Some Mexican Salsa Varieties Feature An Unlikely Underground Ingredient

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Mexican food is among the most globally beloved cuisines, and no Mexican meal is complete without salsa. We enjoy a salsa roja with tortilla chips, tomatillo salsa over chilaquiles, along with cremas, pico de gallo, and fruity salsas to accompany countless taco recipes. But there's a type of Mexican salsa that might not be on your radar, featuring an unlikely underground ingredient: peanuts!

Chili peppers, tomatoes, and avocados are well-known native Mexican crops, but peanuts are also New World cultivars, albeit South American. Still, they have made their way into the hearts and stomachs of the Mexican people who call them cacahuates, a word of Nahuatl origins. Peanuts are a rich, savory complement to the spice of chili peppers and the tang of citrus juices. They're full of fat, which brings heartiness to salsas while tempering heat. Mexicans use peanuts whole and blended in two main types of sauces. The first is peanut sauce, or salsa de cacahuate, which fries toasted peanuts in oil with garlic and dried chilies before throwing everything in the blender with a bit of water and salt. Salsa de cacahuate is a creamy, smooth peanut sauce with a spicy, smoky kick from the dried chilies. The other type of sauce in which peanuts are a common ingredient is salsa macha, the equivalent of Mexican chili oil. Salsa macha infuses olive oil or canola oil with garlic and dried chilies. Peanuts and often sesame seeds are added after blending the chili infused oil, bringing a nutty crunch.

Peanut sauce and salsa macha with peanuts can be used interchangeably and their applications extend to every famous Mexican platter imaginable. The main difference between the two sauces is texture, as both contain dried chilies, aromatics, and oil. Salsa macha is more oil heavy with a notable crunch from the whole peanuts and ground chili, while salsa de cacahuate is smooth, creamy, and arguably heftier. You can drizzle salsa macha over guacamole or fried eggs. It would also be the perfect finishing touch to a bowl of pozole rojo or tortilla soup. A creamy peanut sauce will taste delicious over sizzling chicken fajitas or beef carnitas tacos. Peanuts are also one of the many different nuts blended into mole sauce along with chocolate, chilies, and numerous spices.

Peanuts are not just used in salsas, but are also a major part of Mexican botanas, that is, snack culture. They come in many different forms, from the chili-dusted cacahuates enchilados to the sweet and salty wheat coated cacahuates Japoneses, or Japanese peanuts. Sweet peanut snacks are equally as popular: Peanut brittle and Palanquetas (peanut bars consisting of honey, raisins, sesame seeds, and pepitas) are sold at convenience stores, fairs, and traditional food markets around Mexico. One of the most popular peanut candies in Mexico is peanut marzipan, a pulverized peanut and sugar confection that all but melts in your mouth. The most popular marzipan brand is de la Rosa, which offers plain and chocolate-covered marzipan.