Food on Migration
2026 / Essay + recipe / Recipes of Courage, The Refugee Buddy Project
A soup named revive the dead, sent to a
cookzine on the theme of courage.
For Refugee Week, the Refugee Buddy Project asked people for the recipe they reach for when they need strength. I sent Levanta Muertos, an Andean soup I was handed in a Cusco kitchen as a child. The essay follows one migration through one recipe, and what it picks up on the way.
Courage here isn't heroism; it's endurance.
Contributed to Recipes of Courage, The Refugee Buddy Project, Refugee Week 2025
Levanta Muertos
I was born in South Africa, moved to Peru as a child, and now live in Switzerland. My mother grew up between worlds, and so did her parents before her. My grandmother was French. My grandfather was born in Austria and, after being given up for adoption during the economic upheavals of the last century, was moved to the Swiss Alps. Ours is not a family with particularly deep roots in any one place.
Shortly after arriving in Peru, my mother sent me to Cusco for the school holidays while she worked. I barely knew the people I was staying with. Then the altitude arrived with great enthusiasm. Breathless, dizzy and thoroughly miserable, I found myself being ushered into a kitchen, wrapped in a large blanket and handed a bowl of soup. With the little Spanish I understood then, I could just make out something about the dead. Which did not help.
The soup was levanta muertos, literally "lift the dead." Simmered for hours with chicken and quinoa, it was intended as a cure for altitude sickness. Whether it worked medically, I couldn't say. What I do know is that it was the first thing that made me feel like myself again.
I came back from the mountain, grew up, and pursued a number of careers in science and the arts before eventually becoming a chef. Today I am a recipe editor and write around 200 recipes a year. Most of them are tested, measured and carefully documented. This soup is not.
I make it differently every time, depending on the season and what's in the kitchen, but the combination of chicken, quinoa, potatoes and ají amarillo remains constant.
Food can be a form of courage: not courage as heroism, but as endurance, the quiet strength to keep going and recover, over and over. Of all the recipes I've cooked, this is the one that still leaves me feeling most grounded.
Recipe
Levanta Muertos, Andean chicken and quinoa soup / Serves 6
Ingredients
1 whole chicken (about 1.5kg), jointed, carcass included
2 litres chicken stock
3 tbsp ají amarillo paste
1 large onion, finely diced
2 carrots, diced
2 celery sticks, diced
150g quinoa, rinsed
50g white rice (a generous handful)
400g yellow potatoes (about 3 medium), peeled and cut into chunks
1 cup sweet corn kernels
1 bay leaf
½ tsp dried oregano
1 large handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped
Salt and black pepper
Vegetable oil
Method
Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper. Heat a little oil in a large pot and brown the pieces on all sides. Remove and set aside.
In the same pot, cook the onion, carrots and celery until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the ají amarillo paste and oregano and cook a further 2 to 3 minutes, until fragrant.
Return the chicken to the pot and add the quinoa, rice, stock and bay leaf. Bring to a gentle simmer, then reduce the heat and cook for 30 minutes.
Add the potatoes and continue cooking another 30 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is very tender, the potatoes soft at the edges, and the broth slightly thickened.
Stir in the sweet corn and cook a final 5 minutes.
Remove the bay leaf. Lift out the chicken, shred the meat, discard skin and bones, and return the meat to the soup. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Stir through most of the coriander just before serving, and scatter the remainder over each bowl.
Notes
- In the Andes this soup is often made with choclo, the large-kernelled corn native to the region. Sweet corn is an accessible substitute when choclo isn't available.
- Yellow potatoes are traditional and give the soup its colour and texture. If unavailable, use a waxy potato that holds its shape while softening into the broth.
- If fresh oregano is available, use 1 tablespoon finely chopped leaves in place of the dried.
- If you can't find ají amarillo paste, substitute 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or mild chilli flakes mixed with ½ teaspoon sweet paprika and a squeeze of lemon or lime. The flavour will be different, but it will provide a similar warmth and fruitiness.