Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Baleadas
A thick flour tortilla folded over refried beans, salty cheese, and crema, Honduras’ perfect handheld meal.
Honduran · easy · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 20 min
~935 cal · 39g protein · 120g carbs · 33g fat · 18g fiber · 3g sugars · 12g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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The baleada is Honduras's most iconic everyday food, born on the country's northern Caribbean coast and now eaten nationwide from morning until night. Cheap, filling, and endlessly adaptable, it is the perfect handheld meal.
At its simplest it is a large, soft flour tortilla (thicker and chewier than the Mexican kind) folded over refried beans, crumbly salty cheese, and a drizzle of Honduran crema. The sencilla, or simple version, is the classic, but eggs, avocado, or meat often join in.
Warm, savoury, and comforting, the baleada is breakfast, lunch, and late-night food all at once, sold from home kitchens and roadside stands across the country. It is Honduran comfort in a fold, humble and deeply loved.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and 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 4
2.5 cups all-purpose flour (for the tortillas)
2 cups refried red beans
1 cup queso seco or feta, crumbled
1/2 cup crema (mantequilla)
1 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp oil
3/4 cup warm water (dough)
1 avocado (optional add-in)
2 scrambled egg (optional add-in)
Instructions
1
Knead flour, baking powder, oil, salt, and warm water into a soft dough; rest 20 minutes.
2
Roll into thick 8-inch rounds and cook on a dry hot griddle until puffed and spotted, about 1 minute a side, keep them soft and pliable.
3
Warm the refried beans until spreadable.
4
Spread beans over half of each hot tortilla; add cheese, a drizzle of crema, and any add-ins.
5
Fold in half and eat by hand, immediately, the tortilla should still be warm and foldable.
San Pedro Sula street tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
San Pedro Sula. The Caribbean coast a couple of hours away brings its own cooking inland. Garifuna kitchens work in coconut milk, cassava and fish, most famously in tapado, a soup of coconut broth with plantain and whole fish standing in it, and that coconut and plantain habit carries up into the city.
🗺️
Honduras. The Caribbean coast is Garifuna, descended from Africans and Island Caribs deported from Saint Vincent in 1797, and it cooks differently from the interior. Hudut is the dish to name: fish simmered in coconut broth, served with plantain pounded in a wooden mortar into a smooth mass called machuca, and the same food is eaten across the border in Belize.
🌍
North America. The most consequential technique on this continent is nixtamalisation, cooking maize with lime or wood ash. It loosens the skins, makes the dough that becomes tortillas and tamales, and frees up niacin the body cannot otherwise absorb, which is why maize spread around the world without the technique and took pellagra with it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Honduras
Pollo con TajadasHonduran fried or grilled chicken over crisp green-plantain chips with cabbage slaw and sauces.
Sopa de CaracolA rich conch soup in coconut broth with yuca, plantain, and corn, the Garifuna coastal dish Honduras made famous.
Rosquillas en MielLittle corn-and-cheese rings simmered in a dark spiced sugar syrup, a Honduran and Central American sweet.
Browse all Honduras recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Griddle or flat pan, Rolling pin.
Storing it: Thickens as it sits. Reheat with extra water or milk to loosen, and keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated.
Make it a Honduras meal
Horchata HondureñaDrink
Rosquillas en MielDessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Baleadas?
A thick flour tortilla folded over refried beans, salty cheese, and crema, Honduras’ perfect handheld meal.
Where does Baleadas come from?
Baleadas is a Honduran dish from San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Can Baleadas be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Baleadas 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 Baleadas 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 Baleadas take to make?
About 45 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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