Peruvian Beef Tequeños

Peruvian style beef tequeños are crowd pleasing appetizer for parties, holidays, or a simple mid-afternoon snack.

What are tequeños?

Golden-brown and crispy appetizers, Peruvian tequeños are filled with meat and vegetables.

Peruvian tequeños are typically served with an array of different sauces or dips like avocado sauce or guacamole, homemade garlic mayonnaise, or rocoto cream/sauce (spicy).

Where do tequeños come from?

Tequeños are originally from Venezuelan gastronomy but have been part of Peruvian cuisine for many years.

Some stories say that this recipe originated in Perú, but others (likely more reliable based on the name) say it comes from the city of Los Teques, in the state of Miranda, Venezuela.

These stories relate that at the end of the 19th century a cook in Los Teques began to make a new food in a cylindrical shape with the remaining dough from the pastries.

This left over dough was wrapped around soft white cheese in the form of a stick and then fried, giving rise to the famous Venezuelan tequeño.

The name Tequeño comes in honor of this cook from the city of Los Teques.

Venezuelan tequeños vs Peruvian tequeños

Venezuelan tequeños consist of a simple dough made with wheat flour. They then fill this dough with white cheese, and then fry it.

Peruvian tequeños are usually made with spring rolls wrappers or wonton wrappers and have a greater variation of fillings, such as ham and cheese, hot dogs, ceviche, crab meat, and lomo saltado (beef).

Today’s recipe is lomo saltado tequeños.

Lomo saltado tequeños

Lomo saltado is a traditional Peruvian dish that is made with beef, cooked rice and fried potatoes, among other ingredients.

It’s considered one of the best Peruvian dishes and it shows the great influence of Chinese Cantonese in the Peruvian gastronomy.

How to make lomo saltado tequeños

To make these Peruvian tequeños, you should start by cutting the meat with a knife (avoid using ground beef).

Then chop the vegetables.

After browning the meat in oil, add the vegetables and the seasonings. At this point you can add fresh chili peppers too, if desired.

Once this mixture is cool, you can either assemble the tequeños or keep the filling in the fridge for a couple of days.

How to roll tequeños Peruvian appetizer

When you are ready to assemble the tequeños, keep in mind that the spring rolls wraps become dry quickly and that makes it difficult to then roll them. Keep them covered with a damp paper towel or kitchen towel to avoid this.

First, brush the edges of the dough lightly with egg.

Then, add about 2 tablespoons of the filling.

Finally, roll into a tube and press the edges together.

You can fry them and serve them immediately, or keep them in the refrigerator for a couple of hours in an airtight container before cooking.

Fry them with plenty of oil until golden-brown.

Appetizer dipping sauces for Peruvian tequeños

The fun part of eating Peruvian tequeños is the different sauces or dips, called cremas (cream).

The traditional ones include guacamole with red onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and lime.

Crema de rocoto is very popular for many fried snacks. This cream or dip is made with a chili pepper called rocoto. It’s spicy, creamy and perfect. Try this variation.

A great make ahead Peruvian appetizer

Peruvian beef tequeños are great make ahead snacks or appetizers.

You can make the filling a few days ahead. Then, you can assemble the tequeños a few hours before frying them. Once fried, you can keep them wrapped in foil in the oven at 250F for about an hour.

Perfect finger food!

What to do with leftover spring roll wrappers

The spring roll package I found had 19 wraps and this recipe uses only 12 of them.

If you want to use the whole package, you can fill the remainder with cheese in the Venezuelan fashion. I used queso panela, but you can use your favorite shredded cheese or cheese sticks.