Chef Lupita
Arroz Blanco Estilo Morelos
Morelos white rice is fried until pearly, then steamed with a whole serrano and parsley, a clean table rice that knows its job beside beans, guisados, and mole verde.
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Ejotes en Salsa Pasilla
Created by
Ciudad de México's market-kitchen green beans, simmered in a dark pasilla chile sauce until the ejotes stay tender but still remember the field.
Side Dishes
Mexican
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
Comfort Food
15 min
Active Time
30 min cook•45 min total
Yield4 to 6 servings
Ciudad de México, Valle de México. This dish lives in the market kitchens around La Merced, Jamaica, and the neighborhood fondas where a cazuela of vegetables has to feed people well without pretending to be a feast.
The chile pasilla is the authority here. Not chipotle, not ancho, not a handful of whatever dried chile was lonely in your cupboard. Pasilla is the dried chilaca: dark, wrinkled, mildly smoky, with a raisin depth and very little heat. That is why this dish proves what I keep telling students: not every Mexican chile dish is about fire.
The ejotes should be fresh, firm, and snapped by hand if you have time. My mother wrote in her notebook, 'no los mates,' don't kill them. She was right. You simmer them in the sauce long enough to take the flavor, not until they collapse into army-green sadness. A little manteca de cerdo rounds the chile and tomato. La manteca es el sabor.
Serve this in a glazed clay cazuela from Metepec or a plain barro dish, family-style, with warm corn tortillas and beans. It is weeknight food, yes, but weeknight food is where a cuisine proves itself. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Chile pasilla, the dried form of chile chilaca, is strongly associated with central Mexican cooking, especially the salsas, caldos, and guisos of the Valle de México, Puebla, Hidalgo, and Michoacán. Green beans arrived in Mexico through colonial-era agricultural exchange, but cooks folded them into older chile-and-tomato sauce techniques that already belonged to the indigenous and mestizo kitchen. In central Mexico, mild dried chile sauces like pasilla and ancho were never only for meat; they were practical ways to give depth to vegetables, eggs, beans, and tortillas when money was tight.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
fresh green beans (ejotes)
Quantity
1 pound
trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
dried chile pasilla
Quantity
4
stemmed and seeded
ripe Roma tomatoes
Quantity
2 medium
white onion
Quantity
1/4 medium
garlic cloves
Quantity
2
unpeeled
pork lard (manteca de cerdo)
Quantity
1 1/2 tablespoons
kosher salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste
hot water or vegetable broth
Quantity
1/2 cup
as needed
fresh epazote
Quantity
1 small sprig
crumbled queso fresco (optional)
Quantity
2 tablespoons
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fresh green beans (ejotes)trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces | 1 pound |
| dried chile pasillastemmed and seeded | 4 |
| ripe Roma tomatoes | 2 medium |
| white onion | 1/4 medium |
| garlic clovesunpeeled | 2 |
| pork lard (manteca de cerdo) | 1 1/2 tablespoons |
| kosher salt | 1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| hot water or vegetable brothas needed | 1/2 cup |
| fresh epazote | 1 small sprig |
| crumbled queso fresco (optional)for serving | 2 tablespoons |
Equipment Needed
- •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet
- •Blender
- •Wide clay cazuela or heavy 10-inch skillet
- •Medium pot for blanching ejotes
Instructions
- 1
Blanch the ejotes
Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add the ejotes and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, just until their raw edge softens and the color turns bright green. Drain and rinse briefly under cold water. Do not cook them to death now. They still have to simmer in the sauce.
- 2
Toast the pasilla
Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. Press each chile pasilla against the hot surface for 10 to 15 seconds per side, just until the skin softens, darkens slightly, and smells like dried fruit and smoke. Pasilla burns fast. If it turns black, throw it out. Burned chile makes bitter salsa, and no spoonful of sugar will save you.
The chile should become pliable and fragrant, not brittle and scorched. This is a mild sauce with depth, not punishment. - 3
Soak the chiles
Put the toasted pasilla chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water. Hot, not boiling. Let them soak for 15 minutes until soft. Boiling water roughens the skins and can pull bitterness into the sauce. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado. They know.
- 4
Roast the vegetables
On the same comal, roast the tomatoes, onion, and unpeeled garlic until the tomatoes blister and slump, the onion chars at the edges, and the garlic feels soft when pressed. Peel the garlic. This roasted base is what keeps the pasilla from tasting thin.
- 5
Blend the salsa
Drain the chiles and put them in a blender with the roasted tomatoes, onion, peeled garlic, salt, and 1/4 cup hot water or broth. Blend until completely smooth. If the blender struggles, add the remaining water a spoonful at a time. You want a dark, pourable salsa, not a watery soup.
- 6
Fry the sauce
Melt the manteca de cerdo in a wide clay cazuela or heavy skillet over medium heat. Pour in the pasilla salsa carefully. It will sputter. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring often, until the sauce darkens, thickens, and the fat begins to shine at the edges. This frying step matters. No me vengas con atajos.
- 7
Simmer the ejotes
Add the blanched ejotes and the sprig of epazote to the sauce. Stir so every piece is coated. Lower the heat and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, until the beans are tender but still hold their shape and the sauce clings to them. Taste for salt. Remove the epazote before serving.
- 8
Serve family-style
Spoon the ejotes and sauce into a shallow clay dish. Scatter queso fresco over the top if using. Serve with warm corn tortillas, not flour tortillas. Flour tortillas belong to the north. This is central Mexican food. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Chef Tips
- •Choose chile pasilla that is flexible, dark brown-black, and smells sweet, like raisins and smoke. If it is dusty, cracked, and smells like cardboard, leave it with the vendor.
- •If the ejotes at the market are limp or spotted, make another vegetable dish. Mexican cooking follows the market, not your shopping list.
- •Queso fresco is optional. The sauce is the point. Do not bury the dish under crema. This is not that kind of cazuela.
- •If you cannot use lard, use a neutral oil and understand what changes. The sauce will be sharper and less rounded. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
Advance Preparation
- •The pasilla salsa can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. Fry it in manteca when you are ready to finish the dish.
- •The ejotes can be trimmed a day ahead and kept wrapped in a towel in the refrigerator. Blanch them the day you serve.
- •Leftovers keep refrigerated for 3 days. Reheat gently in a skillet with a spoonful of water so the sauce loosens without breaking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 120g)
Calories
90 calories
Total Fat
5 g
Saturated Fat
2 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
2 g
Cholesterol
5 mg
Sodium
220 mg
Total Carbohydrates
11 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
5 g
Protein
3 g
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