PAIRP

Quilquiña

Porophyllum ruderale · Herb

Quilquiña (Porophyllum ruderale) is the pungent raw herb at the heart of Bolivian and Andean cooking — the same aster-family plant known in Mexico as papalo, but claimed here by a wholly different kitchen. Its blue-green, oil-dotted leaves taste like cilantro amplified into something wilder: a green, citrus-and-rue rush with a soapy, almost gasoline-like edge. Pounded raw into llajwa, the fiery table salsa of Bolivia, it is the signature aromatic of highland and valley cooking around Cochabamba.

40 pairings
Where it grows
major regionnotable region
Global seasonality · at peak worldwide
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D