Chef Lupita
Arroz Blanco con Elote Yucateco
Yucatán's white rice with sweet corn kernels, toasted in lard with garlic and onion. The quiet base that holds up against the peninsula's bold achiote-stained stews.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Calabacitas con Epazote Yucatecas
Created by
Yucatán's everyday squash, sautéed in lard with chile dulce, tomato, and a late-added handful of epazote that turns a plain side into a dish you remember.
Side Dishes
Mexican
Weeknight
Comfort Food
15 min
Active Time
20 min cook•35 min total
Yield4 to 6 servings
This is from Yucatán. Not from central Mexico, where calabacitas usually come with corn and crema, and not from the north, where they get charred over wood and dressed in butter. The Yucatecan version is its own thing: chile dulce instead of jalapeño, manteca instead of oil, and a serious quantity of epazote stirred in at the end.
Chile dulce is the Yucatecan sweet pepper. It looks like a small green bell pepper and it is not the same thing. The flavor is floral, almost fruity, with none of the grassy edge of a bell. If you cannot find chile dulce at a Mexican grocer that serves a Yucatecan clientele, half a bell pepper is the compromise. It will not be the same, but it will be honest. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo.
The epazote is what makes this dish Yucatecan instead of generic. The señoras in the Mérida markets sell it in big bunches, the leaves still warm from the morning sun, and they will tell you to put it in at the end. Cook epazote too long and the volatile oils evaporate and you lose what you came for. Add it in the last few minutes, off the back of the spoon, and it perfumes the entire pan.
This is a weeknight side. Cochinita pibil takes hours. This takes twenty minutes. Together they are a Yucatecan supper. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Epazote (Dysphania ambrosioides) is a pre-Columbian herb native to Mexico and Central America whose Nahuatl name 'epazotl' translates roughly to 'skunk sweat,' a reference to its pungent character. In Yucatán it sits alongside achiote, sour orange, and habanero as one of the defining flavors of the regional cuisine, used not just for taste but also for its traditional carminative properties when cooking beans and squash. Calabaza criolla, the dense pale-green squash favored in Mayan-influenced Yucatecan cooking, descends from cucurbit varieties domesticated in Mesoamerica more than 8,000 years ago, making the squash itself older than the corn it is so often paired with.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
Mexican calabacitas (calabaza criolla or pale-green zucchini)
Quantity
2 pounds
cut into 1/2-inch half-moons
ripe Roma tomatoes
Quantity
3 medium
cored and chopped
chile dulce (Yucatecan sweet pepper) or green bell pepper
Quantity
1 chile dulce or 1/2 bell pepper
seeded and diced small
white onion
Quantity
1/2 medium
finely chopped
garlic cloves
Quantity
3
finely chopped
fresh epazote
Quantity
1 large branch (about 2 tablespoons chopped leaves)
leaves stripped and roughly chopped
manteca de cerdo (pork lard)
Quantity
2 tablespoons
kosher salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
to taste
water
Quantity
1/4 cup, if needed
hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)
Quantity
for serving
warmed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Mexican calabacitas (calabaza criolla or pale-green zucchini)cut into 1/2-inch half-moons | 2 pounds |
| ripe Roma tomatoescored and chopped | 3 medium |
| chile dulce (Yucatecan sweet pepper) or green bell pepperseeded and diced small | 1 chile dulce or 1/2 bell pepper |
| white onionfinely chopped | 1/2 medium |
| garlic clovesfinely chopped | 3 |
| fresh epazoteleaves stripped and roughly chopped | 1 large branch (about 2 tablespoons chopped leaves) |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard) | 2 tablespoons |
| kosher salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| freshly ground black pepper | to taste |
| water | 1/4 cup, if needed |
| hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)warmed | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide 12-inch skillet or 10-inch clay cazuela
- •Sharp chef's knife
- •Wooden spoon for mashing the tomato
Instructions
- 1
Cut the calabacitas
Trim the ends off the calabacitas and slice them into 1/2-inch half-moons. In Yucatán they use calabaza criolla, the pale-green local squash with a denser flesh than the dark zucchini sold in American supermarkets. If you cannot find criolla, a firm pale-green Mexican zucchini will do. Cut all the pieces the same size. Uneven cuts cook unevenly, and a side dish that is half mush and half raw is not a side dish.
