mexican and flavored with poblano and cilantro. Great with enchiladas and more.
- Nam khao, Lao crisp rice salad made by frying seasoned rice cakes, breaking them up then mixing with herbs and more for a lovely mix of textures and flavors.
- Lamb pilaf, which is great for using a little leftover lamb in a deliciously simple dish.
- Plus get more South American recipes in the archives.
Tacu tacu
Ingredients
- ¼ red onion or ½ if small
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 ½ tablespoon vegetable oil or other neutral oil
- ½ tablespoon aji amarillo chili paste or a little more, to taste
- 1 cup cooked beans mayocoba/canary beans if possible, see notes
- ½ cup cooked rice see notes
- 1 pinch salt depending on if beans salted
- 1 pinch black pepper or more, to taste
- 3 tablespoon vegetable stock or other light stock, depending on if beans have liquid with them
For salsa criolla (to serve, optional but recommended)
- ½ small red onion
- 3 tablespoon chopped cilantro coriander
- ½ aji amarillo pepper or can use a medium-spicy red pepper, or bell pepper for less spicy version
- ½ lime juice or more, if lime not that juicy
Other optional toppings/garnishes to serve
- roughly 1 egg, ½ plantain per serving, and can also add a thin steak, some slices avocado etc
Instructions
- Finely dice the onion and finely chop or crush/grate the garlic.
- Warm roughly half of the oil in a small-medium skillet/frying pan over medium heat and add the onion. Cook for a couple minutes until the onion softens then add the garlic and aji amarillo paste. Reduce the heat if needed so the mixture doesn't get too brown or burn. Stir to mix and cook a minute.
- Add the beans to the onion mixture and mash to break up at least half of the beans, if not more. You should have a mixture of part chunks, part soft, mushy mixture. Cook a minute and mix well.
- Add the rice, a little salt and pepper (amount depends on how seasoned the beans were) and if the beans don't have cooking liquid, add the broth. Stir to mix so that everything is well distributed. Cook another minute or two until the liquid has largely evaporated, stirring now and then.
- At this point, you can remove the mixture and let it cool before storing, if not eating immediately. It will also firm up a little more, making it slightly easier to cook in the next stage, though it works fine to cook immediately as well.
- Either use a clean skillet/frying pan or clean out the one you used then warm over a medium-high heat and add the remaining oil. Divide the mixture into two (for one quantity of the recipe, more if you multiply) and form each into a flattened circle/oval patty.
- Cook either one at a time, or at the same time as long as you have a bit of space between them in the skillet/pan so they are not too crowded. Cook for around 3 - 4 minutes until gently crisp and golden, then carefully flip over and crisp the other side.
- Serve with toppings/garnishes of your choice eg salsa criolla, a fried egg, fried plantain and/or some slices of avocado or a thin steak.
For salsa criolla
- If making salsa criolla to serve with this, I suggest making this before you start or between the initial cooking and when you fry the formed rice and bean cakes. Cut the red onion in thin slices from top to bottom and place in a bowl with iced water for around 10 minutes (this helps reduce bitterness). Remove, drain and place in a small bowl. Add the chopped cilantro/coriander and thin slices of chili (or bell pepper). Squeeze over the lime juice and mix well. Best served within a few hours of making.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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