Puerto Rican Sofrito is the seasoning sauce and base to most Puerto Rican cooking. Have some stored in your refrigerator or frozen and you will be able to make any Puerto Rican dish you like. From beans, rice and stews, you will always be ready with some in your refrigerator. Very easy to make and done in under ten minutes.
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Sofrito is a Puerto Rican seasoning sauce used extensively in Puerto Rican cooking. Honestly it is the be all end all magic sauce to our dishes.
It is the base to an extensive list of Puerto Rican dishes.
If you have a jar of sofrito ready in your refrigerator at all times , you will be able to make almost any Puerto Rican meal at any time.
Sofrito is that important to Puerto Rican cooking!
It is the seasoning sauce used in creating the best of Puerto Rican dishes, including rice, beans and stews.
Sofrito is very easy to prepare because it is made with simple everyday ingredients, and in under 10 minutes. Honestly, it would be a sin to not have any ready in your refrigerator at all times.
Dishes Using Puerto Rican Sofrito
There are much too many Puerto Rican dishes using sofrito for me to mention here, but here are some really common ones:
Habichuelas Guisadas (Puerto Rican Stewed Beans)
Arroz y Habichuelas (Puerto Rican Rice and Beans)
Arroz Amarillo (Puerto Rican Yellow Rice)
Pollo Guisado (Puerto Rican Chicken Stew)
Ingredients to make Puerto Rican Sofrito
With just a few vegetables and herbs blended together you will have Puerto Rican sofrito ready. The ingredients are blended in a blender, chopper or food processor to form a thick puree.
- Green peppers
- Colored peppers (ají dulces)
- Roma tomatoes
- Onions
- Garlic
- Cilantro
- Culantro
Alternatives to some ingredients used in Puerto Rican sofrito.
* Culantro (also known as recao, flat leaf cilantro, long leaf coriander, cilantro de hoja ancha, saw leafed cilantro) is often confused with its close botanical relative, cilantro. They are completely different both in appearance and flavor.
Culantro brings a tremendous amount of flavor to your sofrito. So if you can find some in your local supermarket, do not skip out on buying some.
However, here in the states culantro is a little hard to find as it is native to Mexico, Central and South America but also thrives in tropical and sub-tropical areas like the Caribbean and Vietnam. Normally you will luck out and find culantro in small Latin and Asian markets.
Alternative…
If you don’t have such luck, well then just double up on the cilantro. Not a problem at all, you will still have a delicious base for any Latin or Puerto Rican dish.
Another hard to find ingredient is “ají dulce” which are small peppers resembling a habanero pepper in appearance just not spicy.
No worries just use a red pepper in it’s place.
How to Make Puerto Rican Sofrito
Begin with rinsing and chopping all the vegetables. Place all in a blender (you may need to do this step in batches depending on how strong your blender is).
Blend until all the vegetables and herbs are blended well together and form a puree.
Note: If sofrito is to hard to blend together, just add a few tablespoons of water, olive oil, vegetable oil to help it along.
I always prefer oil but this is a personal preference.
How to Store Sofrito
Easily store your sofrito in an airtight container and store in the refigerator.
You can also pour sofrito into an ice tray to form “sofrito ice cubes” and then pop out and place in a ziploc bag and freeze.
Each cube is about one tablespoon of sofrito.
You can also freeze in small containers.
Some dishes made with sofrito from right here on the blog are:
Puerto Rican Rice and Beans (Arroz y Habichuelas)
Arroz Mamposteao (“Dirty Rice” and Beans)
Rellenos de Papas (Stuffed Potato Balls)
Pastelón (Puerto Rican Plantain “Lasagna”)
Puerto Rican Sofrito
Ingredients
- 1 green bell pepper rinsed, seeds removed and chopped into big pieces
- 2 roma tomatoes rinsed and chopped
- 1 large onion chopped
- 10 aji peppers or 1 red bell pepper rinsed and coarsely chopped
- whole head of garlic peeled
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro rinsed and coarsely chopped
- 10 culantro leaves or another handful of cilantro rinsed
- 1/4 olive oil or vegetable oil optional
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a blender, food chopper or food processor and blend until well pureed.Note: If sofrito is hard to blend, add a few tablespoons of water or oil.
This sounds delicious and I love that you gave directions how to save it in jar or the ice tray method. I needed a yummy colorful recipe to remind me that spring and summer are just around the corner.
Thanks Kristi!
This seasoning looks perfect for so many mexican dishes!!!
Yes it also will add even more deliciousness to many Mexican meals!
Looks so delicious and perfect to have in the fridge to upgrade any dinner or lunch ♥
Yes!!
Why have I never come across sofrito before?! It sounds delicious and so versatile.
It is! It’s perfect and the absolute “magic base” to so many Puerto Rican dishes.
I love these flavors! Perfect to brighten up any dish and definitely need to keep on hand.
Thanks Jennifer!
How can I fix spicy sofrito?
Hello Maria! I have a couple of suggestions for you that will make your sofrito spicy. Depending on the level of spiciness you’re interested in is how I would choose any one of these ideas. Whichever one you choose, just simply add pepper(s) to the other sofrito ingredients in the blender and blend.
You can add:
1 Ghost Pepper…….very, very spicy
2-3 Serrano Peppers……very spicy
2 Jalapenos…spicy
If you like and have Puerto Rican “pique,” at home, simply add about 1/4 cup and less water to mixture as you are blending the vegetables together for sofrito.
Keep in mind that if you are planning to use the sofrito for lighter dishes such as “Latin or Puerto Rican Spaghetti” the stronger peppers will really be spicy in a dish such as this.
Initially this may be trial and error because you may need to experiment with less or more of whatever pepper you choose until you find your desired level of spiciness! 😊
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions! Thanks for stopping by!