Lent in many parts of the world is a time of fasting and penance, accompanied by traditions that reflect the gastronomic culture of countries. Nicaragua is a country where part of its population professes Christianity, so they celebrate religious festivities and follow customs inherited from their ancestors.
In Nicaraguan gastronomy, you will find seasonal dishes, an example of this is the extensive variety of meals that you can enjoy during Nicaraguan Lent. One of them is the traditional cheese soup or 'rosquillas' soup as it is also known. The essential part of this dish is the 'rosquillas' that are made from cheese and corn flour, as the soup itself is prepared with vegetables, eggs, bell peppers, garlic, tomatoes, onions, and mint leaves.
This dish has variations according to the region of the country where it is made, in some places they add corn 'rosquillas' while others make the dough of the 'rosquillas' with the soup to give it a more special flavor. Another variant is the curd soup, which uses curd as a substitute for cheese.
Regarding the origin of this tradition in Nicaragua, one must go back to the colonization period, where new religious customs marked the ancestral knowledge of the peoples of the New World. That's why the native inhabitants adopted celebrations typical of Christianity along with the gastronomic traditions that characterized them. For example, they consumed soups made with local ingredients, but later began to incorporate ingredients from Europe. This is how cheese soup was born, with dough rings made from cornmeal that served to thicken the soup, and later cheese was added to the dough, becoming the dish known today and so representative of Lent in Nicaragua.
