Description
Enhance your dishes with Puerto Rican sofrito! A blend of peppers, cilantro, culantro, garlic, and onions with citrus juice and cumin. Perfect for flavorful meals.
Ingredients
2 green bell peppers, roughly chopped
2 cubanelle peppers, roughly chopped
1 red bell pepper, roughly chopped
15 Aji Dulces (peppers), chopped in half
2 bunches cilantro
2 bunches culantro (recao)
2 heads garlic
1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
1 medium red onion, roughly chopped
juice of 1 orange
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Instructions
- Roughly chop 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.
- Place half of your chopped ingredients in a food processor 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 in my 14-cup food processor to prevent it from overflowing or going over maximum capacity. Depending on how big your processor or blender is, you may need to split it into more batches.
- Cut your lemon and orange in half. Using a fork, pierce the flesh of the orange and lemon. This helps to extract more juice quickly. Squeeze the juice from the orange and lemon into your sofrito mixture. Sprinkle the cumin into the mixture and stir until everything is well combined.
- Store the sofrito in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, or place it in ice trays, wrap it with plastic wrap, and freeze. Once frozen, place the sofrito cubes in a Ziploc bag and leave them in the freezer. Use them in your meals as necessary.
Equipment
Buy Now → Notes
Freezing the Sofrito into little ice cubes makes it super easy and accessible to use in Caribbean dishes.
I use a food processor to break down the vegetables, herbs, and aromatics. However, you can use a blender if you like. A food processor is just my preference because it leaves the sofrito a little chunkier, and I’ve always done it this way.
Aji dulces can be found in most Hispanic grocery stores or Asian markets. Although I deem them to be the most important ingredient, if you cannot find them, you can substitute them with another large Green Bell Pepper.
Culantro is also known as Recao, long coriander, or sawtooth coriander. It is found in Hispanic and Asian grocery stores; however, each bunch can be substituted with two bunches of cilantro.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Blending, Processing
- Cuisine: Puerto Rican
