Puerto Rican Sofrito Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is Puerto Rican sofrito made of? ›

This Puerto Rican version of sofrito—there are many different geographical variations—is a fresh mixture of onions, cubanelle peppers, garlic, cilantro, ajices dulces,* cilantro, culantro,* tomatoes, and red pepper quickly chopped into a fine paste in a food processor.

With cilantro and culantro (also know as recao), Puerto Rican Sofrito is a fresh, herbaceous blend, usually dark green in color and referred to as Recaito. In the Dominican Republic, some Sofrito recipes call for the addition of fresh tomatoes or tomato paste, giving the base a muted yellowish-green hue.

If you can't find it, use red bell pepper. Recao is a popular Caribbean herb with many aliases: culantro, long coriander, ngo-gai, and Mexican coriander. It can be found in Latin grocery stores. You can substitute cilantro.

Sofrito—a fragrant paste of peppers, onions, garlic, herbs, and spices—is a building block of Puerto Rican flavor. It is added to most savory dishes before the main ingredients are added. Most home cooks make a big batch of sofrito, and add it by the spoonful to their recipes, refrigerating or freezing the rest.

Sofrito is a Spanish word that means “lightly fried”. You can cook some sofrito to eat as a stew or use it as a richly seasoned base for soups and sauces. It can be made in large batches and then divvied up and frozen for future use.

Storing. There are a few different ways I like to store my sofrito. Fresh sofrito can last in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Dominican sofrito, called sazon, uses vinegar for a flavor punch and annatto for color. Cuban sofrito uses tomatoes and red bell peppers for sweetness and added color, and it also includes diced ham.

sofrito, puree of Catalonian origin that is also common in Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Latin American cuisine. Made of lightly sautéed vegetables (such as onion, green pepper, and carrots), it is used as the foundation and flavour base of tomato sauces, paella, and other dishes.

Salsa would be inappropriate in dishes where it might compete with the major flavor of that dish, while sofrito would not. That said, it's possible a less strongly flavored salsa could be substituted for sofrito, if it's what you have available.

Take a handful of cilantro and tear the leaves from the stems by twisting them with your other hand, and you're done prepping it. Don't add too much of the cilantro stems to the sofrito because it makes it taste bitter.

Why is sofrito good for you? ›

The combination of tomato, olive oil, garlic and onion in a sofrito increases the amount of polyphenols and carotenoids. These bioactive compounds respectively help to prevent cardiovascular diseases and cancer. This study confirms sofrito as an essential part of the Mediterranean diet.

If you don't have a food processor, with a sharp chef knife chop the veggies individually into almost a slurry, and mix together in a large bowl.

While there are many ways to eat mofongo, it's typically served with chicken, shrimp or beans and rice. For a traditional dish found across Puerto Rico, you can't go wrong with mofongo.

The vibrancy of Puerto Rican culture comes alive in its dishes, a celebration of flavors that visitors have the opportunity to indulge in. Some of the favorites are mofongo, tostones, pasteles, arroz con gandules, tembleque, and coquito.

They're pronounced the same [soh-FREE-toh]. Italy's soffritto is built around onions, celery and bell peppers. Spain's sofrito traditionally contains onions, bell pepper, garlic, salt pork and annatto seeds.

Sofrito contains many anti-inflammatory compounds, thanks to the variety of vegetables, olive oil, and how they all interact with each other. One clinical trial in men demonstrated an improvement in anti-inflammatory biomarkers for 24 hours after eating a single serving of sofrito (8).

Please read my disclosure policy. Sofrito is a flavorful Latin American sauce made with aromatic ingredients like onion, garlic, peppers, and herbs for a punch of savory flavor. It's used as a favor base for soups, rice dishes, stews and more.

Think of it this way: Sofrito is typically used to start a dish as an ingredient in cooking and is more of a puree, whereas salsa is thicker, is served raw, and used to finish a dish or serve on its own.