Lomo Saltado
An iconic Peruvian dish, this beef stir fry recipe comes from Ricardo Zarate's cookbook: The Fire of Peru.
- WORDS BY: Ricardo Zarate
- PUBLISHED: February 19, 2021
- PHOTOGRAPHY BY: Ed Anderson
“Lomo saltado is probably on every mom-and-pop Peruvian restaurant menu. The classic beef stir-fry is easy to make from inexpensive ingredients. When I’m having a rough day, lomo saltado is still the comfort food dish that does it for me. The best taste like a big, warm and cozy salad. You get a little crunchiness, but also something satisfying in your belly. Problem is, there are a lot of bad versions out there. It’s hard not to be disappointed when a saltado has steamed, instead of seared, ingredients. That’s a stew, not a stir-fry.
The key is to fry everything at very high heat so you get a good sear on the ingredients, but you don’t cook out all of their freshness. A few years back, I watched a lomo saltado cookoff on television when I was visiting family in Lima. The fastest competitor clocked in his saltado at just under ninety seconds. You don’t need to go that fast—I’ll be generous and give you an extra thirty seconds. But you should never spend more than two minutes from the time your beef hits the pan to when the scallion and cilantro garnishes are ready to scatter on top of the finished dish. The meat should be medium-rare, the tomatoes juicy, and the onions barely softening on the edges but still crunchy in the center. Make sure your tomatoes—heirlooms or juicy beefsteak—are really ripe, or let plum tomatoes sit out on the counter for several days until they soften up a little. These days, you see a lot of lomo saltados made with less expensive cuts of meat, but I prefer filet mignon (lomo means “filet,” the cut traditionally used in Peru); it’s so tender and flavorful, but you can use any cut from the tenderloin.
Traditionally, the stir-fry is served on top of deep-fried or skillet-fried potatoes, but you could also serve this with leftover rice. I usually pile potatoes on top or on the side of the plate so they stay crispy, like they just came out of the fryer basket or pan. And so you can dip them into the saltado sauce— Peruvian ketchup.” – Ricardo Zarate
Recipe courtesy of Lima-born Los Angeles based chef and restaurateur Chef Ricardo Zarate. Click here to purchase your own copy of Ricardo Zarate’s cookbook: The Fire of Peru: Recipes and Stories from My Peruvian Kitchen reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Serves 4
Subscribe to our Substack newsletter to receive access to the latest stories and podcast episodes from NEW WORLDER. It’s free to subscribe, though additional content is available for paid subscribers.