~731 cal · 19g protein · 111g carbs · 23g fat (estimated, per serving)
🍽️
Purple corn drink beside a sugar-dusted fried pastry
🇧🇴 La Paz
In the cold Andean mornings of La Paz, market stalls ladle out api: purple corn simmered with cinnamon, clove, and citrus into a warming, ruby-colored drink. Its constant companion is the pastel, a puffed pastry fried until blistered and snowed with powdered sugar. Together they are highland Bolivia in a breakfast.
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Make it yours
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
Ingredients
Serves 4 —
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2 cups purple corn (or purple corn flour)
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8 cups water
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2 cinnamon sticks
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4 cloves
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1/2 cup sugar
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1 strip orange peel
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1.5 cups flour for the pastel
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1/2 cup cheese for the pastel
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3 cups neutral oil, for frying
Instructions
1
Simmer the purple corn with the water, cinnamon, cloves, and orange peel for 25 minutes until deeply colored.
2
Strain (or leave the flour version thick), sweeten with sugar, and keep the api hot.
3
For the pastel, roll the flour dough thin, tuck cheese inside, seal, and fry in hot oil until blistered and golden.
4
Dust the pastel with powdered sugar and serve alongside a steaming cup of api.
La Paz market breakfast stalls.
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🌏 While it simmers — know your destination
📍
La Paz. The world’s highest capital, warmed by peanut soup.
🗺️
Bolivia. High-altitude kitchens of the altiplano.
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South America. Andes, Amazon, and Atlantic all on one plate.
The story behind this dish is up top — worth a read while the pot works.
👩🍳
Richard Moore & Kelsey Tucker
Recipes cooked, tested, and researched by the creators of Spin the Globe. How we build our recipes →
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