Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Ceviche Panameño
Diced corvina cured in lime with onion, celery, and habanero, the fish-market lunch sold in cups across Panama City.
Panamanian · easy · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 0 min
~138 cal · 22g protein · 14g carbs · 1g fat · 3g fiber · 3g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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AI-generated illustration
is everyday food in Panama, sold in little plastic cups from the famous Mercado de Mariscos, the seafood market on Panama City's waterfront, where office workers and taxi drivers stop for a fresh, cheap, protein-packed lunch.
The Panamanian style is clean and simple, built on corvina (sea bass), the local favourite, diced small and in plenty of lime juice until it turns opaque and firm. Finely chopped onion, celery, cilantro, and a hit of habanero are all it needs.
Eaten with a little spoon or scooped with soda crackers, it is bright, sharp, and refreshing in the tropical heat. Unlike the elaborate of Peru, Panama's is unfussy street food, and all the better for it.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally 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 4
1 lb corvina or other firm white fish, diced
8 limes, juiced
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1/2 habanero or , minced
1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 tsp ground cumin
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Make sure the fish is very fresh, and dice it into small, even cubes.
✎ Chef’s note
Use the freshest fish you can and cut it small and even, so it cures quickly and uniformly in the lime.
2
Toss the fish with the lime juice and a good pinch of salt, making sure it is submerged.
3
Cure in the fridge until the fish turns opaque and firm, 20 to 30 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
Do not leave it much longer than half an hour. Past that the lime keeps working and the fish goes from firm to tough.
4
Fold in the onion, celery, habanero, cilantro and cumin, adjust the salt, and serve very cold with saltine crackers.
✎ Chef’s note
Saltines are the standard accompaniment in Panama, and the ceviche should come to the table properly chilled. Corvina is the fish for it, and where you can find culantro, use it in place of some of the cilantro for a sharper, more Panamanian herb note.
Panama City fish-market tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Panama City. Sancocho is credited to the Azuero peninsula and to Chitre in particular, and it changes province by province: the Chorrera version is hen, onion, garlic, chilli, oregano and name and nothing more, while the Chiriqui one adds squash and comes out yellow. It doubles as the standard hangover cure.
🗺️
Panama. Panamanian sancocho is specific rather than generic: hen simmered long with name, a yam, and a great deal of culantro, which is the broad-leafed relative of coriander and not the same herb. Yuca, otoe and corn often join it. The dish is credited to the Azuero Peninsula, the country's cultural heartland, rather than to the capital.
🌍
North America. North America's table began with Indigenous foodways, the "three sisters" of corn, beans, and squash, plus chiles, tomatoes, and cacao, then layered on colonial, African, and immigrant influences. From Mexico's UNESCO-recognized cuisine to the Cajun and Creole pots of Louisiana and the fiery jerk of the Caribbean, the region turns ancient staples into something new. Barbecue, tacos, gumbo, and mole all carry stories of migration and adaptation.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Panama
Sancocho de GallinaA restorative hen soup with yam, yuca, and a mountain of culantro, Panama’s cure for everything from hangovers to heartbreak.
Tortilla Panameña con QuesoA thick, crisp-fried corn cake, not a thin tortilla at all, split hot and stuffed with melting white cheese, a staple Panamanian breakfast.
Sopa BorrachaSponge cake drenched in a spiced rum-and-prune syrup, Panama's boozy celebration dessert, despite the 'soup' in its name.
Browse all Panama recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Best assembled just before serving. Prep the components ahead and dress at the last moment so it stays crisp.
Make it a Panama meal
ChichemeDrink
Sopa BorrachaDessert
Ropa Vieja PanameñaDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Ceviche Panameño?
Diced corvina cured in lime with onion, celery, and habanero, the fish-market lunch sold in cups across Panama City.
Where does Ceviche Panameño come from?
Ceviche Panameño is a Panamanian dish from Panama City, Panama.
Can Ceviche Panameño be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Ceviche Panameño 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 Ceviche Panameño 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 Ceviche Panameño take to make?
About 25 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 0 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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