Move over, kale and arugula, there’s another emerald green superfood that Mayan people have been growing since ancient times.
Chaya, also called tree spinach, is treasured locally as a nutritional powerhouse: it has 10 times the Vitamin C of oranges, and twice the iron of spinach! Not to mention, it’s actually delicious, unlike some other wonder foods (noni, anyone?)
The history of Mayan people using chaya traces back 4,000 years ago, basically ever since ancient arrivals they began to realize what a valuable plant it was, for both cooking and medicinal purposes. Ancient wisdom has it that eating chaya cleans the blood and promotes a long life, and can even help regulate blood sugar. Today it’s widely used in Mayan cuisine and as a healing tea to treat digestive, respiratory, or inflammatory ailments.
Visit any local village, and among the breezy palapas and neat rows of freshly washed white laundry, you’re sure to find several chaya bushes growing wild, with their signature tiny white flowers. They’re as much a part of the landscape as brilliant blue cenotes and backyard “milpa” mini-farms.
Cooks step outside to pick some leaves for the daily meal—but carefully! Uncooked chaya leaves can sting like bees!
If you’ve ever wondered how ancient people figured out which foods were good to eat, well, wonder no more when it comes to chaya. The maple-shaped leaves growing wild can look really uninviting. Some varieties are covered in tiny, painful spikes when raw, and without processing the leaves, they can actually be toxic to humans.
But whoever did discover chaya’s goodness (once boiled, dried or pounded!) added an amazing food to what would eventually become one of the world’s healthiest diets. Between chaya, cacao, chia, white corn, pumpkin, turkey, and achiote, traditional Mayan foods could fuel today’s Olympic athletes just fine, with vitamins to spare.
Besides being packed with Vitamin A, C, and E, plus calcium, iron, and potassium, Chaya’s also an antioxidant champ: it has flavonoids and carotenoids can shore up your body’s defenses, increase vitality, and even lend a healthy glow to the skin and hair.
The ouchiness of picking it aside (use gloves!), chaya is one key ingredient that makes local cuisine so delicious, and also so distinct from other regional Mexican food. It’s used to make tasty green chaya lemonade, chaya empanadas, and the classic Sopa de Lima (chicken, lime, and chaya soup), among other delights.
If you get lucky, on your way to visit nearby archeological sites and cenotes, you’ll find a friendly villager selling some exquisite Brazo de Reina tamales, and have a chance to try this local delicacy.
Brazo de Reina (it translates as the Queen’s Arm!) is a tamal made with fresh masa (corn dough) mixed with chaya, hard-boiled eggs and dried pumpkin-seed sauce, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed—making for a delicious fusion of healthy local flavors.
Chaya is one of our favorite ingredients at Atta too—we use chaya grown right here to make refreshing hot-weather drinks, and eggs with chaya.<link to menu? Enjoy them before diving into our sparkling private cenote waters from our restaurant deck. You’ll get a giant boost in nutrition and try something truly unique to our area.
While Chaya can nowadays be found growing around Miami and as far away as Kenya, it’s actually endemic to the Yucatan peninsula—meaning it’s only found naturally right here in the greater Tulum area. Our tropical sun and rocky soil give it the perfect conditions to grow easily!
It may even have been one little part of what helped the Mayan culture flourish. Chaya is such a nutritious mega-superfood that it surely lent the Maya strength to build their famous cities; walk and paddle huge distances between those city-states; and make precise discoveries about the shimmering night sky.
Today, local Maya people continue to celebrate and appreciate this vibrant green wonder food. Ecologists are promoting its cultivation, researching its potential benefits, and ensuring the preservation of traditional knowledge associated with this remarkable plant. Atta is part of those efforts, to keep ancient foodways alive in modern (and totally delicious) recipes.
If you decide to try preparing chaya yourself, just remember: it’s crucial to boil the leaves at least 20 minutes before using them. (Some also recommend drying them or blending them, but we’ll err on the side of caution here!) Boiling also removes any bitter flavor and unlocks more nutrients.
Or, just try chaya at Atta, where our chefs are well-versed in using this magical vegetable. And don’t be surprised if you notice your skin start to take on a special glow. Besides our fresh jungle air and clear cenote waters…it might just be our chaya!