- 2
Render the lard and start the sofrito
Melt the manteca in a wide skillet or a clay cazuela over medium heat. When it shimmers, add the chopped onion and the chile dulce. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, until the onion is translucent and the chile softens. The chile dulce smells like a bell pepper but tastes nothing like one, sweet, floral, almost fruity. It is the Yucatecan pepper. La manteca es el sabor. Olive oil here is a compromise, not an upgrade.
Chile dulce is sold fresh in Yucatán markets and in some Mexican groceries in the United States. If you cannot find it, a green bell pepper is the closest substitute, but use only half so you do not overpower the squash. - 3
Add the garlic and tomato
Stir in the garlic and cook for 30 seconds, just until fragrant. Add the chopped tomato and the salt. Raise the heat slightly and cook for 5 to 6 minutes, mashing the tomato pieces against the pan with the back of your spoon, until the tomato breaks down into a loose sauce and the lard reddens at the edges. This is your base. Do not skip this step. Raw tomato thrown in with the squash gives you watery vegetables and nothing tastes of anything.
- 4
Add the calabacitas
Add the calabacitas to the pan and stir to coat every piece in the tomato base. Season with black pepper. Cover the pan and lower the heat to medium-low. The squash will release its own water in the first few minutes, that is what cooks it. If the pan looks dry after 5 minutes, add the 1/4 cup of water. If it is wet enough, do not.
- 5
Add the epazote
After about 8 minutes, when the calabacitas are halfway tender, scatter the chopped epazote across the top and stir it in. Epazote goes in late. Cook it from the beginning and the volatile oils that give it that pungent, almost gasoline-and-mint character cook off and you have wasted the herb. The whole point of this dish is the epazote. Treat it like the soul of the pan, not the garnish.
Fresh epazote is non-negotiable. Dried epazote loses 80 percent of what makes it epazote. If you cannot find fresh, plant it in a pot. It grows like a weed because it is one. - 6
Finish and serve
Cover again and cook for another 5 to 7 minutes, until the calabacitas are tender but still hold their shape. They should yield easily to a fork but not collapse. Taste for salt. The dish should taste of squash first, tomato second, and epazote curling underneath both. Serve immediately, family-style, in the same cazuela you cooked it in, beside cochinita pibil, poc chuc, or pollo pibil. With warm corn tortillas at the table. Así se hace y punto.
Chef Tips
- •Find fresh epazote at a Mexican grocer or grow it yourself. The dried herb sold in spice jars is not worth the money. If you live somewhere with a Mexican community, a Saturday mercado will have epazote in bunches for almost nothing.
- •Calabaza criolla is the right squash, but a firm pale-green Mexican zucchini works. Do not use dark green American zucchini if you can avoid it, it carries too much water and the dish goes soupy.
- •This dish is built to sit next to slow-cooked Yucatecan proteins. Cochinita pibil, poc chuc, pollo pibil, even a simple roasted chicken with achiote. It is not a stand-alone main course. It is the green at the side of the plate that ties the meal together.
Advance Preparation
- •This dish does not hold well. The calabacitas continue to release water and the epazote dulls within an hour. Make it the moment before you serve it.
- •You can chop the onion, chile dulce, garlic, and tomato up to a few hours ahead and keep them refrigerated in separate covered bowls. Strip the epazote leaves just before cooking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 300g)
Calories
105 calories
Total Fat
6 g
Saturated Fat
2 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
4 g
Cholesterol
5 mg
Sodium
460 mg
Total Carbohydrates
11 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
7 g
Protein
3 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Yucatecan Side Dishes
Browse the full collection
Chef Lupita
Arroz con Chaya Yucateco
Yucatán's pale jade rice, long-grain fried in lard and cooked through with a puree of blanched chaya leaves, white onion, and garlic. The Peninsula's everyday side dish.
Chef Lupita
Calabaza Pibinal
Yucatan's calabaza de Castilla buried in the pib after the cochinita comes out, slow-cooked in piloncillo, canela, and naranja agria until the embers and the banana leaf finish the work the Maya cooks intended.
Chef Lupita
Camote Frito Yucateco
Yucatán's white sweet potato fried in manteca until the edges turn deep gold and the centers stay starchy and earthy. The quiet side that anchors a poc chuc lunch in Merida.