Sofrito Puerto Rican Style

Finally, here is my sofrito recipe, that magic ingredient that I’ve used in many of my recipes and which many Puerto Ricans use whenever we make savory dishes, such as sauces, stews, beans, etc. It’s quite easy to make, using fresh vegetables. The only hard part is probably finding some of the ingredients. Some ingredients vary depending upon some recipes, such as I like to use red bell pepper in my recipe (hen I have it) and some don’t. Other use culantro, which should not be confused with cilantro, but it does look like longer leaves of cilantro but the flavor is different. I didn’t use that in this recipe but you can certainly add some if you’d like. I’I also use another peeper variation called Aji Dulce. It’s a small Caribbean pepper that is slightly sweet. I’m making it the way my mama use to make it. The total amount of sofrito can vary depending on how much you use. You can freeze portions using and ice cube molds (you can measure how may teaspoons or tablespoons fit in the cubes or whatever shape mold you have) so that you can use later. It should keep about 3-4 months. I Freeze whatever I have that doesn’t’ fit in my glass jar. The amount I made yielded 33 oz.

Ingredients

• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 bundle of cilantro
• 5-6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 large yellow onion
• 7-8 Aji dulce (you can substitute with the red bell pepper if you can’t find any)

1. Chop all veggies to make it easier to blend. Remove the stems from the aji dulce. I sometimes remove most of the seeds but that optional.

2. Blend sofrito layering the ingredients to get a better blend.

3. Using the pulse feature in the blender or food processor, blend together, pulsing until the ingredients are incorporated. add more and once pulsed into the mixture, mix on low until mixture is fully blended.

4. If the mixture is a little too thick to mix, you can a little water to make it easier to blend. Once it’s all blended, you can transfer into freezer molds or a glass jar and refrigerate.

It’s pretty much ready to use, but I like to refrigerate for a few hours or maybe even a day because all the flavors get a chance to marry and it becomes richer, bolder and darker in color. I hope you give this a try if your interested in making authentic Puerto Rican dishes, but it also works well for stews, chilis, soups, etc., because many of the everyday ingredients are in the mixture which helps cut down on some cooking time. There are other ingredients people add, but this one is my favorite. Let me know what variation you use if you happen to substitute some of the ingredients. I hope you enjoyed and. Thank you for stopping and and Buen Provecho!