The Original "Baleadas"

Honduras' Most Known Street Food

Baleadas de Honduras

"Baleadas" is one of the most representative dishes of the Honduran cuisine and the most traditional street food in the country. It is a flour tortilla stuffed with beans, crumbled salty cheese and a bit of sour cream (queso duro and mantequilla); usually eaten at breakfast or dinner. 

"Dona Tere" - The First "Baleada" stand

This Mayan rooted dish was born in the city of “La Ceiba” in the famous street called "Baleadas of the Line”. Its development is attributed to a woman known as "Dona Tere", which had her food stand on the shores, where the trains of the Banana Standard Fruit Company once ran. 

The natives of the area, Los Ceibeños, named this Honduras Street food “Baleadas” because  they used to eat a flour tortilla folded in half, fill with beans in "bullet" (whole grain red bean) and sheered salted cheese. This, being bitten by one of its ends, caused a pressure that makes the beans go bullet "fired" out of the tortilla, hence the origin of its peculiar name.

La Ceiba, Honduras

Recipe

Ingredients:

1. Wheat flour tortillas. 

2. Refried Beans

3. Crumbled salty cheese   

    (queso seco)
     
4. Sour Cream (mantequilla)    

   
5. Other ingredients (egg,
    beaten, butter, avocado, etc)

Steps to follow:

1. Heat an ungreased griddle, comal or skillet over medium flame. Meanwhile, heat up the refried beans in a saucepan, stirring in a little water.
2. Place a flour tortilla into the skillet and heat it on both sides to soften it up. Place the tortilla on a serving plate. Smear some refried beans on one half of the tortilla, sprinkle it with some crumbled cheese and drizzle it with a little sour cream. Fold the tortilla in half over the filling.
3. Repeat with the remaining tortillas and serve hot.

Other Baleadas Fillings: Scrambled eggs, seasoned ground beef or pork, sliced avocado, plantain, leave it to your imagination !