These Habichuelas Guisadas (Puerto Rican Beans) are just delicious! Made with ham or smoked ham hocks, red or pink beans, sofrito and delicious spices in a savory tomato sauce with olives and potatoes. Serve alongside white or yellow rice. A true Puerto Rican staple to most rice dishes! Excellent!
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Beans in Spanish is habichuelas while the word guisadas means stewed. Hence Habichuelas Guisadas!
Puerto Rican Stewed Beans first and foremost are just delicious!
These Puerto Rican beans were a staple in my home growing up. It was a dish that my mom prepared to be served alongside many of our rice dishes. I just love them and truthfully hers are the best in my eyes!
In my own home today, you will find habichuelas guisadas made every single week served with either yellow or white rice.
They make the perfect comfort food when served with rice and any meat or seafood of your choice. Serve with avocado slices, garlic tostones or amarillos or maduros (fried sweet plantain slices) and boy oh boy will your taste buds be oh so happy!
We also serve these delicious beans alongside sorullos or sorullitos. And dunk these fabulous creamy corn sticks in the savory sauce.
If you have never had Puerto Rican style beans, then I can pretty much guarantee that after you have had them, these will also become a staple in your own home.
How to Make Puerto Rican Beans
Habichuelas guisadas are very simple to make and do not require too much time to make. As long as you have followed my advice from a few weeks ago of always keeping a jar of homemade sofrito (a blended vegetable puree) in your fridge you will have a pot of these amazing stewed beans in under 35 minutes!
And if by some chance you didn’t follow this blissful advice 😉 then no worries, you can always quickly whip up a batch in less than ten minutes or even buy store bought sofrito in the Latin section of your supermarket or Amazon.
First lets begin with the ingredients…
Ingredients for Habichuelas Guisadas (Puerto Rican Stewed Beans
- 2 cans of red or pink beans or one large 1lb 13 oz can, rinsed and drained (I use Goya brand)
- paste or tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup steak ham (cubed), 1 smoked ham hock, ham bouillon (1 packet) or 1/4 cup smoked kielbasa sausage
- 1/2 lb of potatoes
- 1/3 cup of onions
- 1/2 cup of green pepper
- 2-3 tbsp of pimiento olives
- 2 heaping tbsp of Puerto Rican sofrito
- 2 garlic cloves
- fresh cilantro (optional if you don’t like cilantro)
- 1/4 teaspoon of oregano
- 1 Sazon with Coriander and Annatto packet (found in the Latin section)
- 1/2 teaspoon of adobo (found in the Latin section)
- oil
- salt
Note: If you live somewhere where you can find fresh culantro, add two leaves chopped to the sauce while cooking. Culantro is another key ingredient in Puerto Rican cooking but is a little bit harder to find. However, if you can find it, your beans will be that much yummier!
In a saucepan or caldero add a 2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat. Saute the ham.
Add sofrito and stir fry with ham for 2 minutes.
Then add the pepper and onions. Cook until slightly translucent and add garlic. Cook for a minute.
Add tomato sauce or paste, olives, cilantro, spices and water.
Add beans and potatoes and season with salt to taste.
Cook for 30 minutes. Top with fresh cilantro once done.
Here’s to Puerto Rican Style Beans! YUM
What to Serve Habichuelas Guisadas With
Serve with white or yellow rice and a meat of your choice. Some ideas are….
- Fried pork chops or Pork Chops Braised in a Fresh Tomato Salsa
- Fried chicken or Pollo Guisado (Puerto Rican Chicken Stew)
- Ropa vieja (shredded beef)
- Fried fish, stewed fish
- Camarones a la Diabla (Mexican Deviled Shrimp) or Camarones al Chipolte (Chipotle Shrimp), Camarones Fritos con Crema de Chipotle (Fried Shrimp with Chipotle Cream Sauce)
- or simply serve yourself a bowl of rice and beans and make a meal of itself!
For leftover beans, you must try Arroz Mamposteao (Dirty Rice with Beans)! Excellent!
For More Delicious Puerto Rican Recipes
Puerto Rican Rice and Beans (Arroz con Habichuelas)
Pastelón (Puerto Rican Plantain “Lasagna”)
Garlic Tostones (Fried Garlic Plantains) great as a snack or side dish to all Latin meals
Sorullitos (Fried Corn Sticks) with a our delicious famous MayoKetchup Sauce, made with just 3 ingredients.
Pastelillos de Guayaba (Guava Pastries) perfect for breakfast, snack or dessert. My favorite Puerto Rican pastry!!!
Rellenos de Papa (Stuffed Potato Balls) one of my absolute favorites!!!
- 2 cans red or pink beans or one large 1lb 13 oz can rinsed and drained, I use Goya brand
- 4 ounces tomato sauce or 1 heaping tsp of tomato paste
- 1/4 cup ham steak cubed
- 1/2 pound potatoes peeled and cut into large chunks
- 1/3 cup onions chopped
- 1/2 cup green pepper chopped
- 2-3 tbsp pimiento stuffed olives
- 2 heaping tbsp of Puerto Rican sofrito
- 2 garlic cloves chopped or thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro optional if you don't like cilantro
- 1/4 tsp oregano
- 1 packet Sazón with Coriander and Annatto (Culantro y Achoite) found in the Latin section
- 1/2 tsp Adobo found in the Latin section
- 2 tbsp oil
- salt to taste
- In a saucepan or caldero add a 2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat. Saute the ham.
Add sofrito and stir fry with ham for 2 minutes.
Then add the pepper and onions. Cook until slightly translucent.
Add garlic and cook for a minute.
Add tomato sauce or paste, olives, cilantro and spices and water.
Add beans and potatoes and season with salt to taste. Cook for 30 minutes.
Top with fresh cilantro once done. Done.
Serve alongside white or yellow rice with pork, chicken, beef or seafood.
Note* If you do not have any homemade sofrito or are not in the mood to make any, you can purchase store bought ready sofrito by Goya brand in a red jar.
You can also use one smoked ham hock, ham bouillon or smoked kielbasa instead of ham.
These look so delicious! Adding these to the dinner menu!
Thanks Taylor! Wonderful!!
I adore every kind of bean I’ve tried and these look wonderful! I’ve never tried Puerto Rican beans before, but I need to because all of the flavours in here look a winning combination!
You will not regret giving them a try!
I have never tried Puerto Rican beans before, but seeing that we love all kind of bean dishes in the house, I bet this will get devoured in no time. Time to do some shopping.
Great!! You will not be disappointed!
That looks like a really hearty bean dish with loads of flavour. Definitely giving it a go soon!
You’re belly will be happy! 🙂