New Slow Food Presidium in Peru : Heritage Huaylas Lupin Varieties

The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, in collaboration with the Onlus Albero della Vita [Tree of Life] Foundation and with the support of the Fondo Italo-Peruviano [Italo-Peruvian Fund] launches the new Heritage Huaylas Lupin Varieties Presidium. Here, at altitudes between 3,200 and 3,800 meters, some communities preserve three local varieties of lupin (tarwi in the Quechua language), a delicious and nutritious legume.

Known on a local level since pre-Columbian times, over the years they have been replaced by non-indigenous varieties that are more productive but less nutritious. The Slow Food Presidium involves about fifty producers who collaborate with chefs and local institutions to select and evaluate the native lupin ecotype, marketing it locally, also through recognition of a proper price for it.

At the heart of every new Presidium is the desire to preserve an important ingredient for the local communities. The Ancash department’s important gastronomic heritage, particularly in the Callejon de Huaylas area, and the growing interest in quality food in the country offer possibilities for the marketing of this legume.

The most common dish is picante, a dish based on lupins, potatoes, yellow peppers, onions and garlic, accompanied by toasted maize and rocoto (a variety of chilli). Another typical dish from the Huaylas province is the lupin ceviche, made with lupin beans, onion, tomato, rocoto, lemon and coriander. Some more recent experiments, like lupin ice cream, show the legume’s potential versatility.

The chef Adolfo Perret of the Sociedad Peruana de Gastronomía APEGA has been invited to take part in the Chefs’ Alliance Kitchen at Terra Madre Salone del Gusto. During the event The Lupin of the Andes, Adolfo Perret will prepare this ingredient in some traditional dishes of Peruvian cuisine.

Read here the interview with the chef Adolfo Perret.

For further information, please contact the Slow Food International Press Office:

[email protected] – Twitter: @SlowFoodPress

Paola Nano, +39 329 8321285, [email protected]

Ester Clementino, [email protected]

Giulia Capaldi, [email protected]

Slow Food is a global grassroots organization that envisions a world in which all people can access and enjoy food that is good for them, good for those who grow it and good for the planet.  Slow Food involves over a million activists, chefs, experts, youth, farmers, fishers and academics in over 160 countries. Among them, a network of around 100,000 Slow Food members are linked to 1,500 local chapters worldwide, contributing through their membership fee, as well as the events and campaigns they organize. As part of the network, more than 2,400 Terra Madre food communities practice small-scale and sustainable production of quality food around the world.