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Herbs & Cultures

Tukano medicine →

Quiñapira, spicy fish soup

Fish cooked in water with ají: the dish the Tukano and their neighbours in Vaupés eat most often.

Traditional use

Time
20 minutes
Makes
4 people
Cayenne pepper

In the communities of Vaupés, in the Colombian Amazon, quiñapira is everyday food. Only two things go in: ají, the peppers from the family garden, and protein, usually fish, sometimes small sardines or frogs. The Colombian family welfare institute (ICBF) included the recipe as a dish of the Tukano and Arawak peoples. You eat it with cassava bread, which you dip in the soup.

Ingredients

  • 400 g firm white fish (e.g. tilapia, catfish or perch), in pieces
  • 1–2 fresh red chillies (to taste)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 litre water
  • Cassava bread (casabe) to eat with it

Step by step

  1. Cut the chillies into pieces or crush them.
  2. Bring the water to the boil with the salt and chilli.
  3. Add the fish and simmer for 8–10 minutes until cooked.
  4. Serve hot with cassava bread.

Tips

  • Stir in some cassava starch (tapioca flour) and the soup thickens; in Vaupés this is called muñica.

Registry

Herbs in this recipe

Read more about effects and safety on each herb’s page.

  • Caution

    Central America and the Caribbean · Herb · № 161

    Cayenne pepper

    Capsicum frutescens

    Capsaicin from chilli peppers is used externally for nerve pain and joint pain; high-dose capsaicin patches are an approved medicine. Internally it is mainly a warming spice.

    Maya healing knowledge+6Folklore

Cultures and traditions

Where the herbs come from

The herbs in this recipe also appear in these traditions.