Peruvian Pumpkin Loco Recipe

Loco is a traditional dish of Latin American cuisine in general, being a prominent recipe, especially in Argentina, Peru and Bolivia. Although the most popular recipe is loco de carne, the truth is that we can prepare it with multiple ingredients.

Pumpkin loco is one of the most appreciated dishes for its simple preparation, low cost and high nutritional value. Depending on the country in which it is prepared, its ingredients may vary slightly; however, the same production process is followed in all of them. As we say, this preparation is very nutritious due to the vegetables it contains and, in turn, it is vegetarian. In this way, for those who follow a vegetarian ova-dairy diet, this recipe is perfect.

Ingredients to make Peruvian Pumpkin Loco:

• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 500 grams of pumpkin
• 1 small potato
• 1 yellow corn (cob)
• 100 grams of canned peas
• 300 cubic centimeters of drinking water
• 1 pinch of fine salt
• 1 teaspoon yellow pepper
• 1 pinch of oregano
• 100 cubic centimeters of heavy cream or evaporated milk
• 50 cubic centimeters of neutral oil
• Fresh cheese

How to make Peruvian Pumpkin Loco:

1. Wash and peel the vegetables. Then, we cut all the ingredients that need to be chopped, so they will be ready to make the pumpkin loco recipe faster.
2. In a pot, place the oil and, when hot, add the onion to sauté it.
3. Then, add the carrot to the onion, salt to taste and sauté both ingredients.
4. We place the teaspoon of ground chili and stir to continue with the preparation of the Peruvian loco. In this recipe, yellow chili is usually used, however, in other countries it is common to opt for other types of chili. In Argentina, for example, sweet chili is used.
5. Add the pumpkin and potato to the pot, season with oregano and season a little more. Then we stir. We can make this recipe with any type of pumpkin, so we do not necessarily have to choose a Peruvian pumpkin. In Argentina, the ancon squash is usually used to make loco, for example.
6. Let’s pour the 300 cc of drinking water and stir again. Cover the pot and let the Peruvian loco cook for 10 minutes.
7. When time passes, uncover and add the cut corn along with the green peas, rectify salt if necessary. We leave the pumpkin loco covered again until the cooking of all the ingredients is finished.
8. Finally, we incorporate the cream or evaporated milk, stir and leave the preparation on the fire for a few more minutes. Then we turn off the heat and set the pot aside. The traditional Peruvian loco recipe is made with evaporated milk; however, if we can’t find it, we can opt for milk cream. Likewise, we can make evaporated milk at home following this simple step by step.
9. Just before turning off the heat, add a piece of fresh cheese to the pot. Then, we serve and enjoy this magnificent dish! As we have seen, loco de Rapallo is easy and cheap, since you need products that we can all have in our pantries and all we have to do is cut them and add them to the pot.
10. Tip: Serve the pumpkin loco with boiled rice to complete the dish.
11. As we have already mentioned at the beginning of the recipe, cutting all the ingredients before starting is much more practical than doing it on the fly, since in this way we only have to add them in order and, in addition, we can see if we are missing any. Many times it happens that we start to make a preparation and, right in the middle of cooking, we realize that we do not have an ingredient, and perhaps what we are missing is something essential. For this reason, leaving everything ready in advance is, without a doubt, one of the keys to success.
12. For this particular recipe, we recommend that the squash is not cut too large, so it falls apart faster. On the other hand, before correcting the seasoning of the preparation, it is essential to taste it when it is almost ready, and not before, to make sure that it is really necessary to add a little more salt, perhaps it is already enough and we should not add more.
13. This is a dish considered ova-dairy vegetarian because it contains milk cream. However, if you intend to make the vegan pumpkin loco, it will suffice to ignore this ingredient and add soy milk instead. The same goes for fresh cheese, we will have to eliminate it or use vegan cheese.

Argentine squash loco

The recipe that we have learned to prepare is the traditional one from Peru, however, loco de Rapallo is also a popular dish in Argentine cuisine. In this country, it is traditional to make it with milk cream instead of evaporated milk, with sweet pepper and without cheese. Likewise, it is customary to use the ancon variety of squash.

In Argentina, it is typical to prepare this dish with meat, so if you want to learn how to prepare the authentic Argentine loco, do not miss this other recipe.

Bolivian squash loco

Likewise, loco de Rapallo is a very popular recipe in Bolivia, where they also have their own preparation. For this recipe, macro squash, evaporated milk and fresh cheese are usually used.