Honduras foods and the accompanying Honduran recipes has some of the tastiest dishes that are well worth trying. A typical Honduran meal will afford you a mix of meaty goodness and a tropical, coconut-y taste. If you explore deeper into Honduras foods, you’ll find an amazing depth of flavor in their traditional Honduran dishes.
Honduran Cuisine
Regional specialties include fried fish, tamales, carne asada and baleadas. Other popular dishes include meat roasted with chismol and carne asada, chicken with rice and corn, and fried fish with pickled onions and jalapeños.
Among the soups the Hondurans enjoy are bean soup, mondongo soup (tripe soup), seafood soups and beef soups. Generally all of these soups are mixed with plantains, yuca, and cabbage, and served with corn tortillas.
Other typical dishes are the montucas or corn tamales, stuffed tortillas, and tamales wrapped in plantain leaves. Typical Honduran dishes also include an abundant selection of tropical fruits such as papaya, pineapple, plum, sapote, passion fruit, and bananas which are prepared in many ways while they are still green.
Traditional Honduran Foods
Honduran cuisine is a mixture of several ancient cultures like Maya, Garifuna, and Lenca. Besides Caribbean and African influences, the Spanish invasion played an important part in making the local cuisine as we know it. It is heavily based on beans, corn, and plantains.
Breakfast
Hondurans usually have a large, hearty breakfast. It typically consists of fried eggs (whole or scrambled), refried beans, Honduran salty sour cream (crema), queso fresco, avocado, sweet fried plantains, and tortillas. It is common for most households to first prepare tortillas, a staple for nearly every dish, which are used throughout the rest of the day.
Other breakfast favorites include carne asada (roasted meat) and Honduran spicy sausages (chorizo). Another food that can be eaten for breakfast as a dessert is rosquillas. Rosquillas can be considered as a Honduran doughnut and are made from masa, cheese and yeast. A good breakfast will be accompanied with hot, dark Honduran-grown coffee.
Traditional Honduran Meals
A typical meal in Honduras usually includes rice, beans, tortillas, some kind of grilled meat such as chicken, pork or beef, and a salad. You will find some variations on the Caribbean coast or in the Bay Islands. In this region seafood and coconut products dominate the local cuisine.
History of Honduran Foods
Multiple cultures have donated to Honduran foods and cuisine. The Maya, Garifuna and Lenca alongside African, Spanish and Central American have all played an exciting role to date. These cultures mixed their skills dating back in the 1700s where colonials brought in slaves to work in farms. This included Spanish, African and Latin people.
Food not only satisfies hunger but also helps bring people together and encourages good relationships, and in Honduras, this happens a lot. During major festivals, weddings, and Christmas holidays, favorite dishes were made. This includes rice, tamales and fresh fruits like avocados and plums that were offered. These foods were also given and received as gifts.
Old Style Honduran Foods and Cooking
The mixture of cultures brought various styles of cooking in Honduras. Different cultures came with different skills, foods, resources and dishes to share and explore.
The Mayans brought corn, cocoa, avocadoes, guacamoles and coffee. They were among the first people to settle in Honduras. They made foods like corn tortillas, poc chuc which is slow cooked pork, michelada which is quite spicy and their traditional breakfast which includes eggs, black dry beans, plantains and bananas.
The Garifuna’s on the other hand, came in with Sere – which is majorly fish stew with coconut soup – hudut, which is filled with vegetables and salad, cassava bread, darasa, bundiga, tapou and sahou – a drink which entails milks and coconut and was locally brewed.
The Lenca are great agriculturalists. They are good at producing farm produce, especially food crops like coffee, cacao, maize, beans, wheat, squash, sugarcane, chilly and peanuts. Their favorite dish is tortillas, chorocos and black beans. They also do eggs for breakfast.
Central Americans brought along cou-cou, creole bread, spicy plantains and fish dishes. Africans brought maize, beans and fresh fruits. Common fruits in this country include papaya, pineapple, plum, sappote, passion fruit and bananas.
Modern Honduran Foods & Cooking Techniques
As time went by, these cultures began to appreciate even more diverse ways of cooking and modernized them. Eggs are now deep fried, snacks are made, cereals and shakes are rising, fast food is appreciated, desserts are esteemed and beverages are processed.
