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Vegan guatita may seem like a contradiction. After all, translated from Spanish, guatita means “little belly,” in reference to the beef tripe that typically stars in this Ecuadorian stew. But in Kiera Wright-Ruiz’s debut cookbook, My (Half) Latinx Kitchen, out this month, traditions are made to be reimagined and recipes reinvented. After all, for Wright-Ruiz, the journey to becoming a cookbook author was anything but traditional.
“I felt like a lot of my story is not really represented at all in food writing,” says Wright-Ruiz, referencing her childhood spent in various foster homes and living with her grandparents. “I wanted to really showcase that a cookbook can talk about wonderful recipes, [but also discuss] being food insecure and financially unstable. It doesn’t always mean you have the money to buy the fancy salt or the fancy olive oil.”
For Wright-Ruiz, My (Half) Latinx Kitchen is a challenge to what the idea of diversity can mean. Yes, she dives deep on her Ecuadorian and Korean mixed race background — and how that informed the way she cooks food. “But I do come from financial stability, which is obviously a socioeconomic diversity too,” Wright-Ruiz says. “Plus, the places I’ve lived — I want to challenge what diversity means on a couple of different levels.”
Her vegan guatita recipe is inspired by not only Wright-Ruiz’s Ecuadorian heritage, but also the place she currently calls home: Tokyo. Instead of using tripe, she opts for maitake mushrooms, a meaty varietal that’s commonly found in Japan. “My everyday cooking has obviously changed, incorporating Japanese ingredients,” Wright-Ruiz explains. That does not mean that recipe developing for a cookbook that largely calls for Latin American ingredients was always easy, but Wright-Ruiz was up for the challenge. “This book gave me an opportunity to really dive into getting to know the city of Tokyo quickly because I was running around trying to find what we consider basic American ingredients,” she says. “I’ve gotten really acquainted with the only Latin American grocery store in Tokyo.”
Through all the hurdles she encountered, Wright-Ruiz concluded that the recipes in My (Half) Latinx Kitchen can really be cooked anywhere. That is especially true for the vegan guatita, which has generally accessible ingredients like bell peppers, potatoes, and mushrooms, and was made with dietary restrictions in mind. “There are a lot of Ecuadorian recipes that use offal cuts and I didn’t want to shy away from that either,” Wright-Ruiz says (she didn’t for her recipe for ‘guacau,’ a mash-up of Peruvian cau cau and Ecuadorian guatita). “To me it was about balance; not just about veganizing, but making sure if something hasn’t been represented, it has a chance to be.”
For those who have never tried guatita, expect a lot of nuttiness from creamy peanut butter and earthiness from spices like cumin and sazón seasoning. “A lot of umami meat flavor really comes from the correct mushroom sear, so don’t skip or rush that process,” Wright-Ruiz advises. “To me, one of the things I really liked about making this recipe vegan is because it does have that extra protein already just from the use of peanut so I thought [the mushrooms made] a kind of easy, perfect pairing.”
Vegan Guatita Recipe from My (Half) Latinx Kitchen
Plate with white rice.
Serves: 4 to 6
Ingredients
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
8 ounces maitake mushrooms, rinsed and torn into bite-size pieces
½ large yellow onion, chopped
½ large red onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 ½ teaspoons sazón with achiote or ground achiote
1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
½ cup unsweetened creamy peanut butter
4 ½ cups unsalted vegetable stock or water
2 large (or 3 to 4 medium) Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
1 cup packed finely chopped cilantro leaves and stems
Instructions:
Step 1: Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large Dutch oven or large pot over medium-high heat. Once the oil is shimmering, add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until the moisture evaporates and the mushrooms become a deep brown color, about 6 minutes. Transfer the mushrooms to a bowl or plate and set aside.
Step 2: In the same pot, add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, both onions, the bell pepper, garlic, sazón, cumin, and oregano. Stir frequently to evenly distribute the seasonings and avoid browning. Cook until the onions are translucent and tender, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat.
Step 3: In a blender, combine the cooked sofrito, peanut butter, and about half the vegetable stock. Blend until smooth. Add the blended mixture and remaining stock back into the same pot and bring to a boil.
Step 4: Add the potatoes and reduce the heat to medium. Cook until the potatoes are tender and the broth is thick enough to lightly coat the back of a wooden spoon, 10 to 12 minutes.
Step 5: Reserve about ¼ cup of the cilantro for garnish. Add the reserved mushrooms and remaining ¾ cup cilantro directly into the guatita. Then season with salt and black pepper to taste. Mix until well combined. Serve hot and garnish with the reserved cilantro.
Excerpted from MY (HALF) LATINX KITCHEN: Half Recipes, Half Stories, All Latin American by Kiera Wright-Ruiz. Copyright © 2025 by Kiera Wright-Ruiz. Photography © 2025 by Lauren Vied Allen. From Harvest, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission.
