Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Locro
The thick national stew of white hominy, beans, and squash slow simmered with beef, pork, and chorizo, finished with a spicy paprika oil.
Argentine · medium · serves 8
prep 30 min · cook 180 min
~421 cal · 33g protein · 28g carbs · 19g fat · 6g fiber · 4g sugars · 7g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Locro is Argentina's patriotic stew, cooked in huge pots for the national holidays of the 25th of May and the 9th of July, when the late-autumn and winter cold makes a slow, heavy pot exactly right. Its roots are Andean and pre-Columbian, built on the maize, beans, and squash that indigenous peoples grew long before the Spanish arrived.
Colonisation added the livestock, so today's locro carries beef, several cuts of pork, and chorizo alongside the corn. The white and the squash do the thickening as they break down over hours of gentle cooking, giving locro its dense, almost creamy body with no flour needed.
Each bowl is finished at the table with quiquirimichi, a spicy red oil of paprika, chili, and scallion, spooned over to taste. Communal, frugal, and deeply savoury, locro turns humble ingredients into a feast that tastes even better reheated the next day.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, nut- and egg-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 8
2 cups dried white (maíz blanco), soaked overnight
1 cup dried white beans, soaked overnight
1 lb beef chuck, cubed
8 oz pork belly, cubed
2 sausages chorizo, sliced
1 lb squash or pumpkin, cubed
2 onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp sweet paprika
2 bay leaves
to taste salt
3 tbsp olive oil (for the paprika oil)
2 , sliced (for the paprika oil)
1 tsp chili flakes (ají molido)
Instructions
1
Drain the soaked hominy and beans. Put them in a large heavy pot with plenty of fresh water and bring to a gentle simmer.
2
Brown the beef, pork belly, and chorizo in a little oil, then add them to the pot with the onions, garlic, cumin, half the paprika, and the bay.
✎ Chef’s note
Locro is a big-batch dish and tastes even better the next day, so make a full pot and reheat gently, loosening with a little water.
3
Simmer gently, partly covered, for about 2 hours, stirring now and then and topping up water so it does not catch, until the corn and beans are tender.
4
Add the squash and cook 45 minutes more, until it dissolves and thickens the stew into a dense, creamy body. Season well with salt.
5
Make the paprika oil: warm the olive oil with the scallions, chili flakes, and remaining paprika for 30 seconds off the heat, so the paprika does not burn.
6
Ladle the locro into bowls and spoon the spicy red oil over each serving to taste.
Argentine national-holiday tradition, Andean criollo roots.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Mendoza. Mendoza is Argentina's wine country, cooking asado grills to pair with Malbec and empanadas baked in clay ovens. Andean foothills and vineyards define its meat-and-wine table.
🗺️
Argentina. Argentina lives for the asado, the ritual slow grill of grass-fed beef served with chimichurri, a legacy of the pampas and Italian and Spanish immigration. Empanadas, mate, and dulce de leche round out a meat-loving, sociable food culture.
🌍
South America. The Andes are the potato's homeland and still hold something like four thousand native varieties, selected over thousands of years for altitude, colour and texture. The high plateau also worked out how to keep them: frozen overnight in the cold, trodden to press the water out, then dried in the sun into chuno, which stores for years.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Argentina
Empanadas MendocinasBaked empanadas the Mendoza way: a juicy beef and olive filling heavy on onion, sealed with a braided edge.
ChoripánA grilled fresh chorizo split and tucked into crusty bread with a generous spoon of garlicky chimichurri, the opening act of every asado.
Tortas FritasSimple fried dough discs, crisp-edged and dusted with sugar, that Argentines make on rainy mornings to eat with mate.
Browse all Argentina recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Argentina meal
Yerba MateDrink
Alfajores de MaicenaDessert
ChoripánLunch
Similar dishes from around the world
Karjalanpaisti (Karelian Hot Pot)Finland
Irish StewIreland
Kuwaiti MargoogKuwait
HaleemPakistan
Bamia (Sudanese Okra Stew)Sudan
SaltahYemen
Cuisine
Diet
Gluten-Free Recipes from Around the World
Dairy-Free Recipes from Around the World
Nut-Free Recipes from Around the World
Egg-Free Recipes from Around the World
Gluten-Free Dinners from Around the World
Dairy-Free Dinners from Around the World
Nut-Free Dinners from Around the World
Egg-Free Dinners from Around the World
Frequently asked questions
What is Locro?
The thick national stew of white hominy, beans, and squash slow simmered with beef, pork, and chorizo, finished with a spicy paprika oil.
Where does Locro come from?
Locro is a Argentine dish from Mendoza, Argentina.
Can Locro be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Locro recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Locro 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 count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), 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 Locro take to make?
About 210 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 180 minutes cooking), serving 8.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.