Recipe · Main course · Lima and criolla cooking
Tacu tacu
Day-old rice and yellow beans, seasoned with an ají amarillo aderezo, mashed, shaped and browned in the pan until a crust forms, with a fried egg.
- Serves 4 (4 tacu tacus)
- 45 minutes with the rice and beans already cooked (estimate)
- Intermediate
- Vegetarian, judging by the ingredients
A thick cake of rice and beans, browned until it forms a crust, often served with a fried egg: tacu tacu is a criollo dish from Lima born of the art of using up leftovers.
A leftovers dish, an Afro-Peruvian history
Wikipedia describes it as an example of “leftovers cooking” and reports, as unconfirmed, that it is said to have been invented by enslaved Black women, who reused the previous day’s rice and beans. PROMPERÚ lists it among the African contributions to Lima’s cuisine, along with anticuchos and cau cau.
The techniques
PROMPERÚ’s recipe uses canario beans cooked the day before, an aderezo of onion, garlic and ají amarillo, then the rice, mashed with the beans until it forms a mixture; it suggests serving it with a fried egg. Two things make it work: a mixture mashed enough to hold together, and a frying pan hot enough to form a crust before turning it over.
Our version
The ratio of rice to beans depends on how moist they are: the mixture should hold together when you press it.
Ingredients
Serves 4 (4 tacu tacus)
Estimated preparation time
- Advance preparation
- Rice and beans cooked the day before, cooled within the hour and kept in the fridge (soaking overnight and 1 hour of cooking for dried beans)
- Active time
- 30 minutes
- Cooking
- 6 to 8 minutes per tacu tacu
- Total
- 45 minutes with the rice and beans already cooked
Techniques: Stir-frying over high heat.
The mixture
To serve
Tick off the ingredients as you go: the boxes are remembered on this device.
Useful equipment
- A 20 to 24 cm non-stick frying pan
- A wide spatula
- A flat plate for turning
- A potato masher or fork
Method
- Mash half the beans with a fork or a masher; keep the other half whole. If they are very dry, add a spoonful of cooking water.
- In the frying pan, fry the onion in two spoonfuls of oil for 6 to 8 minutes, without colouring, then the garlic, ají and oregano for 2 minutes: this is the aderezo.
- Add all the beans and stir for 2 minutes. Add the rice and mash everything with the spatula or the masher, mixing, until you have a mixture that holds together, where grains of rice can still be seen. Season with salt and pepper.
- Divide the mixture into four. Heat a spoonful of oil in the clean frying pan, over a medium-high heat. Put in a quarter of the mixture and shape it with the spatula into a thick oval of 2 to 3 cm.
- Leave it to brown for 3 to 4 minutes without touching it, until a crust forms. Slide the tacu tacu onto the plate, turn the pan over on top of it, then turn the whole thing over, and brown the other side for 3 minutes.
- Keep it warm while you make the others. Serve with a fried egg, a salsa criolla and, if you like, fried plantain. The reheated rice must be piping hot, to at least 70 °C.
Signs of success
- The mixture holds together when you press it in your hand, without sticking to your fingers or crumbling.
- The crust is dark golden and crisp; the inside stays soft.
- The tacu tacu turns over in one piece: if it breaks, the mixture was not mashed enough or the crust had not formed enough.
Precautions
- Plant-based only if the beans were cooked without bacon or meat stock, and with oil rather than lard.
Allergens identified
No major allergen in the list of ingredients. Possible: egg (if served).
Always check the labels of the products you buy (sauces, stocks, chilli pastes).
Variations and tips
- Tacu tacu “a lo pobre”: with a fried egg, as PROMPERÚ suggests.
- Tacu tacu montado: topped with a lomo saltado, a breaded steak or seafood.
- With lentils or chickpeas instead of the yellow beans: the taste and texture change.
Reasonable substitutions
- Tinned beans: rinse and drain them well, they are moister than home-cooked beans.
Storage
- Cooked rice: cooled within an hour of cooking, kept in the fridge, eaten within 24 hours, reheated only once to 70 °C at the core for 2 minutes. Tacu tacu, made with rice from the day before, is eaten straight away: do not reheat it a second time.
- Cooked beans: in the fridge within one to two hours of cooking, to be eaten within 48 hours or frozen.
Going further
Sources and dates
3 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
- to at least 70 °C: Reheating a dish that is already cooked (Switzerland)
Official source: FSVO, Hygiène et aliments (food hygiene, in French) (new tab) · consulted on 3 October 2026 - cooled within an hour of cooking, kept in the fridge, eaten within 24 hours, reheated only once to 70 °C at the core for 2 minutes: Storing cooked rice (United Kingdom)
Official source: NHS, starchy foods and carbohydrates (reviewed on 15 March 2023) (new tab) , published on 15 March 2023 · 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
- PROMPERÚ, recipe for tacu tacu (the previous day’s canario beans, ají amarillo aderezo, shaping, fried egg) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
- Wikipedia (Spanish), Tacutacu (leftovers cooking, origin reported as unconfirmed) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
- PROMPERÚ, Lima’s cuisine (African contribution: tacu tacu) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
How we choose and date our information: our method. Has something changed? Let us know.