Hispanic Heritage Month: Chiles En Nogada
by Brianne Robach, Grand Rapids Area Coalition to End Homelessness
We’re now in the third week of our Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations, and this week’s theme is food! There are many wonderful dishes associated with Hispanic and Latinx culture, but for today’s post, I want to dig into one specific dish, chiles en nogada, which is often made and eaten each year in celebration of Mexico’s Independence Day on September 16.
Chiles en nogada is named for its ingredients, translating to “chilies in walnuts.” The dish consists of poblano peppers stuffed with a mix of fruit, nuts, and ground meat. The stuffed peppers are then topped with a walnut cream sauce, pomegranates, and chopped parsley. It’s quite time consuming to make, as the ingredients for the stuffing need to be chopped and cooked, while the peppers need to be fire roasted before they can be stuffed. The dish relies on seasonal produce, particularly the walnuts and pomegranates which are ripe in August and September in the Puebla region—right around Mexico’s Independence Day.
This dish features the colors of Mexico’s flag—green, red, and white—and is viewed by many as Mexico’s national dish.
According to legend, the dish was created in September 1821 as part of a feast celebrating Mexican Army General Agustin de Iturbide. The general had just signed the Treaty of Cordoba, which gave Mexico independence from Spain and ended the 11-year Mexican War of Independence. As he was travelling back to Mexico City, he stopped in the town of Puebla where a feast was held. Nuns staying at the Convent of Santa Monica in Puebla used in-season foods to create a dish for the general highlighting the colors of the Mexican flag: chiles en nogada.
Like many legends, there are a few discrepancies in the story depending on your source. Some say that the nuns intentionally made the dish to reflect Mexico’s new flag, whereas others claim it was a happy accident. According to some, similar dishes were common throughout Mexico, and chiles en nogada was an adaption of those dishes. No matter the real story, chiles en nogada is a dish that continues to live on as an integral part of celebrating Mexican heritage.
Want to make your own chiles en nogada?
You can find several recipes with a quick internet search. Here is one traditional recipe I found that walks you through each step with pictures.
Sources:
Chiles en Nogada. Douglas Cullen. https://mexicanfoodjournal.com/chiles-en-nogada/
Chiles En Nogada: Mexico’s Most Patriotic Dish. Lauren Cocking, November 5, 2016, https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/mexico/articles/chiles-en-nogada-mexicos-most-patriotic-dish/
For 200 Years, Chiles En Nogada Has Been An Iconic, And Patriotic, Mexican Meal. Gus Contreras, Amy Isackson, and Patrick Jarenwattananon, September 16, 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/09/16/1037568511/chiles-en-nogada-mexican-independence-day-tradition
What Do You Know About Mexico’s Most Patriotic Dish? Sharon McDonnell, August 31, 2021, https://www.fodors.com/world/mexico-and-central-america/mexico/around-mexico-city/experiences/news/what-do-you-know-about-mexicos-most-patriotic-dish