Puerto Rican recipes usually start with Sofrito. It’s the foundation of just about every soup, stew, or sauce in any Puerto Rican cookbook. Used as a base it’s the first thing into the cooking pot or used as a topping on grilled meat and fish. There are many variations of this recipe, but a basic sofrito recipe is made from ingredients that are easy to find in any grocery store.
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Sofrito Recipe from Cocina Criolla
Ingredients
- 2 medium green bell peppers stemmed and seeded
- 1 medium red bell pepper stemmed and seeded
- 2 large tomatoes
- 2 medium onions peeled
- 1 head garlic peeled
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1/2 bunch fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Gather the ingredients. Sofrito recipe ingredients
- Chop the ingredients into sizes that are small enough to fit into a food processor or blender. You don’t have to dice them finely as you will be processing them. Focus on removing the seeds and any tougher stems that might leave grit in the finished sofrito.Chopping garlic and onion
- Place the chopped ingredients into a food processor or blender. You can process in batches if your food processor isn’t big enough to accommodate everything at once. Put chopped ingredients into a blender
- Blend all ingredients well. You want the finished sofrito to be finely processed. If you’re not familiar with sofrito, think of it as being the consistency of pesto, a thick paste. Blend well
- Once blended, your sofrito is ready to use. For immediate use, store the sofrito in a glass container. Plastic containers are not ideal because plastic will absorb the odor of garlic and onions. Fresh sofrito in jars
- Use the sofrito with rice, stews, beans, or protein and enjoy.
Notes
If you find it necessary to add liquid, you may add water or olive oil a tablespoon at a time while blending. Use as little liquid as possible, because you don’t want the sofrito to be too runny. The tomatoes will provide some juice, so you may want to ensure they are in the mix before adding any liquid.
For future use, you can freeze the sofrito to use at any time. Depending on how much you use in a recipe, you may want to freeze it in 1/4 to 1/2 cup portions or freeze it in an ice-cube tray for 2-tablespoon cubes. After the cubes are frozen, place them in a freezer bag. They should be good for up to a year frozen.
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