Recipe · Starter or salad · Arequipa
Ocopa with huacatay
Potatoes coated in a sauce from Arequipa: toasted mirasol and amarillo chillies, peanuts, fresh cheese, crackers and huacatay, with a starting dose of the herb.
- Serves 4 as a starter
- About 40 minutes (estimate)
- Easy
- Vegetarian, judging by the ingredients
Potatoes coated in a thick sauce made with huacatay, peanuts and toasted chillies: ocopa is Arequipa’s starter, a cousin of papa a la huancaína. It is served in the city’s picanterías, where the sauce is still ground on the batán.
The sauce and its history
According to Wikipedia, the name comes from the Quechua uq’upa, and the original sauce, without European dairy products, travelled in small gourds. Today’s recipe combines ají amarillo and ají mirasol toasted without their seeds, toasted onion and garlic, evaporated milk, fresh cheese, savoury crackers, peanuts and huacatay, ground on the batán or blended. Marca Perú notes that the batán is still the custom in the villages, the blender in most restaurants.
Ocopa or huancaína
Both sauces are served on potatoes, with hard-boiled egg and olive. Huancaína is yellow, made with cheese and ají amarillo; ocopa is darker and thicker, with peanuts, toasted ají mirasol and above all huacatay, an Andean herb with a powerful aroma.
Huacatay, to be measured carefully
In Switzerland, it is found mainly as a paste, in jars. Its intensity varies a great deal from one brand to another: the spoonful suggested here is a starting point, to be adjusted by tasting.
Our version
Peruvian fresh cheese (queso fresco), salty and firm, can be replaced by a mild feta or a salty fresh cheese; the taste changes a little.
Ingredients
Serves 4 as a starter
Estimated preparation time
- Active time
- 25 minutes
- Cooking
- 20 to 25 minutes for the potatoes, 8 minutes to toast the aromatics
- Total
- About 40 minutes
Techniques: Boiling, Blended sauce.
The sauce
To serve
Tick off the ingredients as you go: the boxes are remembered on this device.
Useful equipment
- A frying pan
- A blender
- A saucepan
Method
- Cook the potatoes in their skins in salted water for 20 to 25 minutes. Peel them and cut them into thick rounds.
- In the frying pan with a spoonful of oil, toast the onion and garlic over a medium heat for 6 to 8 minutes, until golden and tender. Add the ají pastes for one minute, then leave to cool slightly.
- Blend the onion, garlic and ajís with the peanuts, the cheese, the crackers, the rest of the oil and 120 ml of milk, until you have a smooth sauce.
- Add the huacatay paste, blend, taste. Its aroma is powerful and varies from one product to another: add more half a spoonful at a time only if the sauce lacks herb.
- Adjust the texture with the rest of the milk: the sauce should coat the spoon, thicker than a huancaína. Taste before adding salt, as the cheese and crackers are already salty.
- Arrange the potato rounds on the lettuce, coat with the sauce and garnish with hard-boiled egg and olive.
Signs of success
- The sauce is olive green tending towards ochre, thick, slightly grainy because of the peanuts.
- You taste the huacatay first, then the peanuts and the cheese, and a gentle warmth of chilli.
- It stays on top of the potatoes instead of running across the plate.
Precautions
- A cold preparation made with cheese and milk: take it out of the fridge only when serving.
Allergens identified
Present: peanuts, milk, gluten. Possible: egg (garnish).
Always check the labels of the products you buy (sauces, stocks, chilli pastes).
Variations and tips
- Ground on the batán, Arequipa’s grinding stone: the texture is more rustic than with a blender.
- In Arequipa, ocopa is also served with river shrimp, according to Wikipedia.
Reasonable substitutions
- Without huacatay, another herb (mint, basil) gives a different sauce: it is no longer an ocopa, so call it an adaptation.
- Without peanuts: the sauce will be thinner and less rounded; add a cracker to thicken it.
Storage
- Sauce made in advance: in the fridge, below 5 °C; in the fridge within one to two hours of cooking, to be eaten within 48 hours or frozen. It thickens when cold: loosen it with a little milk.
Going further
Sources and dates
2 sources
Prices, opening hours and rules change: every piece of information cited links to its source, with the date it was consulted.
Figures and rules cited
- in the fridge, below 5 °C: Storing meat, poultry, fish, seafood and leftovers (Switzerland) . The FSVO also asks you not to refreeze food that has been thawed.
Official source: FSVO, Hygiène et aliments (food hygiene, in French) (new tab) · consulted on 3 October 2026 - in the fridge within one to two hours of cooking, to be eaten within 48 hours or frozen: Cooling and keeping cooked leftovers (United Kingdom) . The same source asks you to thaw food in the fridge and to eat thawed food within 24 hours.
Official source: GOV.UK (Food Standards Agency), cooling, freezing and defrosting food safely (18 December 2017) (new tab) , published on 18 December 2017 · consulted on 3 October 2026
Sources consulted
- Wikipedia (Spanish), Ocopa (Arequipa, ingredients, batán, carried in gourds) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
- Marca Perú (PROMPERÚ), Arequipa’s cooking (ocopa: huacatay, mirasol, peanuts, crackers, batán or blender) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
How we choose and date our information: our method. Has something changed? Let us know.