Sofrito is an an aromatic blend of vegetables and herbs used in a lot of Puerto Rican dishes as a cooking base such as arroz con gandules and pollo guisado to name a few. It's like the secret ingredients used for building flavor in numerous dishes. Making it smells good but once it hits hot oil when cooking, it's a whole different level. You can find it jarred in the international section of your local grocery store or in a hispanic grocery store.
Anyone will tell you that fresh homemade sofrito is always best. There are many different variations of sofrito based on the latin american country that is making it. There is cuban sofrito and dominican sofrito which has the same main ingredients but subtle changes make it unique. Some make it in big batches or small batches depending how frequently it is being used. Storing a small portion in the fridge is good if you will be using it soon and often but freezing it is the way to go for future use. Taking small portions and making ice cubes of sofrito is very convenient and easy to grab out of plastic zip-top bags. Once you make it, you'll be sure to always have some on hand.
Sofrito Ingredients
Green Bell Peppers- These pepper will add no spice and keeps the color of the sofrito consistent with the herbs. If you can find them, aji dulces or cubanelle peppers (italian frying peppers) would be a good pepper or mini sweet peppers if you wanted to add that flavor to your sofrito. If you wanted to add some color to your sofrito, add a red bell pepper.
Cilantro- More commonly found than culantro. Would suggest using more if you are not using culantro.
Culantro- Not to be mistaken with cilantro. It's also known as recao. I was lucky enough to for this at farmers market near by. You can also find it in asian markets as ngo gai.
Yellow Onion- This is used as an aromatic and adds a bite.
Garlic- This is used as an aromatic and brings tons of flavor.
Let's Make Some Sofrito Sauce!
Rough chop green bell pepper, onions, cilantro and culantro. Peel head of garlic to individual garlic cloves.
Add all ingredients to a food processor or blender and mix until finely chopped.
Pour into a glass airtight container like a mason jar or into ice cube trays and freeze to store longer in a freezer bag.
Recipes Using Sofrito
Easy Sofrito
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1 head garlic
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 6 culantro leaves
Instructions
- Rough chop green bell pepper, onions, cilantro and culantro. Peel head of garlic to individual garlic cloves.
- Add all ingredients to a food processor or blender and mix until finely chopped.
- Pour into a glass airtight container like a mason jar or into ice cube trays and freeze to store longer in a freezer bag.
Video
Leave a Reply