South America → Argentina → Mendoza
🍢 SNACK
Garrapiñada (Argentine Candied Peanuts)
Peanuts cooked in sugar syrup until the sugar turns to a white crust and then melts again into a crackly, vanilla-scented caramel shell, the warm paper cone of the city street cart.
Argentine · easy · serves 6
prep 5 min · cook 20 min
~342 cal · 10g protein · 39g carbs · 18g fat · 3g fiber · 35g sugars · 3g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Garrapiñada is the snack sold from small street carts in Argentine city centres, warm in a paper cone, with a smell of caramel and vanilla that carries down the block. In downtown Mendoza, where the carts are a winter fixture, most are family businesses run for decades, and peanut garrapiñada outsells the almond version many times over. Carts also sell almonds, popcorn and toffee apples.
It is made with nothing but peanuts, sugar, water and a few drops of vanilla. The peanuts cook in the syrup and are stirred without pause: first the water boils away and the sugar dries into a white, sandy crust around each nut, then, with patience, that crust melts again and turns into a shiny golden coating. Vendors say the tricks are to use little water and to lower the heat gradually.
Use raw peanuts with their skins on. Once they are glazed, spread them out at once so they cool in single, crunchy pieces rather than one slab.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
- 1 1/2 cups (225 g) raw peanuts, with skins
- 1 cup (200 g) white sugar
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- 1Line a tray with baking paper. Put the peanuts, sugar and water in a large heavy pan over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves and the syrup boils.
- 2Keep stirring without stopping for about 10 minutes, as the water boils away. The syrup will suddenly turn cloudy and dry into a white, sandy crust clinging to the peanuts.
- 3Lower the heat and keep stirring for 5 to 8 minutes more, until much of the sugar melts again and coats the peanuts in a shiny golden-brown glaze.✎ Chef’s noteGo slowly here. If the heat is too high the caramel burns and turns bitter before the crust has melted.
- 4Take the pan off the heat, add the vanilla, stir quickly and tip the peanuts onto the tray. Separate them with two forks while hot and leave to cool until crunchy. Keep in an airtight jar.
Argentine street-cart tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Mendoza. Flood irrigation has a side effect nobody planned. Periodically drowning the soil kills phylloxera, the root louse that destroyed Europe's vineyards, which is why a good many Mendoza vines are still growing on their own ungrafted roots, some of them over a century old. The water is rationed on a schedule set under a law dating from 1884.
🗺️
Argentina. Empanadas are provincial before they are national. Salta's are small, juicy and often baked in a clay oven; Tucuman's are cut differently again; and the crimp along the edge, the repulgue, is read as a signature of what is inside. The rest of the Italian legacy is worth naming too, in the thick-crusted Buenos Aires pizza and the milanesa.
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South America. South America's cooking follows its dramatic geography, potatoes and quinoa in the high Andes, cassava and river fish in the Amazon basin, and grass-fed beef on the pampas. Indigenous ingredients like maize, ají peppers, and cacao meet Spanish, Portuguese, African, Italian, and Japanese influences brought by five centuries of migration. Ceviche, feijoada, arepas, and the smoke of the asado are its most beloved icons.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Argentina
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LocroThe thick national stew of white hominy, beans, and squash slow simmered with beef, pork, and chorizo, finished with a spicy paprika oil.
ChoripánA grilled fresh chorizo split and tucked into crusty bread with a generous spoon of garlicky chimichurri, the opening act of every asado.
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Good to know
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Garrapiñada (Argentine Candied Peanuts)?
Peanuts cooked in sugar syrup until the sugar turns to a white crust and then melts again into a crackly, vanilla-scented caramel shell, the warm paper cone of the city street cart.
Where does Garrapiñada (Argentine Candied Peanuts) come from?
Garrapiñada (Argentine Candied Peanuts) is an Argentine dish from Mendoza, Argentina.
Can Garrapiñada (Argentine Candied Peanuts) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Garrapiñada (Argentine Candied Peanuts) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Garrapiñada (Argentine Candied Peanuts) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Garrapiñada (Argentine Candied Peanuts) take to make?
About 25 minutes total (5 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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