Refresco de Ensalada
The Art of the Pupuseada: Gathering Around the Comal
Walk into any real-deal pupuseria and the first thing hitting the table isn't curtido, it's a sweating pitcher of this drinkable fruit salad. To the uninitiated, seeing watercress floating in a fruit juice seems weird, but it's the exact peppery counterpunch this incredibly sweet, tropical heavy-hitter needs. Forget the generic internet hacks dumping canned fruit into water; the real secret here is extraction. Your grandma spent twenty minutes mashing sugared fruit by hand to coax out a syrup. We're taking a weeknight shortcut by blending a nectar base with frozen cashew apple—the astringent, non-negotiable soul of the drink—leaving the rest of the pristine fruit perfectly diced for scooping. Serve it with a long spoon, or don't serve it at all.
Ingredients
- fresh pineapple1/2 med
- firm but ripe mango1 med
- Granny Smith apple1 med
- Gala or Red Delicious apple1 med
- fresh pineapple1/2 med
- frozen marañones or frozen marañón pulp2 med
- frozen mamey chunks1/2 cup
- white cane sugar1 1/2 cup
- kosher salt1/4 tsp
- cold filtered water12 cup
- fresh watercress1/2 cup
Method
- 01
Combine the finely diced fruit in a large pitcher.
Add the finely diced pineapple, mango, green apple, and red apple. The pieces must be small enough to easily fit onto a teaspoon, but large enough to provide a satisfying crunch.
- 02
Blend the roughly chopped pineapple and tropical fruits into a nectar.
In a blender, combine the roughly chopped pineapple, cashew apples (marañones), mamey, sugar, salt, and two cups of the cold water. Blend on high until completely smooth to extract the core flavors without twenty minutes of hand-mashing.
- 03
Strain the nectar into the diced fruit and add the remaining water.
Hold a fine-mesh sieve over the pitcher and press the blended liquid through with a spoon, discarding the fibrous pulp. Pour in the remaining ten cups of cold water and stir vigorously with a long wooden spoon.
- 04
Refrigerate the pitcher for at least an hour to steep.
This resting period is absolute law. The flavors of the chopped fruit need time to bleed into the water to achieve proper harmony.
- 05
Garnish with watercress and serve with a long spoon.
Scatter the watercress sprigs directly across the surface of the pitcher. Ladle into ice-filled glasses so everyone gets a generous scoop of fruit and a peppery leaf or two, and do not forget the spoon.
Notes
The astringent bite of the cashew apple is the non-negotiable soul of this drink.
You can consistently find frozen whole cashew apples or frozen pulp in the freezer aisle of well-stocked Latin markets. Do not skip it.