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
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Espelón con Chaya Frita
Created by
Yucatán's espelón, the native black-eyed cowpea of the milpa, sautéed with chaya, white onion, habanero, and pimienta gorda in lard. A Maya pairing the peninsula has cooked for centuries.
Side Dishes
Mexican
Weeknight
Comfort Food
20 min
Active Time
45 min cook•1 hr 5 min total
Yield6 servings as a side
This is from Yucatán. Not from a generic Mexican kitchen, from the peninsula, where the milpa, the ancient three-sisters plot of corn, beans, and squash, has been planted alongside chaya and espelón since long before anyone drew a border around what is now Mexico.
Espelón is the small, tender cowpea native to the Yucatecan milpa. It cooks faster than other beans, has a thin skin, and turns the water a deep purple-black. Chaya is the leafy green the Maya have eaten for centuries, taller than a person, full of iron, mildly poisonous raw and perfectly safe after ten minutes in boiling water. Together they are one of the oldest plant pairings in Mexico. You will not find this dish in Sonora or Veracruz. It is from here, and the cooks who carry it forward are the women of small towns outside Mérida, Valladolid, and Ticul.
The technique is simple and the discipline is in the details. Cook the espelón until tender but not blown out. Boil the chaya the full ten minutes, no shortcuts, that is food safety. Build a small sofrito with white onion, chopped habanero, tomato, and pimienta gorda in lard. La manteca es el sabor. Pull it all together in the cazuela so the cowpeas and the chaya are bound by the fat and the tomato, never swimming.
I spent a week in a village south of Mérida with a señora named Doña Felipa, who grew her own chaya in the yard and traded espelón with her neighbor. She told me that this dish is a daily plate in Yucatán, the kind of food a family eats on Tuesday without thinking, and that the rest of Mexico has no idea it exists. She is right. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Espelón (Vigna unguiculata subsp. unguiculata) is a Yucatecan variety of cowpea cultivated in the peninsular milpa system alongside corn and squash since pre-Columbian times, and it appears in colonial-era documents from the Diocese of Yucatán describing Maya household diets in the 16th and 17th centuries. Chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius), known in Yucatec Maya as 'chay,' was a staple leafy green of the Classic Maya and remains one of the most nutritionally dense vegetables in Mesoamerica, with iron and protein content that exceeds spinach by several multiples; its raw leaves contain hydrocyanic glycosides that are deactivated by at least five minutes of boiling, a food-safety practice the Maya codified centuries before modern science explained why. The dish's reliance on pimienta gorda (allspice, Pimenta dioica) and chile habanero marks it firmly as Yucatecan rather than central Mexican, since both ingredients define the peninsular flavor profile against the chile-and-comino axis of the interior.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried espelón (Yucatecan cowpeas)
Quantity
1 1/2 cups
picked over and rinsed
white onion
Quantity
1 medium
half left whole, half finely chopped
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
2 whole and 2 finely chopped
epazote
Quantity
1 small bunch (about 4 sprigs)
kosher salt
Quantity
2 teaspoons, divided
chaya leaves
Quantity
1 large bunch (about 8 ounces of leaves)
stems removed
lard (manteca de cerdo)
Quantity
3 tablespoons
fresh chile habanero
Quantity
1
stemmed and finely chopped (seeds in for heat, out for less)
Roma tomatoes
Quantity
2 medium
finely chopped
ground allspice (pimienta gorda)
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)
Quantity
for serving
warmed
lime halves (optional)
Quantity
for serving
salsa de chile habanero tatemado (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried espelón (Yucatecan cowpeas)picked over and rinsed | 1 1/2 cups |
| white onionhalf left whole, half finely chopped | 1 medium |
| garlic cloves2 whole and 2 finely chopped | 4 |
| epazote | 1 small bunch (about 4 sprigs) |
| kosher salt | 2 teaspoons, divided |
| chaya leavesstems removed | 1 large bunch (about 8 ounces of leaves) |
| lard (manteca de cerdo) | 3 tablespoons |
| fresh chile habanerostemmed and finely chopped (seeds in for heat, out for less) | 1 |
| Roma tomatoesfinely chopped | 2 medium |
| ground allspice (pimienta gorda) | 1/2 teaspoon |
| hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)warmed | for serving |
| lime halves (optional) | for serving |
| salsa de chile habanero tatemado (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 4-quart pot for cooking the espelón
- •Wide clay cazuela or heavy skillet (12-inch) for the sofrito
- •Wooden spoon
- •Fine-mesh strainer for draining
Instructions
- 1
Cook the espelón
Place the rinsed espelón in a heavy pot and cover with cold water by three inches. Add the whole half-onion, the two whole garlic cloves, and two sprigs of epazote. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Skim any foam that rises in the first ten minutes. Cook uncovered at a lazy simmer for 35 to 45 minutes, until the cowpeas are tender but still hold their shape. Add one teaspoon of salt only in the last ten minutes. Salt at the start hardens the skins and you will be chasing tenderness for an extra hour.