Foods like sopa marinera which is sea food cooked in milk, pan de coco which is sweet bread and rosquillas which resemble donuts are now widely cooked and appreciated as modern foods. Modern spices are cherished and used too.
Baleada still remains their favorite snack and has now been modernized further with hot sauce and cheese. Pinol is still brewed and remains a traditional drink. Typically, breakfast in Honduras includes eggs, black beans, tortillas, coffee, orange juice and endless coconut juice. Traditional Honduran foods mainly work around corn, beans, plantains, meats like fish and the beverages are mainly made of coconut.
Discover Traditional Honduran Dishes from Appetizers to Desserts
Honduran Appetizers or Snacks
✪ Baleadas – One of the most popular dishes in Honduras is a warm flour tortilla folded over a creamy filling of refried beans and cheese. This famous dish, called a Baleada, can be eaten anywhere at any time.
✪ Macheteadas – Macheteadas is a traditional Honduran snack. This sweet and dense fried dough is usually prepared with leftover baleada flour tortilla dough.
✪ Catrachitas – Catrachitas is a popular Honduran snack consisting of deep-fried tortilla chips topped with hot sauce, cheese, and mashed refried beans.
✪ Anafre de Frijoles – Anafre de frijoles is a traditional Honduran dish that’s usually served as an appetizer. It consists of fried red or black beans, melted cheese, and fresh corn tortilla chips.
✪ Tortilla con Quesillo – Tortilla con quesillo is a Honduran snack consisting of two corn tortillas stuffed with melting, salty cheese. This appetizer is then pan-fried and traditionally served with a tomato-based sauce.
Traditional Honduran Meals
★ Sopa de caracol – Sopa de caracol is one of the most notable dishes in Honduran cuisine, consisting of large pieces of conch cooked in coconut milk with the addition of conch broth, cassava, plantains, and spices such as coriander, garlic, and chili.
★ Sopa catratcha de mariscos con un – Is a traditional Honduran dish in which seafood is cooked in coconut milk with the addition of seasonings and corn cobs. Any type of seafood can be used, but fish fillets, crab, shrimps, and conch are usually the most popular choices.
★ Honduran Quesadillas – This one is a sweet-savory holiday cake.
A different kind of quesadilla that’s popular during Christmas. It looks similar to cornbread, with a strong flavor of Parmesan cheese.
★ Plato Típico (typical dish) – Plato Tipico is the national dish of Honduras. Also, is one of the most popular because it combines the most liked and used ingredients in a dish that will satisfy most tastes! It includes a variety of foods, which are prepared separately, but form a complete meal: Grilled meat and pork sausages, stewed beans, chimol, fried plantain, and rice.
★ Honduran Salpicón – This meat salad is one of the coziest homemade meals of Honduras. Although it’s true that there are different versions in other countries, they don’t compare to the salpicón of this inviting Central American country, where salpicón has a special flavor that is both simple and delicious.
Honduran Desserts
✪ Honduran Yucca Cake with Sweet Milk Sauce – This cake mild, sweet, and slightly nutty flavor, and when grated into this cake, it will give you a dense, rich, pie-like texture.
✪ Pineapple Surprise Cookies – Not only will you get a crumbly, buttery cookie, but you also get a pop of flavor! You can fill them with everything from guava jam to Nutella, but this pineapple version is so delightfully tropical.
✪ Honduran Banana Bread – Rather than using mild cream cheese, the Neufchatel cheese adds such a great, tangy taste to the loaf. Remember, you won’t want the rind, and beat it with the butter until nice and smooth.
✪ Pan de Coco – Pan de coco is a sweet bread roll filled with desiccated coconut and sugar. Its name can be translated to coconut bread, and it is a very popular snack bread throughout Honduras.
✪ Tres Leches Cake – This cake is sure to please a crowd with its sweet, moist and creamy texture created by drizzling three different types of milk onto the cake after it’s been baked.
24 Honduras Foods with Traditional Honduran Recipes
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1. Baleadas Hondureñas (And Homemade Flour Tortillas) – Honduras Foods
One of the most popular dishes in Honduras is a warm flour tortilla folded over a creamy filling of refried beans and cheese. This famous dish, called a Baleada, can be eaten anywhere at any time. A hard white cheese known as “queso duro” is the traditional cheese used in baleadas.
