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Sweet Sofrito

Puerto Rican Sofrito

The green, garlicky base of Puerto Rican cooking: onion, cubanelle, ají dulce, culantro and cilantro.

By Wanda Oyola 20 min Easy

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Recipe in testing: I'm cooking it in my TM7™ and will update the steps and the photo with my own.

A glass jar and an ice cube tray filled with bright green Puerto Rican sofrito, with ají dulce and culantro beside them.

Sofrito is the fragrant green base behind arroz con gandules, habichuelas guisadas, asopao and so many other Puerto Rican dishes. It is a mix of onion, mild cubanelle peppers, sweet ají dulce, plenty of garlic and two herbs: culantro, also called recao, and cilantro. One batch flavors weeks of meals.

The Thermomix® TM7™ chops the garlic first, then the peppers and onion, then the herbs, so everything ends up evenly fine without turning into juice. Look for ají dulce and culantro at Sedano's, Latin markets and many Publix stores in Central Florida. Freeze the sofrito in ice cube trays and you will always have a cube ready to go.

Made in the Thermomix® TM7™

Puerto Rican Sofrito

Makes: About 700 g (3 cups), or 24 frozen cubes

  • Prep20 min
  • Cook0 min
  • Total20 min
  • Serves24

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Place the garlic in the mixing bowl and chop 5 sec/speed 7. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with the spatula.
  2. Add the onion, cubanelle peppers and ají dulce and chop 5 sec/speed 5. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
  3. Add the culantro and cilantro and chop 10 sec/speed 6.
  4. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and check the texture. For a finer, saucier sofrito, chop 5 sec/speed 6 more.
  5. Spoon the sofrito into clean glass jars for the fridge, or into ice cube trays for the freezer (see the tips).

Tips

  • To freeze: fill ice cube trays with the sofrito (about 2 tbsp per cube), freeze until solid, then pop the cubes into a freezer bag. They keep about 3 months, and you can drop them straight into the pot.
  • In the fridge, sofrito keeps about 1 week in a closed glass jar. The color darkens a little, but the flavor holds.
  • To cook with it in the TM7, start your recipe with 15 g olive oil (1 tbsp) and 2 frozen cubes of sofrito: sauté 5 min/120°C (250°F)/speed 1, then add your rice, beans or meat and keep going. Two cubes flavor a pot that serves 4 to 6.
  • Can't find ají dulce? Use 100 g red bell pepper instead (ají dulce is sweet, not hot). If there is no culantro, use twice the cilantro.

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