Traditional pupusas are made on corn masa or rice flour and filled with frijol, frijol con queso, queso, queso con loroco, chicharron or revuelta (El Diario de Hoy, 2022). Salvadoran pupuserias list anything outside that set as an especialidad.
Order chicharron and you get cooked pork ground to a paste, not the crisp skin that Mexican menus mean by the word (The Daily Aztec). Revuelta puts pork, beans and cheese in one disc.
Squash is where the line gets blurry. One El Diario de Hoy list counts ayote as traditional, and another leaves it out.
Which Fillings Define the Traditional Types of Pupusas?
The traditional Salvadoran menu runs frijol, frijol con queso, queso, queso con loroco, chicharron and revuelta (El Diario de Hoy, 2022).
The paper treats fillings beyond these as later additions to the recipe book. Plain frijol is just beans, no cheese.
| Type | What goes inside | Pork inside |
|---|---|---|
| Queso | Melting cheese, often quesillo | No |
| Frijol con queso | Refried beans and cheese | No |
| Queso con loroco | Cheese and chopped loroco buds | No |
| Chicharron | Seasoned pork cooked down to a paste | Yes |
| Revuelta | Chicharron, beans and cheese together | Yes |
Revuelta and the mixed fillings
Revuelta means mixed.
One disc holds chicharron, refried beans and cheese, according to CooksInfo. Cookbook author Alicia Maher gives the same core, per The Cook’s Cook.
El Diario de Hoy lists revueltas first among the types that dominate what Salvadorans eat, ahead of plain cheese and chicharron.
Single-filling types
Queso usually means quesillo, though recipes also call for queso fresco or mozzarella (food.com).
Chicharron pupusas hold cooked, seasoned pork ground to a paste, and the crisp-skin version Mexican menus mean is not what’s inside (The Daily Aztec). Visit Fort Worth describes it as braised pork belly.
Frijol is refried beans, usually from small dried red beans (The Cook’s Cook).
Cheese quality varies by kitchen. Maher says restaurants often skimp on it, and she suggests Monterey Jack with Salvadoran crema as a home substitute.
Queso con loroco
The loroco in queso con loroco is the unopened flower bud of a Central American vine, Fernaldia pandurata (Specialty Produce). Visit Fort Worth says it tastes like broccoli.
Freshness is the catch. In El Salvador the buds go in fresh (Specialty Produce). Elsewhere they often arrive pickled or frozen, and sometimes dried.
El Salvador, Pupusas y Mas in Richmond, Texas, makes its loroco pupusas with fresh buds flown in from El Salvador (El Mundo, 2024).
Fresh buds taste closest to the original. Pickled ones come out saltier and tangier, which isn’t necessarily worse.
How Do Rice Flour Pupusas Differ From Corn Masa Pupusas?
The difference is the dough. Rice flour stands in for nixtamalized corn masa and gives a pupusa that browns and crisps more on the comal (CooksInfo). Olocuilta, in La Paz department, is the town most tied to the style.
| Feature | Corn masa | Rice flour |
|---|---|---|
| Dough | Nixtamalized corn masa | Rice flour, usually white medium or long grain |
| Water | Cold or room temperature | Boiling |
| Texture and flavor | Earthy corn flavor | Lighter feel, browns and crisps more |
| Other uses of the dough | Tortillas, pastelitos and more | Pupusas only |
Corn masa pupusas
Corn pupusas start from nixtamalized masa mixed with cold or room-temperature water (La Taco). In the United States, most kitchens use Maseca instead of fresh masa, according to Remezcla.
Get the hydration wrong and the edges crack while you seal the disc. A guide to mixing the masa at home is worth reading before the first batch.
Rice flour pupusas (pupusas de arroz)
Rice dough gets stirred with boiling water and a wooden spoon, which keeps hands out of the heat (La Taco). The pupusa that results costs slightly more (CooksInfo) and feels lighter, according to La Taco.
Servers in El Salvador commonly ask whether the order is de arroz or de maiz. Some pupuserias are judged mainly by their rice version, La Taco reports.
El Diario de Hoy calls Olocuilta the city of rice pupusas, with pupusodromos packing restaurants along the road. In Chicago, Pupuseria Olocuilta carries the town’s name and offers both doughs (Chicago Magazine).
Nobody agrees on when rice entered the picture.
Reach the World says a corn shortage in the 1930s prompted the first rice pupusas. La Taco relays a story about a later shortage in the 1970s, and El Diario de Hoy points to wartime corn scarcity during the civil war years.
La Taco states plainly that the date is unclear. All three could be true if you read them as stages, a local start and then wider spread each time corn ran short again.