The beauty of this recipe is that it is adaptable to the ingredients you have on hand. Start with a warm flour tortilla, fill with Refried Red Beans – Central American Style, crumbled cheese and crema, then add other fillings, like avocados, scrambled eggs or chopped tomatoes for a delicious taste of authentic Honduran cooking.
2. Honduran Chimol (Pico de Gallo) – Honduran Dishes
Honduran Chimol or pico de gallo is a mild chopped fresh salsa. It is a condiment on most Honduran tables and is used like a salsa on chips or a topping for grilled meat. It is easy to make and you can adjust the salt and lime to your liking.
Hondurans do not eat spicy food so it is made with bell pepper that rates zero on the Scoville scale. If you like a little spice go ahead and add in a serrano or jalapeno. It is super with the carne asada.
3. Sopa de Caracol – Traditional Honduran Foods
Sopa de caracol (or conch soup), sometimes called the national dish of Honduras, is one of the most delicious and popular dishes in Honduras.
The meat of conchs is eaten raw in salads, or cooked, as in burgers, chowders, fritters, and gumbos. All parts of the conch meat are edible.
Conch soup is made with tender conch meat, yuca, slices of unripe bananas, bell peppers, and topped with chopped cilantro.
4. Macheteadas – Honduran Recipes
A Honduran breakfast treat. This recipe is authentic to Honduras. Macheteadas are a sweet and dense snack food that Hondurans prepare using leftover baleada (wheat flour tortilla) dough. These are fried and delicious.
You can try one fresh out of the fryer, but, they’re actually better when they’ve cooled, and really best when dunked in a cup of coffee.
5. Sopa Catratcha de Mariscos con un – Honduras Foods
Honduran coconut seafood soup is a traditional Honduran dish in which seafood is cooked in coconut milk with the addition of seasonings and corn cobs. Any type of seafood can be used, but fish fillets, crab, shrimps, and conch are usually the most popular choices.
Other ingredients include tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, bouillon cubes, saffron, cilantro, parsley, Worcestershire sauce, achiote powder, and plantains.
The soup is simmered until the vegetables become tender. The dish is traditionally served with tortillas and rice on the side, and it’s sometimes garnished with avocado slices and lime wedges.
6. Honduran Yucca Cake with Sweet Milk Sauce – Honduran Dishes
Honduran Yucca Cake with Sweet Milk Sauce is similar to a crustless pumpkin pie, and this dense, sweet yucca dessert has a lovely texture and spiced mocha flavor.
This yucca cake has a mild, sweet, and slightly nutty flavor, and when grated into this cake, it will give you a dense, rich, pie-like texture.
With the added spices and coffee, the dish as a whole has a very cafe latte taste. Who could resist a latte in cake form?
7. Authentic Catrachitas – Traditional Honduran Foods
A typical Honduran dish, catrachitas are an everyday snack, also commonly prepared for various school festivities like Children’s Day, Lempira Day, and Mother’s Day.
This Honduran snack is made up of a fried tortilla that’s first smeared with refried beans and then sprinkled with queso duro, a hard, salty cheese. Additionally, a drizzle of hot sauce can also be added, but this is not a must.
The tortillas are made with just corn flour and water and are fried in oil, while the refried beans are made with red beans which are smaller and rounder when compared to kidney beans.
This basic recipe can be built upon by adding additional ingredients like avocados, various salsas, different cheeses, and condiments.
8. Honduran Quesadillas – Honduran Recipes
There are two kinds of quesadillas available in Honduras. The first one refers to grilled tortillas with meat and cheese filling. The other one is a sweet-savory holiday cake. This recipe yields the latter — a different kind of quesadilla that’s popular during Christmas.
It’s a mixture of rice flour, all-purpose flour, eggs, butter, cheese, milk, and sugar — all baked in a shallow pan. The result looks similar to cornbread, with a strong flavor of Parmesan cheese.
9. Pineapple Surprise Cookies – Honduras Foods
Stuffed cookies are so fun. Not only will you get a crumbly, buttery cookie, but you also get a pop of flavor! You can fill them with everything from guava jam to Nutella, but this pineapple version is so delightfully tropical.
