Olluquito facts for kids
Olluquito is a popular and traditional dish from Peruvian cuisine. It's often called olluquito con carne (with meat) or olluquito con ch'arki (with dried llama meat). The main ingredient is a special root vegetable called ulluku.
The ulluku is a very important plant in the Andean mountains of South America. It's the second most important root crop there, right after the potato! Both the leaves and the root (which is also called a tuber) of the ulluku plant can be eaten. The leaves taste a bit like spinach, and the root is similar to a potato or jicama. Ulluku is super healthy, packed with protein, calcium, and carotene. People in the Andes, like the ancient Incas, have been eating ulluku for a very long time, even before Europeans arrived in South America.
What is Ch'arki?
Ch'arki is a special way of preserving meat that comes from the Andean highlands. It involves salting the meat and then drying it out completely. This method helps the meat last a long time without spoiling. You might recognize the word "jerky" because the English word actually comes from this Quechua word!
When olluquito is made with ch'arki, it's usually a stew. It has small, diced pieces of ulluku mixed with pieces of dried meat. Traditionally, this meat was from alpacas or sometimes llamas. Today, it's also very common to use dried sheep meat. This tasty stew is usually served with white rice.
How Olluquito is Used
One of the best things about ulluku is that it stays firm and a little bit crunchy even after it's cooked. Because it has a lot of water, ulluku isn't usually fried or baked. However, you can cook it in many other ways, just like you would a potato.
Sometimes, ulluku is pickled and added to spicy sauces to give them an extra kick. In Colombian cuisine, ulluku is used in a dish called cocido boyacense. It's often cooked with another root vegetable called mashua in this dish.
