Recipe · Starter or salad · Arequipa
Solterito, Arequipa’s salad
Broad beans, corn, fresh cheese, tomato, red onion, olives and a little rocoto, with vinegar and parsley: the meat-free salad of Arequipa’s picanterías.
- Serves 4 as a starter, 2 as a light main course
- 1 hour with fresh broad beans, 35 minutes with frozen broad beans (estimate)
- Easy
- Vegetarian, judging by the ingredients
A colourful salad of broad beans, corn, fresh cheese, tomato and red onion, spiced up with a little rocoto and vinegar: solterito comes from Arequipa, where it is one of the starters served in the picanterías, according to Wikipedia.
A “bachelor” salad
According to Marca Perú, the name is said to come from the absence of meat: the “solterito”, the little bachelor, has no companion. The same source gives its composition: broad beans, corn, onion, rocoto, fresh cheese, olives and tomato, dressed with vinegar, parsley, salt and pepper, possibly on lettuce leaves. In Arequipa, the menu of La Nueva Palomino serves it with Lluta cheese, with cooked potato and sweet potato.
The broad beans and the corn
Fresh broad beans take work: they are shelled, blanched, then their pale skin is removed. Frozen broad beans that are already peeled save half an hour. Peruvian choclo, with large, floury kernels, can be found frozen in Latin American grocery shops; European sweetcorn, sweeter, changes the taste a little.
Our version
The time depends above all on the broad beans: the recipe gives both cases, fresh and frozen.
Ingredients
Serves 4 as a starter, 2 as a light main course
Estimated preparation time
- Advance preparation
- 30 minutes to shell, blanch and peel fresh broad beans (5 minutes with peeled frozen broad beans)
- Active time
- 20 minutes
- Cooking
- 10 minutes for the corn, 3 minutes for the broad beans
- Resting
- 15 minutes to cool the vegetables
- Total
- 1 hour with fresh broad beans, 35 minutes with frozen broad beans
Techniques: Boiling, No cooking.
The cooked vegetables
The salad
The dressing
Tick off the ingredients as you go: the boxes are remembered on this device.
Useful equipment
- A saucepan
- A bowl of iced water
- A salad bowl
- A knife
Method
- Shell the fresh broad beans. Plunge them into boiling salted water for 2 to 3 minutes, then into iced water, and remove the pale skin from each bean by pinching it. Frozen broad beans are cooked according to their packaging.
- Cook the corn cobs in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes, leave them to cool, then cut off the kernels with a knife.
- Leave the broad beans and corn to cool, drained, before assembling: a warm salad softens the cheese.
- Cut the cheese, the tomatoes and the onion into dice of about 1 cm, the size of the broad beans. Cut the olives in half.
- In the salad bowl, mix the broad beans, corn, cheese, tomato, onion, olives, rocoto and parsley.
- Drizzle with oil and vinegar, add pepper, mix gently and taste before adding salt: the cheese and olives are already salty.
- Serve chilled, as a starter or with cooked potatoes for a light main course.
Signs of success
- All the colours stay clear: the bright green of the broad beans, the yellow of the corn, the white of the cheese, the red of the tomato.
- The dice are of even size, so there is a bit of everything in each mouthful.
- The salad is fresh and tangy, with no pool of juice at the bottom of the bowl.
Precautions
- People who must avoid broad beans for medical reasons should choose another recipe, or the variant with peas.
Allergens identified
Present: milk.
Always check the labels of the products you buy (sauces, stocks, chilli pastes).
Variations and tips
- At La Nueva Palomino, the “soltero de queso” is served with Lluta cheese, with cooked potato and sweet potato.
- With lettuce leaves, as an option, according to Marca Perú.
Reasonable substitutions
- European sweetcorn instead of choclo: sweeter, with smaller kernels; it is an adaptation.
- Peas or white beans instead of broad beans: the taste changes, but the salad keeps its spirit.
Storage
- Dressed salad: in the fridge, below 5 °C until serving. Leftovers: in the fridge within one to two hours of cooking, to be eaten within 48 hours or frozen; the tomato releases water.
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
- Marca Perú (PROMPERÚ), Arequipa’s cooking (solterito: broad beans, corn, fresh cheese, rocoto, olives, tomato, vinegar, parsley; name linked to the absence of meat) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
- Wikipedia (Spanish), Solterito (Arequipa salad, picanterías) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
How we choose and date our information: our method. Has something changed? Let us know.