Espelón cooks faster than common cowpeas, and the cooking liquid turns a deep purple-black. That liquid is flavor. Save a cup of it before you drain. - 2
Wilt the chaya
Bring a separate pot of water to a low boil. Add the chaya leaves and cook for 10 minutes. This is not optional. Raw chaya contains hydrocyanic compounds that the boil neutralizes, and the women of Yucatán who taught me this dish were emphatic about the timing. Drain, rinse under cold water, squeeze dry, and chop coarsely. The leaves should look dark green and tender, the texture of cooked spinach but with more body.
- 3
Drain the cowpeas
Reserve one cup of the espelón cooking liquid. Drain the cowpeas and discard the spent half-onion, garlic, and epazote sprigs. Set the cowpeas aside. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo, and this is the unglamorous step that sets up everything that follows.
- 4
Build the sofrito
In a wide cazuela or heavy skillet, melt the lard over medium heat. Add the chopped white onion and cook for four minutes, until soft and just starting to turn at the edges. Add the chopped garlic and chile habanero. Cook one minute more, until the kitchen smells sharp and floral from the habanero. The habanero is the fruity Yucatecan heat. Use less if your guests are not ready for it. Do not substitute jalapeño. That is a different chile and a different region.
Wash your hands and the cutting board after the habanero. Better yet, wear gloves. The oil will find your eye six hours later. - 5
Add the tomato and allspice
Add the chopped tomato and the ground allspice. Cook for five minutes, mashing the tomato lightly with the back of a wooden spoon, until the tomato breaks down and the lard turns reddish-orange at the edges. The allspice is pimienta gorda, the spice that anchors so much of the Yucatecan pantry. A half teaspoon is enough. More and it dominates the chaya.
- 6
Sauté the espelón and chaya
Add the drained espelón and the chopped chaya to the cazuela. Stir to coat everything in the sofrito. Pour in about a third of the reserved cooking liquid and the remaining teaspoon of salt. Tear the last two sprigs of epazote and stir them in. Cook over medium heat for eight to ten minutes, stirring often, until the liquid has reduced and the mixture looks glossy and bound together, not soupy and not dry. Add a splash more cooking liquid if it tightens too fast. You want every cowpea coated and every leaf of chaya wrapped in the lard and tomato. Taste for salt. Adjust.
- 7
Serve at the table
Spoon directly into a wide clay bowl or onto a shallow platter. Serve with warm corn tortillas, lime halves, and a small dish of salsa de chile habanero tatemado for those who want more heat. This is a side dish in a Yucatecan meal, set next to cochinita pibil or relleno negro, but it stands on its own on a weeknight with a few tortillas and nothing else. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
Chef Tips
- •Espelón is not the same as common black-eyed peas, though it is in the same family. Mexican grocers in the U.S. sometimes carry it dried under the name 'frijol espelón' or 'x-pelón.' If you cannot find it, fresh or frozen black-eyed peas are the closest compromise. Use 3 cups cooked. The flavor will be milder and the cooking liquid will not turn purple-black, but the structure of the dish holds.
- •Chaya is harder to find outside the peninsula. In the United States, Mexican grocers in Texas, Florida, and California sometimes stock it fresh. If you cannot find chaya, use 8 ounces of mature spinach or chard leaves. It is a compromise, not an upgrade. Boil for only 2 minutes if substituting spinach, since the safety reason does not apply.
- •The pimienta gorda is non-negotiable. Yucatecan cooking is built on allspice the way central Mexican cooking is built on cumin. If you only have whole berries, toast and grind them. Do not skip it.
Advance Preparation
- •The espelón can be cooked one day ahead and refrigerated in its cooking liquid. The flavor deepens overnight.
- •The chaya can be boiled, drained, and chopped one day ahead and refrigerated. Do not skip the boil, even if you are making it ahead.
- •The finished dish keeps refrigerated for three days. Reheat in a cazuela over low heat with a splash of water, never in the microwave, which dries out the chaya.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 200g)
Calories
240 calories
Total Fat
8 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
5 g
Cholesterol
5 mg
Sodium
500 mg
Total Carbohydrates
32 g
Dietary Fiber
7 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
12 g
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