Curtido substitutes

Drain the sauerkraut and rinse it briefly if it is very sharp, squeeze lightly, then toss with the oregano and raw grated carrot. Let it sit fifteen minutes before serving.

Best for

pupusas, tacos, grilled meats, rice plates, sandwiches, yuca frita

The closest thing you can build from a supermarket, and it is genuinely close, because sauerkraut and curtido are both salt-fermented shredded cabbage. Two differences to correct. Sauerkraut is more strongly lactic and saltier, so a brief rinse keeps it from dominating. And it is shredded finer and has no carrot, so it tastes sharper and less sweet. The oregano is the piece that makes it read Central American rather than German, so do not skip it.

Pack the vegetables into a bowl or jar. Stir the salt into the hot water, add the vinegar and oregano, pour over, press the cabbage down, and leave thirty minutes at room temperature.

Best for

pupusas, tacos, grilled meats, rice plates, beans, yuca frita

The real answer, since curtido is one of the easiest pickles there is and thirty minutes of resting is genuinely enough to make it good. It gets better for two or three days. Because this is a vinegar pickle rather than a several-day ferment, it tastes cleaner and sharper and lacks the faint fizzy complexity of the traditional version. Nobody at your table will mind, and it is much crunchier than anything from a jar.

Toss the dry slaw mix with the salt first, wait ten minutes, then add the vinegar, sugar and oregano. Use no mayonnaise of any kind.

Best for

pupusas, tacos, grilled meats, sandwiches, rice bowls

Fast, cheap and serviceable, and the shredded cabbage-and-carrot mix is exactly the right raw material. What it lacks is fermentation, so it tastes fresh and crisp rather than tangy and complex, and it needs noticeably more vinegar and salt than you would expect to hold its own next to a pupusa. Salt it and wait before dressing it, which draws out water and stops the bowl going watery on the table.

Napa cabbage kimchi, rinsed under cold water to remove some chilli paste, squeezed lightly and chopped into shorter pieces.

Best for

pupusas, tacos, rice bowls, grilled meats, sandwiches

Gets the three things that matter most exactly right: sour fermented tang, real salt, and cabbage crunch. What it adds is a whole other cuisine. Garlic, gochugaru and usually salted shrimp mean a pupusa topped with kimchi tastes Korean rather than Salvadoran, which is genuinely delicious but is a different plate of food. Rinsing tones the chilli down. If anyone at the table is vegetarian, check the label for shrimp or fish sauce.

Chop the pickled vegetables, toss them with raw shredded cabbage, and add a tablespoon of the brine so the cabbage picks up some acidity.

Best for

pupusas, tacos, grilled meats, rice plates, beans

A good improvisation because the pickled vegetables bring the acid and the raw cabbage brings the volume and crunch, which between them covers most of curtido's job. It will be hotter than curtido usually is, since escabeche is jalapeno-forward, and the carrot in the jar is cooked and soft rather than raw and sweet. Add a pinch of oregano to pull it toward the Salvadoran side.

Shred red cabbage very finely, salt it for ten minutes, squeeze, then dress with white or cider vinegar, a pinch of sugar and dried oregano.

Best for

pupusas, tacos, grilled fish, sandwiches, rice bowls

The same construction as green cabbage curtido, so it does the job properly, and it looks striking on a plate. Red cabbage is a little tougher and slightly sweeter than green, so shred it thinner and give it the salting step or it will feel chewy. The colour bleeds, so it will tint a white pupusa pink, which bothers some people and delights others.

Serve the pupusas with salsa roja and a wedge of lime to squeeze over, and skip the slaw entirely.

Best for

pupusas, grilled meats, beans and rice

The honest least-bad answer, and worth stating clearly: a pupusa is masa and melted cheese, and without something sharp and crunchy beside it, three of them in a row taste heavy and monotonous. Lime restores the acidity, which is the more important half of curtido's job, and costs nothing. What is entirely missing is the crunch and the bulk, so the plate feels one-note in texture.