Ancient Mayan Food Recipes

This is not strictly speaking ancient Mayan food recipes since there are none preserved. What I have done is from common historical knowledge adapt some modern Mayan recipes. A big difference from today is of course the absense of onions since they only came with the Spanish. If you want to know more about Ancient Mayan Food just click this link where you can read about their agriculture and lots more.

Ancient Mayan Food Recipes - Starters And Soups

Salsa
- 800 g small tasty tomatoes
- 2 finely chopped habanero chilis (without seeds)
- 1/2 finely chopped small green bell pepper
Remove hard centerpart from tomatoes and crush them in a bowl, add all other ingredients. Nice with tortillas.

Pumpkin Soup
(Serves 8)- 1 1/2 kg pumpkin in pieces, cleaned, peeled and seedless
- salt
- 3 tbsp honey
- 1/2 tsp ground allspice
- 1000 ml turkey broth (can be replaced with chicken broth)
Boil pumpkin in a large cooking pot with 1 tsp of salt until soft, about 20-30 minutes. Strain water and mash to a smooth paste - add honey, allspice and enough stock to make it a soup. Salt to taste.

Ancient Mayan Food Recipes - Main Courses

Ancient Burritos - Black Beans in Tortilla Wrappers
Black beans:
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 finely chopped habanero chilis (without seeds)
- 1 chopped green bell pepper
- 1 tsp allspice
- 2 tsp cayenne pepper powder
- 1 sprig epazote (can be excluded)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup dried black beans
- 2 cups water
Corn Tortillas:
(15 tortillas)
- 500 ml masa harina (treated corn flour)
- 300 - 400 ml warm water
Garnish:
- small diced tasty tomatoes
Heat oil in a pressure cooker, add chili, bell pepper, allspice, cayenne pepper, epazote and salt and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add beans and fry them for a couple of minutes while stirring. Add water and put the lid on the pressure cooker and put on high temparature. When pressure cooker starts to hiss loudly time it for 20 minutes. Let cool off for at least 15 minutes before you open lid, otherwise you can burn yourself! While waiting for it to cool off make the tortillas. Mix corn flour with water until you have a soft smooth dough, cover with damp cloth. Now place a flattened golfball sized piece of dough in a tortilla press prepared with waxed paper. Put wax paper on top and press. In a non stick frying pan place the tortilla, removing the paper carefully with wet hands. Fry for one minute on each side on high heat until it starts to catch colour. Keep under dampened cloth and repeat procedure. Make a wrapper with black beans and tomatoes inside. Delicious!

Turkey Tamales
- 1000 ml turkey broth (can be replaced with chicken broth)
- 1500 ml masa harina (treated corn flour)- 1 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper powder
- salt
- corn husks
- 1 kg shredded cooked turkey
- 2 diced tomatoes
- 2 finely chopped habanero chilis (without seeds)
- 2 sprigs epazote (can be excluded)
Heat the broth. While stirring sift in a tbsp of masa harina to make it thick, take off heat. Preheat oven to 190 °C. In a bowl knead corn flour, turkey fat, allspice, cayenne pepper and a pinch of salt to a dough. On a corn husk put about half a cup of dough, make a depression in the middle that you fill with shredded turkey, tomatoes, habaneros and epazote finaly soaking it all with broth. Cover with a "dough lid" so that it does not leak, wrap in corn husks. Bake them in oven for 90 minutes.

Ancient Mayan Food Recipes - Beverages

Hot Chocolate
(4 cups)
- 4 cups water
- 4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 tbsp honey
- 1 stalk cleaned fresh vanilla
- salt
- cayenne pepper
Start with bringing 2 cups of water and cocoa powder to a boil while stirring with a baloon whisk. Now add the rest of water, honey, vanilla and salt, bring it back to a boil and whisk it forcefully to create a foam. Sprinkle cayenne pepper on top and serve.