In the pre-Hispanic period, iguana meat was a source of protein, and with the arrival of the Spaniards and the imposition of Christianity, it became a substitute for meat during Easter.<
The Culinary Colony
The Spanish colonizers were forced, due to famine, to overcome the disgust that cooking iguana caused them during the conquest of Central America, until they began to import and raise cattle, pigs, and sheep.
Over the years, iguana meat, from a necessity, became a folklore of Salvadoran gastronomy and a gourmet curiosity.
Iguana meat tastes very similar to chicken but is less bland; moreover, it offers a better nutritional level and has more grams of protein per kilogram.
How to Prepare
The most common way to prepare iguana meat in El Salvador is by seasoning it with alguashte, which is a Cuscatleco seasoning made from roasted and ground squash seeds until they are reduced to powder. It is one of the most exotic dishes in El Salvador.
Since 2009, the iguana has been a critically endangered species, appearing on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and remains threatened despite the initiatives carried out by the Government.
The causes of this danger of decline in this species are due, on the one hand, to hunting by humans, and on the other hand, competition for resources among individuals of the same or different species to survive. The latter is a consequence of the deterioration of vegetation and the decrease in their natural habitats; iguanas are forced to live in very confined spaces.