Plantain, banana, potato and yuca doughs
Corn and rice are the two best-known doughs, not the only ones. El Diario de Hoy treats the rest as additions to the traditional menu.
- Potato, which is a recent vendor idea
- Green plantain, made in the paracentral zone
- Ripe banana, found near El Boqueron National Park
- Yuca, which gets its own El Diario de Hoy feature on pupusa day
How dough changes comal cooking
Every dough cooks on a comal, a flat griddle. Olocuilta kitchens sear pupusas over live fire (Chicago Magazine), and El Diario de Hoy describes the clay comal as part of the tradition there.
Rice dough ends up with the crisper exterior (CooksInfo). The Smithsonian Folklife recipe says to cook one pupusa first and adjust the heat before the rest.
Which Newer and Regional Fillings Count as Pupusas, and Which Do Not?
Salvadoran pupuserias call a filling traditional when it’s a standard order. The rest go under especialidades, which covers regional dishes, festival inventions and diaspora additions (El Diario de Hoy).
The line moves with whoever draws it, so each label below names its source.
Regional and coastal fillings
Regional menus bring in ayote with cheese, plus shrimp, tuna and fish near the coast, and edible greens like chipilin, mora and papelillo.
Squash is the clearest disputed label. Remezcla lists ayote among the traditional fillings, and a Richmond, Texas menu prices ayote con queso beside its traditional types (El Mundo, 2024).
El Diario de Hoy files it under specialty options next to chipilin, mora and spinach.
A USC Folklore interview places shrimp near the coast, and Chicago Magazine found tiny shrimp on Pupuseria Olocuilta’s menu.
Newer Salvadoran creations
The original pupusa loca recipe carries more than 20 ingredients, according to El Diario de Hoy (2022). The paper counts it among the newest traditions in Salvadoran cooking.
Festivals and local businesses added more.
- Jocote, from the jocote festival in San Lorenzo, Ahuachapan
- Anona, from the anona festival in Yucuaiquin, La Union
- Avocado, pineapple and pork rib, from a San Jacinto business in San Salvador
- Grilled beef, from Santa Ana
These are one-town inventions, not national orders.
Fillings added in the United States
The Daily Aztec author says US pupuserias add fillings such as jalapeno, fish and even pepperoni.
A USC Folklore interview says American pupusas add spinach or mushrooms to appeal to people who have not tried them. It also notes that the spinach and mushroom pupusas at the campus farmers market echo pizza and match no Salvadoran recipe.
Sources disagree on where some of these started, because El Diario de Hoy lists spinach, fish and jalapeno with quesillo among Salvadoran specialty fillings too.
Salvadoran kitchens abroad do it as well. Chicago Magazine found minced spinach at Pupuseria Olocuilta, a restaurant named for the rice-pupusa town. In Los Angeles, Mama’s International Tamales fills pupusas with zucchini after chef Claudia Lopez and her mother moved the menu toward plant-based food (Rouxbe recipe).
The Daily Aztec author suspects the new fillings exist to draw in people who have never tried a pupusa.
Where the traditional label breaks down
Chicken is the sharpest conflict between sources.
CooksInfo lists chicken among standard meat fillings, and OC Weekly reviewed pollo pupusas beside revueltas at a Long Beach pupuseria. The Daily Aztec author says pupusas usually leave out chicken and beef, and El Diario de Hoy files both under newer adaptations.
The split follows where the menu sits. Menus abroad add chicken, while El Salvador’s own tradicional list stays narrow.
If a menu lists a filling under especialidades, treat it as a house creation and not a type. Not every pupuseria prints that split, so a question to the staff settles it.
How Do You Choose and Order a Type of Pupusa?
It comes down to what you want out of the first bite.
Picking a type by goal
Revuelta is the benchmark order, so start there if you’re unsure. Queso con loroco is the one for anyone who wants the flower in there.
Rice dough on any filling gets you the crispest edge, and the especialidades list is where the newer stuff lives.
The word revuelta does not always mean the Salvadoran standard. Sonoma Magazine describes a Rohnert Park, California pupuseria whose revuelta holds beans, cheese and a choice of chicken or pork rinds.
Abroad, ask what a revuelta holds before ordering one.
How to order in a pupuseria
- Name the dough first if the menu offers both rice and corn.
- Name the type by its Spanish label, such as revuelta, queso con loroco or frijol con queso.
- Ask about anything unfamiliar, especially items listed under especialidades.
- Start with two or three. Pupusas are made as the order comes in (Houston Press), so a second round arrives hot.
- Take curtido and salsa from the side bowls.
Curtido and salsa roja
CooksInfo describes curtido as a relish of pickled cabbage with chile and carrots. Salsa roja gets a shorter description, a thin, mild tomato sauce. Both cut the richness of the filling.
