Hearts of palm ceviche {Ceviche de palmito}
An easy recipe for a vegan hearts of palm ceviche, also known as Ecuadorian ceviche de palmito. This refreshing ceviche is made with palmito hearts of palm, red onions, tomato, lime juice, orange juice, cilantro and salt. You can also add avocado and spicy peppers.
Ceviche de palmito is a classic Ecuadorian vegan or vegetarian ceviche. It’s very easy to make, but it’s important to make sure the ingredients are marinated well to help maximize the flavor of the dish. You can keep it simple or also add avocado (a must for me); or even additional ingredients such as mango for sweet touch or some passion fruit for a tropical tangy flavor.
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In Ecuador, this is not usually prepared as a spicy ceviche, but feel free to add your choice of chilies or hot peppers directly to the marinating ceviche if everyone consuming will enjoy the extra kick. Another option is to serve diced or sliced hot peppers on the side. To take the palmito ceviche to another level you can also serve it with homemade Ecuadorian style hot sauce on the side, some options include an aji criollo hot sauce, the classic tree tomato aji sauce, or a passion fruit hot sauce.
Serve this hearts of palm or palmito ceviche with garnishes such as chifles or thin green plantain chips, popcorn (very Ecuadorian), tostado corn nuts (also very Ecuadorian), extra lime slices, any of the hot sauces mentioned above or good old Tabasco or Sriracha.
Hearts of palm ceviche {Ceviche de palmito}
Ingredients
- 2 cans hearts of palm each can is ~14 ounces or ~400 grams, after draining the liquid you will have ~16 ounces total of just hearts of palm (from 2 cans)
- ½ large red onion finely sliced
- 2 tomatoes diced
- 1 tomato grated
- 6 limes juiced
- 1 large orange juiced
- ½ bunch of finely chopped cilantro
- 1 tablespoons of oil can be a neutral flavored oil like avocado or sunflower
- Salt to taste
Optional, can be added directly to the ceviche or served with each bowl:
- 1 red chile or hot pepper sliced or diced
- 1-2 avocados diced or sliced
Garnishes:
Instructions
- Drain and slice or dice the hearts of palm, mix with half of the lime juice and all the orange juice.
- Soak the sliced onions in cold water with a teaspoon of salt for about 5-10 minutes. Drain and rinse well.
- Make a curtido or marinated salsa with rinsed red onion slices, diced tomato, half of the finely chopped cilantro, the rest of the lime juice and salt to taste. Let it marinate for 5-10 minutes.
- Mix the marinating hearts of palm with the tomato onion curtido and rest of the chopped cilantro.
- Add the grated tomato and the oil, mix well. Taste and add salt if needed. Let the ceviche marinate for at least 30 minutes before serving.
- You can add the diced avocado and the optional diced/sliced hot peppers directly into the whole ceviche bowl right before serving or serve the avocado as a topping into each individual bowl.
- Serve the palmito ceviche with your choice of garnishes including fried green plantains chips, popcorn, tostado corn nuts, extra hot sauce, etc
Step by step preparation photos for hearts of palm ceviche:
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This is really fantastic! The flavors are bright and although I do like ceviche with fish, I don’t miss it. I served it with plantains and it was so good! My husband loved it too! I will definitely make it again and again.
Looks delish! I’m on the Keto diet, and hearts of palm is keto friendly, so I’ll definitely try this one.