The real secret behind the flavor of Puerto Rican dishes is the Puerto Rican Sofrito. Used to make anything from soups, stews, rice, and much more.
What is Sofrito?
Sofrito is the base of many Puerto Rican recipes which gives the food a delicious taste. A classic authentic Puerto Rican sofrito is made with blended raw onions, garlic, peppers, aji dulces, cilantro, and most important culantro.
For Puerto Ricans sofrito is as important as the seasoning mix sazon, an all purpose seasoning adobo because with these we can make practically any savory dish.
My favorite recipe to use sofrito is in rice and beans a lo boricua or my holiday favorite Puerto Rican arroz con gandules.
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Why This Recipe Works
The sofrito can be used when making any savory recipes like:
- Traditional Puerto Rican- stewed corned beef
- Vegetable dishes– stewed habichuelas
- Beef recipes– carne guisada in a Puerto Rican style
- Hearty soups– Puerto Rican shrimp soup
- Rice pots– rice & ribs
Recipe Ingredients
The hardest ingredients to find will be the recao and ajies. Check your local supermarket first then go to a Latin or Asian supermarket. The ajies I usually buy fresh from Etsy.
- Recao(Culantro)- While some people suggest substituting with cilantro, I don’t because it will no longer have the authentic Puerto Rican taste. But you can also make a sofrito without recao and it will still give food a good flavor. Learn more about recao.
- Ajies Dulces- Ajies dulces come in different shades of red, green, orange, and yellow. When on the hunt for ajies, make sure you ask to see if you got the right one, or else you can end up like me. Once by mistake, I bought a bag of small habanero peppers thinking they were ajices, and ended up with what they call jalapeño hands.
- Cilantro- I used a bunch of cilantro just as it comes from the grocery store.
- Cubanelle peppers- These peppers are widely available, sometimes called Italian frying peppers. Most of the time, they’re in the same area as the green peppers at grocery stores.
- Green bell peppers and Red bell peppers- I used one of each color but if you don’t want to give the sofrito a red color use both green.
- Yellow Onion- I used 1 yellow onion but you can also use white onion.
- Garlic cloves- I used 12 fresh cloves of garlic. I suggest not using a garlic paste, only fresh garlic.
Substitutions & Variations
- When trying to substitute ajies you can use a half pound of mini sweet peppers of all colors. They have a sweet taste and are not spicy at all.
- When making this recipe I use water to blend better all the vegetables. A good variation to use is an oil infused with achiote instead of water.
How To Make Puerto Rican Sofrito
- Photo 1: Remove all the seeds from all of your peppers. I roughly chop the vegetables to make it easier on my blender but it is optional.
- Photo 2: Use a blender or a food processor to blend all the vegetables. Add a little bit of everything or do it in batches if everything doesn’t fit. Store in fridge or freezer.
Recipe Tips
- It is best to store sofrito in a disposable container because the smell is hard to remove from plastic.
- Avoid using freezer bags to store sofrito. This is because if the bag breaks, then your fridge or freezer will be smelly for a few days.
- Fill each hole of an ice cube tray with 2 tablespoons of sofrito, freeze and you have portion sofrito ready to go!
Frequently Asked Questions
Fresh sofrito can last 1 month in your fridge. But being honest I had it for longer. In the freezer, it can last up to six months(that is the longest I had it for). The best way to store sofrito is in disposable containers because other materials tend to hold the smell. I also use a glass jar when keeping the sofrito in the fridge because it can break once frozen.
Depending on who you ask you’ll get different answers. But where I come from which is Puerto Rico, recaito and sofrito are the same thing. This is because they both have to have onions, peppers, garlic, cilantro, and recao. So is essentially the same thing with a different name.
Many countries have their own version of a sofrito base. In Spain, sofrito is made with onions, garlic, tomato, red pepper, olive oil, and salt. In France, there’s the mirepoix which is a base made of chopped onions, carrots, and celery. Here in the US, we have the holy trinity which is the base of many Cajun dishes made with onion, celery, and green pepper.
Sofrito actually comes from Spain according to the Brittanica website. Then it was brought to the Caribbean after the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The word sofrito comes from the Spanish verb sofreir which means to sautee in a little bit of fat.
Recipes to Use Sofrito In
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Puerto Rican Sofrito
Ingredients
Instructions
- Wash all your ingredients and roughly chop.
- Add your ingredients to a blender or food processor and mix. If big enough, you can add them all together, or you can do it in batches.
- Mix well until everything is well incorporated but your mix still has some texture.
- Store accordingly.
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Stephenie says
Hi Ari, thanks for pointing that out. The measurements is in tablespoons. It yields about 4 cups.
Ari says
Hi, Stephenie. Is the total serving based on cups, tablespoons, etc? It says the recipe makes 48 servings.