El Diario de Hoy reports that both change in eastern El Salvador, so a pupuseria from that region can serve a different version.
Application order is disputed. Luz Media’s Salvadoran writer says to cover the curtido with salsa, while Houston Press describes spreading the sauce first and piling relish on top.
Hands do the rest. Luz Media says to tear off small pieces and use them as scoops, and a guide to eating pupusas the right way covers the etiquette in more detail.
Which Types Work for Vegetarian, Gluten-Free or Dairy-Free Diets, and Where Do the Labels Fail?
On paper, queso, frijol con queso and queso con loroco are meat-free, and corn and rice doughs contain no gluten. Kitchens are where the labels fail, through beans cooked in lard, shared griddles and wheat that sneaks in through mixes or fillings.
Meat-free and dairy-free types
Queso, frijol con queso and queso con loroco carry no pork, and squash with cheese joins them. Chicharron and revuelta are out.
Plain frijol is the one traditional type built without cheese, which makes it the dairy-free pick. A vegan bean pupusa simply omits it (Fermenting for Foodies), and a dairy-free cheese works in recipes that call for one (Gluten Free on a Shoestring).
The two diets overlap mainly in beans.
Gluten-free types
Under FDA’s gluten-free rule (21 CFR 101.91, final rule published August 2013), the limit is below 20 parts per million of gluten.
Corn masa and rice flour contain no gluten, as The Daily Aztec notes for both doughs. The rule itself covers packaged food, and FDA’s 2014 notice says restaurants that make menu claims should match its definition.
According to a gluten-free recipe site, a pupusa can pick up gluten from wheat flour added to the dough or from a gluten-containing filling ingredient. Masa harina contaminated at the source is the sneakier one.
Monse’s Pupuseria in Colorado Springs answers the question by running a 100% gluten-free kitchen.
Where dietary labels fail
Most problems come from the kitchen, not the recipe.
Celiac.com lists lard among the usual ingredients of basic refried beans, while Alicia Maher’s home recipe fries them in oil (The Cook’s Cook).
A shared comal matters too, so ask whether pork pupusas cook on the same surface as meat-free ones. The Celiac Disease Foundation’s 2024 labeling guide treats cross-contact as a risk separate from ingredients.
Before ordering, ask how the beans are cooked and what the dough is mixed from. Then ask whether the comal is shared.
Types of Pupusas FAQ
How does a pupusa differ from a gordita or an arepa?
A pupusa is sealed around its filling before cooking, while a gordita normally has an opening in the dough. Wikipedia’s pupusa entry also notes that pupusas use nixtamalized masa and arepas use untreated corn flour.
The full gordita versus pupusa comparison goes deeper.
What does the word pupusa mean?
It is usually traced to the Nahuat word pupushawa, meaning swollen, according to the Royal Spanish Academy dictionary as cited by El Diario de Hoy.
Linguist Jorge Lemus disputes the Nawat root and says the Pipil called the dish kukumuzin, per Wikipedia.
Are pupusas only Salvadoran?
No. El Salvador and Honduras both claim the dish, and El Diario de Hoy says the exact origin is unclear beyond the wider Mesoamerican region.
Remezcla adds that pupusas are also popular in Guatemala.
When is National Pupusa Day?
The second Sunday of November. El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly created the day and named the pupusa the national dish through Decree 655 in 2005, dated April 1 and published in the Official Gazette on April 20 (Romero Pineda).
Is a pupuseria a restaurant or a street stand?
Either. A pupuseria is any place that makes and sells pupusas, from a store to a street vendor, and vendors often still serve them on banana leaf (CooksInfo).
In the United States, most are small businesses run by Salvadoran immigrants, The Daily Aztec reports.
How many pupusas make a meal?
Two per person when other food is on the table, three when pupusas are the whole meal (CooksInfo).
Size shifts the count. CooksInfo puts a typical pupusa at 12.5 to 15 cm wide, while cookbook author Alicia Maher says about 10 cm (The Cook’s Cook).
Finding Rice and Regional Pupusas Abroad
The less common types of pupusas, rice dough and regional specialties, turn up by asking, not by reading the menu. La Taco reports that some pupuserias do not advertise rice pupusas but make them on request.
Start with the dough, rice or corn. Whether the loroco is fresh, frozen or pickled comes next if that’s the type you’re ordering, and the especialidades list after that.
Dough comes first because it changes every item on the order, while loroco affects one type and the especialidades differ from shop to shop.
Two doughs and six traditional fillings give 12 standard orders, whichever of El Diario de Hoy’s two lists a pupuseria follows. Anything beyond those 12 is a house choice.
For the history that produced both doughs, see where pupusas come from.
