BU Market Fun Fact: Pepper

Pepper filled with Mexican colours!

“Chile en nogada” is a dish to celebrate Mexican Independence Day. It features poblano chiles stuffed with picadillo, covered in a creamy, white walnut sauce and garnished with pomegranate seeds and a sprig of parsley. The colours of green, white, and red symbolize the Mexican flag.

There are a few versions of the story behind the dish. The most famous one tells of nuns who were commissioned to prepare a meal for Mexican Emperor Agustín de Iturbide, commander of the Trigarante Army in the 1820s. To represent the colours of the Trigarante Army, the nuns searched for available green, white, and red ingredients to create the initial dish of Chile en nogada. Iturbide later designed the Mexican flag bearing the same colours, and nowadays, Chile en nogada has become an unofficial national dish in Mexico!