During the pre-Hispanic period, iguana meat was a key source of proteins, and with the arrival of the Spaniards and the imposition of Christianity, it became a substitute for meat during Holy Week.
The Colonial Kitchen
The Spanish colonizers were forced, due to famine, to overcome their disgust at cooking iguana during the conquest of Central America until they began importing and raising livestock like cattle, pigs, and sheep.
Over the years, iguana meat evolved from a necessity into a folklore element of Salvadoran cuisine and a gourmet curiosity.
Iguana meat has a flavor very similar to chicken, but less bland; it also offers better nutritional value and contains more grams of protein per kilogram.
How It’s Prepared
The most common way to prepare iguana meat in El Salvador is by seasoning it with alguashte, a local condiment made from toasted pumpkin seeds ground into powder. This dish is one of the most exotic in El Salvador.
Since 2009, iguana has been listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and it remains threatened despite initiatives by the government to protect it.
The causes of this species' decline include hunting by humans and resource competition among individuals of the same or different species. The latter is a consequence of habitat destruction and vegetation deterioration, forcing iguanas to live in very limited spaces.
