Baleada

Honduras's soft flour tortilla folded over refried red beans, salty crumbled cheese and a smear of thick cream

Origin: San Pedro Sula & the North Coast of Honduras

From the journey of Beans.

A baleada is a soft wheat flour tortilla folded once over refried red beans, crumbled queso duro, and mantequilla, which in Honduras means a thick soured cream rather than butter. That is the baleada sencilla, the simple one, and it is the standard breakfast and standard late-night food of the north coast. Additions run to scrambled egg, avocado, chorizo, or shredded beef, and each addition changes the name. The flour tortilla is the marker. Most of Central America is a maize country and the baleada is the clearest wheat-eating exception, concentrated on the Caribbean coast around San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba, and Tela. Honduran flour tortillas are large, thin, soft, and pliable, made with lard or oil and rested before rolling so they fold without cracking, and they are nothing like the stiff commercial article. The origin of the name is contested and enjoyable. The most repeated account says a woman selling them near a dock or a market in La Ceiba was known as la balleada or was said to have been shot at, baleada meaning shot in Spanish, and the nickname passed to what she sold. Other versions attach the word to the appearance of the beans, or to a customer's remark. None of them is documented, all of them are told with conviction, and Honduran accounts do not agree even on the city. The beans are red, cooked soft, then fried down in oil with onion until they are a smooth dark paste stiff enough to stay put when the tortilla is folded. A runny bean makes a bad baleada, and that is the one thing every version agrees on.

Ingredients

Tortillas

400 g plain flour
60 g lard or 4 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
250 ml warm water

Beans

300 g dried red beans, soaked overnight, or 700g cooked
1 onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
3 tbsp oil
1 tsp ground cumin
1.5 tsp salt, or to taste

To fill

200 g queso duro or feta, crumbled
200 ml crema or soured cream
1 avocado, sliced
4 eggs, scrambled

Method

Cook the soaked beans in unsalted water for an hour until soft, keeping the liquor.
Soften the onion in the oil for eight minutes, add the garlic and cumin, then add the beans with a little liquor and the salt.
Mash and fry them down for ten to fifteen minutes until they are a thick dark paste that holds its shape on a spoon.
Take the beans further than seems necessary. A loose bean runs out of the fold and is the single commonest fault in a home baleada.
For the tortillas, rub the lard into the flour with the salt and baking powder, then work in the warm water to a soft dough.
Knead for six minutes until smooth, cover, and rest for at least thirty minutes.
Resting is what lets the dough roll thin without springing back, and an unrested dough gives small, thick, tough tortillas.
Divide into eight, roll each into a thin round about 22cm across, keeping the rest covered.
Cook each on a dry hot griddle for forty to sixty seconds a side, until it puffs and shows brown freckles but is still soft and pale between them.
Do not overcook them. A tortilla left until it is crisp will crack when it is folded, and a baleada must fold.
Stack them under a clean cloth as they come off so they steam and stay pliable.
Spread each with hot beans, crumble the cheese over, add a stripe of cream and any additions, fold once in half, and eat immediately.

Notes

Rest the dough and roll it thin; cook the tortillas briefly so they stay soft, and stack them under a cloth. Fry the beans down to a stiff paste. Honduran mantequilla is a thick soured cream, not butter; crema or soured cream is the substitute. Queso duro is a hard salty white cheese, and feta is closer to it than any mild cheese. A baleada is folded once into a half-moon, never rolled, and it is eaten in the hand within a minute of being made.

The Gastrographer

Name: Baleada
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 50 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: San Pedro Sula & the North Coast of Honduras
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour; 60 g lard or 4 tbsp oil; 1 tsp salt; 1 tsp baking powder; 250 ml warm water; 300 g dried red beans, soaked overnight, or 700g cooked; 1 onion, finely chopped; 4 garlic cloves, crushed; 3 tbsp oil; 1 tsp ground cumin; 1.5 tsp salt, or to taste; 200 g queso duro or feta, crumbled; 200 ml crema or soured cream; 1 avocado, sliced; 4 eggs, scrambled

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

To explore — select an ingredient below · click any location dot on the map for recipes and stories · browse the information panel on the right · trace the full journey on the timeline.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control