Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Api Morado
A thick, hot Andean breakfast drink of ground purple corn simmered with cinnamon, cloves, and orange, served steaming with buñuelos.
Bolivian · easy · serves 6
prep 120 min · cook 30 min
~79 cal · 3g protein · 18g carbs · 1g fat · 2g fiber · 5g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Api morado is the hot purple-corn drink of the Bolivian altiplano, a thick breakfast staple across La Paz, Oruro, Potosí, and beyond. Made from ground purple corn (maíz morado), it is warming, deeply coloured, and just sweet enough, and it is inseparable from its usual partner, a plate of buñuelos, the puffed fried dough eaten alongside.
The ground corn is soaked, then cooked into water that has been simmered with cinnamon sticks, cloves, and orange peel or zest, and stirred constantly until it thickens to a pourable, custard-like body. Sugar goes in to taste, and it is served very hot, almost boiling, in tall glasses, especially welcome against the cold of the high Andean mornings.
Earthy and grape-like from the purple corn, gently spiced, and comforting, api is drinking a little Andean history: purple maize has been grown in these highlands for millennia. It is a fixture of markets, festivals like Alasitas, and family Sundays, the taste of a Bolivian winter morning.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- 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
2 cups ground purple corn (maíz morado)
15 cups water
2 cinnamon sticks
5 whole cloves
from 1 orange orange peel
to taste sugar
Instructions
1
Soak the ground purple corn in about 5 cups of the water for two hours to soften it.
✎ Chef’s note
Soaking the ground corn first helps it cook smooth; adding it slowly to the hot spiced water keeps it from going lumpy.
2
Meanwhile, bring the remaining water to a boil with the cinnamon, cloves, and orange peel so it takes on the spice.
3
Strain the soaked corn, then add its purple liquid gradually to the spiced water, stirring constantly.
4
Cook, stirring, until it thickens to a pourable custard, then sweeten with sugar to taste.
5
Serve very hot in tall glasses, traditionally with buñuelos alongside.
La Paz altiplano tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
La Paz. Mid-morning belongs to the saltena, a baked pastry holding a stew so juicy it has to be eaten standing and at an angle. Chuno is the older technology: potatoes left out to freeze on altiplano nights, trodden to press the water out and dried in the sun, after which they keep for years.
🗺️
Bolivia. Bolivia's food climbs from Amazon lowlands to the high Andes, where potatoes (in hundreds of varieties), quinoa, and hominy sustain life at altitude. Salteñas, peanut soup, and spicy llajua sauce reflect a hearty Indigenous heritage.
🌍
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 Bolivia
SilpanchoA Cochabamba plate of rice, potato, a thin breaded beef cutlet, and a fried egg over chopped salad.
Api con PastelA hot, spiced purple-corn drink thick with cinnamon and clove, served with a crisp fried cheese pastry dusted in sugar.
SalteñasBaked pastry pockets of juicy, gently sweet meat stew, sealed with a rope-braided crimp, Bolivia's mid-morning ritual.
Browse all Bolivia recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Bolivia meal
Pique a lo MachoDinner
Thayacha (Andean Frozen Oca)Dessert
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Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Api Morado?
A thick, hot Andean breakfast drink of ground purple corn simmered with cinnamon, cloves, and orange, served steaming with buñuelos.
Where does Api Morado come from?
Api Morado is a Bolivian dish from La Paz, Bolivia.
Can Api Morado be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Api Morado 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 Api Morado 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 Api Morado take to make?
About 150 minutes total (120 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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