Pineapple Surprise cookies are the most common cookies you’ll find here in the Bay Islands. At just about every bakery you’ll find freshly baked pineapple surprise cookies. And during special events and holidays, you can often find local ladies selling them from a stand on the side of the road.
10. Anafre de Frijoles (Chorizo, Bean & Cheese Dip) – Honduran Dishes
An anafre is a small clay pot used to heat up food. Think of it as the Honduran version of a fondue bowl.
Enjoy this easy recipe for this traditional Honduran chorizo, bean, and cheese dip or fondue. Chorizo, Bean & Cheese Dip is a hot bubbly dip that is packed full of Honduran flavor.
11. Plato Típico (typical dish) – Traditional Honduran Foods
Plato Tipico literally means “typical plate” in Spanish but honestly, there is nothing typical about this one. Its components combine to make quite the Honduras foods feast! When we first looked up the national dish of Honduras, we found the plato tipico: a massive plate of food, including three different types of barbecued meat.
Plato Tipico is an interesting dish because it is actually made up of many different recipes. The components can vary depending on which part of Honduras you are in. Once all of the components are made, assembling this dish is SO easy. Simply arrange all components on the plate and serve with flour tortillas on the side.
12. Honduran Banana Bread – Honduran Recipes
When looking through this recipe, you might do a double-take when you see a certain ingredient. Neufchatel cheese? That must be a typo, right? It’s not, and it’s such a special addition to this recipe. Rather than using mild cream cheese, the Neufchatel cheese adds such a great, tangy taste to the loaf.
Remember, you won’t want the rind, and beat it with the butter until nice and smooth. This will be much easier if you start with room temperature ingredients.
13. Tortilla con Quesillo – Honduras Foods
To start with, the tortillas with quesillo are a delicious option to open a typical Honduran lunch or dinner, they are usually prepared throughout the region and their recipe is one of the easiest to prepare.
Tortilla con quesillo is a Honduras foods snack consisting of two corn tortillas stuffed with melting, salty cheese. The concoction is then pan-fried and traditionally served with a tomato-based sauce. Apart from cheese, some cooks like to add mashed refried beans inside the tortillas.
14. Honduran Salpicón – Honduran Dishes
This meat salad is one of the coziest homemade meals of Honduras. Salpicón is always garnished with rice and tortillas, but you can also serve it with just one or the other.
This Honduras foods recipe is prepared with culantro de pata, which is a variety of culantro with large leaves that grow from the root.
Stewing the meat is a long and slow process and it’s what takes the most time in the preparation of this traditional dish. Once the beef is tender, the rest of the dish is ready in minutes. Refrigerate to serve the salad cold, although it’s best when served at room temperature.
Another point in favor of this Honduran recipe is that it really is quite healthy for most diets. If you pair it with steamed vegetables instead of rice and tortillas, it’s a light dish that will fill you for hours and give you energy.
15. Pan de Coco (Honduran Coconut Bread) – Traditional Honduran Foods
Pan de coco is a dairy free coconut bread from our Honduras foods. Often shaped as rolls, they are at home alongside a meal or alone as a snack. This pan de coco or coconut bread is native to the Honduran coasts. For years the Garifuna families living there have enjoyed and shared their recipes with the rest of the country.
Coconut palms abound on the Caribbian edge of Honduras. So, it’s no surprise that traditionally these rolls are made with coconut milk extracted from fresh coconuts and coconut oil. What is unique to the Honduran pan de coco is that it doesn’t have any dairy products or eggs.
This bread has a tight crumb making it dense, but soft at the same time. Although these rolls are made with coconut milk, they are not sweet. And once baked, there is no coconut flavor in them. Frequently these buns are served with savory foods such as stew, fish, rice and beans, or used to make ham and cheese sandwiches.
16. Honduran Chicharones (Pork Crackling) – Honduran Recipes
Honduran Chicharones or pork crackling is loved all over the world. What is not to love, pork belly braised slowly and then fried in its own rendered fat to crispy deliciousness. Honestly this is one of my favorite things.
These are superb! It was served as part of the plato tipico or typical plate that is the national dish of Honduras, awesome!
