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Growing up in a household with a Puerto Rican Mom and a Black Dad really set me up for culinary greatness. Food has always been a major part of my life and it took me a long time to realize that observing my parents cook not only taught me about food, but about tradition & culture.
Today, I am going to share with you my recipe for Sofrito. It is used as a delicious starting point in Puerto Rican cooking. A strong base, if you will. You can find it in many dishes such as Arroz Con Gandules (rice and pigeon peas), Pollo Guisado (stewed chicken), soups, stews, you name it!
There aren’t hard rules to making sofrito because you can substitute some ingredients if you don’t have everything on hand. This includes:
Aji Dulces : These little peppers are a sweet staple in any sofrito. Not to be confused with Jamaican Hot Peppers (because they look exactly the same, but taste extremely different. Please be careful & check what kind you’re purchasing). These little guys can be found in most Hispanic grocery stores, but if you cannot find them, you can substitute with another large Green Bell Pepper.
Culantro : Otherwise known as Recao. I call this cilantro’s older, more feisty sister. It has great flavor that is more pungent than cilantro, but in the same category of taste. This is found in Hispanic and Asian grocery stores, however each bunch can be substituted with a bunch of cilantro.
If you can source these ingredients, I highly recommend using them to get the best possible batch of Sofrito. I hope you enjoy. Happy eating!
Puerto Rican Sofrito
- Total Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 Green Bell Peppers (chopped in large pieces)
- 2 Green Italian Peppers (chopped in large pieces)
- 1 Red Bell Pepper (chopped in large pieces)
- 15 Aji Dulces (peppers)
- 2 bunches Cilantro
- 2 bunches Culantro (Recao)
- 2 heads Garlic
- 1 medium Yellow Onion (chopped in large pieces)
- 1 medium Red Onion (chopped in large pieces)
- 1 Orange
- 1 Lemon
- 1/2 tsp Cumin
Instructions
- Rough chop all of the vegetables and herbs into large pieces and peel the garlic cloves, leaving them whole. Leave the orange, lemon, and cumin to the side for later.
- In a food processor, place in half of your ingredients and pulse until everything is finely chopped. Pour the mixture into a large bowl and begin to process the remaining vegetables and herbs. I do this in two batches to prevent my food processor from overflow/ going over maximum capacity. Add processed mixture with the rest of your sofrito.
- Cut your lemon and orange in half. Using a fork, pierce the flesh of the orange and lemon. This helps to get more juice out of it quickly. Squeeze the juice from the orange and lemon into your sofrito mixture. Sprinkle the cumin into the mixture & stir until everything is well combined.
- Store sofrito in an airtight container and place in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, or place sofrito into ice trays, wrap with plastic wrap, and freeze. Once frozen, place sofrito cubes into a ziploc bag and leave in the freezer. Use in your meals as necessary.
Notes
Freezing the Sofrito into little ice cubes makes it super easy and accessible to use in caribbean dishes.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Main Course
- Cuisine: Puerto Rican
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