Guatemalan Fiambre Salad
Authentic Guatemalan Fiambre Salad Recipe – A traditional dish served on All Saint’s Day (Día de Todos los Santos) piled high with family favorite ingredients!
Why We Love This Fiambre Recipe
This amazing salad is enjoyed by Guatemalans one time a year celebrating All Saint’s Day.
Fiambre Guatemalan Salad is truly the mother of all salads. Traditionally, a Guatemalan Fiambre offers a smorgasbord of family-favorite ingredients. Vegetables, meats, cheeses, and pickled relishes galore compose this salad.
Like most traditional rural dishes, each family has their own recipe passed down from generation to generation. This fiambre recipe is no different!
Fiambre is as varied and diverse as the beautiful Guatemalan people. Preparing and consuming the dish is quite a family affair in every way… Remembering loved ones’ past and the foods they enjoyed.
Traditional Fiambre Guatemala can contain fifty to one hundred ingredients or more and take days to prepare. It takes days to procure all of the ingredients, grill, boil, pickle, and chop them before assembling the salad.
It is a task not taken lightly.
There are three basic types of Guatemalan Fiambre:
- Fiambre Blanco (White)
- Fiambre Rojo (Red) – made with roasted beets
- Decomposed – where it is all separate and you build your own
This Fiambre Guatemalan Salad is a simplified version. It still contains many ingredients, yet nowhere near as many as the traditional version.
Feel free to add or delete what you wish, that is the beauty of Guatemalan Fiambre!
Fiambre Ingredients
Some traditional ingredients may be challenging to find in certain areas of the USA, yet they are fun to try if you have a chance.
The meats in this salad are cooked, chilled and the majority served cold-cut style. The vegetables are traditinally cooked separately, chilled and often marinated ahead of time.
To speed things up, you can add them to one pot of boiling water, according to cook time.
You can see the many cultural influences in Fiambre Guatemalan Salad from the longaniza sausage, to Spanish olives, to the pacaya palm flowers.
A delicious chimichurri-style dressing/marinade adds great freshness and tastes wonderful with every ingredient in the dish. Even with this simplified version, you will need to give yourself time to boil and prep all of the accouterments.
Once that is complete, the fun begins; assemble your masterpiece!
For the Dressing and Marinade:
- Parsley
- White vinegar or champagne vinegar
- Capers
- Dijon mustard
- Green onions
- Garlic
- Fresh ginger
- Honey, if needed
- Salt and ground black pepper
- Olive oil
For the Salad:
- Chicken breast
- Shrimp
- Spanish chorizo (cooked and uncured)
- Longaniza sausage or linguica sausage
- Salami
- Ham
- Mortadella
- Queso fresco
- Parmesan cheese (or zacapa cheese)
- Red leaf lettuce
- Green leaf lettuce
- Small golden potatoes
- Cauliflower
- Asparagus (or brussels sprouts)
- Frozen mixed vegetables (carrots, corn, peas and green beans)
- Pickled beets
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Radishes
- Spanish olives (green olives)
- Mini gherkins
- Pacayas (palm flowers)
- Bay leaf
- Dried thyme
Pro Tip: If you can’t find some ingredients, other items you can swap include: shredded cabbage, chickpeas, red beans, white beans, fava beans, black olives, sardines, baby corn, and even cut up hot dog.
Tips & Tricks
- Adjust the ingredients according to your liking! Don’t like shrimp? Skip it! Or, if you like something a lot, add some extra. It is totally up to you!
- Traditionally, fiambre salad is served on Día de los Muertos (November 2) and Día de Todos los Santos (November 1). However, this packed salad would be great to serve at any time of the year!
Looking for More Salad Recipes? Be Sure to Also Try:
Guatemalan Fiambre Salad
Ingredients
For the Dressing/Marinade:
- 3/4 cup chopped parsley
- 1/2 cup white vinegar or champagne vinegar
- 2 tablespoons capers
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 6 green onions, chopped
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 piece fresh ginger (1 inch) peeled and chopped
- 1 tablespoon honey, if needed
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 cup olive oil
For the Salad:
- 1 pound chicken breast, poached and cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 pound medium shrimp, cooked
- 3 ounces Spanish chorizo (cooked and uncured) sliced into strips
- 8 ounces longaniza sausage or linguica sausage, cooked and sliced
- 3 ounces salami, sliced
- 4 ounces ham, sliced into strips
- 4 ounces mortadella, cut into strips
- 1 small round of queso fresco, crumbled
- 1/2 pound Parmesan cheese or zacapa, shredded
- 1 head red leaf lettuce
- 1 head green leaf lettuce
- 1 pound small golden potatoes, cut into bite size pieces
- 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
- 1/2 pound asparagus cut into 1- to 2-inch pieces
- 1 pound frozen mixed vegetables, carrots, corn, peas and green beans
- 12 ounces pickled beets, drained
- 4 hard boiled eggs, sliced or wedged
- 5 radishes, cut decoratively for garnish
- 3 ounces Spanish olives
- 3 ounces mini gherkins
- 2-3 pacayas, cut into pieces
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
Instructions
- Set a large pot of water over high heat and add 2 teaspoons salt. Once boiling, poach the chicken with a bay leaf and thyme, until cooked through. about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare any meats that need cooking or slicing. Chill the meats.
- Refill the pot of water and add more salt. Bring to a boil. Cut the potatoes into bite size pieces and boil for 10-12 minutes. Then add in the cauliflower florets and boil another 3 minutes. Finally toss in the asparagus, and frozen vegetables. Simmer another 1-2 minutes. Drain all vegetables. Prepare all remaining vegetables. Chill.
- Puree all dressing ingredients, except oil, in a blender until smooth. Then with the blender still running, drizzle in the oil slowly until emulsified.
- If desired, marinate any meats or vegetables in 1 cup of dressing for a minimum of 30 minutes then remove and retain dressing for salad. (Optional)
- On a large platter arrange the lettuce leaves, half the meats, cheeses, and vegetables. Repeat with a second layer.
- Garnish with gherkins, olives, radishes, eggs and pacayas. Drizzle with the dressing.
should I only marinate the veggies 30 min? or can it be longer?
Hi Sharon,
Yes, you can marinate them for up to 12 hours if needed.
Loved this salad it was a huge hit!
Love this!
This salad is so beautiful!!