17. Honduran Enchiladas – Honduras Foods
One of my all-time favorite Honduran foods is enchiladas. They’re loaded with flavors from meat, eggs, veggies, and cheese. All of my favorites are wrapped up in a crispy corn tortilla with a drizzle of warm tomato sauce. I can eat this all day, no kidding.
Honduran enchiladas need several ingredients for the filling, and you can make them in advance for easier preparation. Not like the enchiladas you may first think of, Honduran enchiladas are made in the style of a tostada. Crispy corn tortillas, piled with meat, veggies, cheese, and eggs create this delicious street food.
18. Honduran Refried Beans – Honduran Dishes
You’ve already encountered refried beans in previous recipes (baleadas and bean tostadas). Now, it’s time to learn how to make this versatile Honduras foods dish. This recipe calls for red beans, bean broth, and a couple of spices.
You’ll have to start by cooking the beans, then combining them with broth and the rest of the ingredients in a blender. Fry the blended beans until smooth and thick. In a few minutes, you’ll have a rich, creamy spread full of Latin flavors.
19. Buñuelos With Spicy Hot Chocolate – Traditional Honduran Foods
Bunuelos is one of the holiday Honduras foods. It’s a fried dough recipe – pair it with some hot chocolate, and you’ll have a fantastic Christmas treat. Make your buñuelos as thick or thin as you like, but don’t be shy with the cinnamon sugar coating after they come out of the hot oil.
For the hot chocolate, you’ll be adding both cinnamon and some chilis to make this really kick. I love the spicy notes you can taste under the rich chocolate, but you can omit them if it’s too much.
20. Guava Jam Recipe – Honduran Recipes
Guava has such a unique flavor, and it is used so much in Latin America. Honduras foods from pastries to smoothies, it can be found all over.
The sweet fruit tastes like a cross between a strawberry and a pear, and you’ll want to put this jam on everything. I prefer to use lime juice in my jam. Be sure to let it cool completely in the fridge to reach the desired thickness.
Guava Jam is an easy homemade no preservative recipe. This jam recipe preserves its fresh flavor with nothing but sugar, salt, and lime followed by proper storage. Once ready, you will be surprised to see the jars emptied sooner than you anticipated. That addictive it is.
21. Honduran Fried Plantains – Honduras Foods
Fried plantains are a wildly popular Honduras foods side dish. After all, the country is one of the top exporters of bananas in the world.
Also known as Honduran platanos fritos, these fried plantains merge sweet and savory flavors in one dish. The ripe plantains are cut into fourths, fried until golden brown, then served with sour cream.
A very common side dish of fried plantain or banana as it is the main export of this country. Typically it is made with a very ripe black plantain, cut into fourths and fried. The caramelized plantain is delicious with the refried beans and sour cream.
22. Traditional Tres Leches Cake – Honduran Dishes
If you’re going to try a poke cake, it really should be this one. The flavor is mild, sweet, and will leave you reaching for seconds. Using condensed and evaporated milk, the cake will be super moist.
The gentle, milky flavors make this cake the perfect pairing for everything from fresh fruit to rich chocolate ganache. Be sure to let the cake cool completely before adding the milk pour; otherwise, it will end up dense and soggy.
23. Pastelitos (Meat Pies) – Traditional Honduran Foods
Pastelitos are a crowd-favorite in Honduras because of their crisp exterior and tender filling. In Cuba, these pastries are traditionally filled with queso and guava paste. Meanwhile, the Honduran variation is packed with meat, rice, and spices.
The dough for pastelitos is made using masa harina, chicken boullion, paprika, and pepper. They’ll be rolled into the size of a tortilla that’s thick enough to hold the filling. The final step requires frying the meaty pies until golden brown.
24. Honduran-Style Crispy Fried Tacos – Honduran Recipes
Honduran tacos are filled with chicken breasts, veggies, and spices, then deep-fried until golden and crispy. You can upgrade these tacos by adding cheese, chopped cabbage, or any other toppings that you like.
Pour some deliciously warm tomato sauce over the fried tacos for a flavor bomb! This is one of my favorites to make when it comes to deep-fried appetizers! My mom is Honduran and taught me how to make these amazing crispy tacos. Serve topped with white cheese, onion sauce, or chopped cabbage.
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