Sofrito is a cooking base that is used to flavor many Caribbean recipes. The most important ingredient in authentic sofrito is recao (or culantro). The rest of the ingredients include onions, garlic, and ajies dulces (sweet peppers). Additionally, olives and fancy red peppers add a bit of umami.
Culantro is not the same herb as cilantro. The two have very different tastes; cilantro is much stronger.
Aji dulce (sweet pepper) looks like a green habanero but they taste more like a green bell pepper, just with a milder flavor. If you can’t find aji dulce, use mini sweet peppers instead.
I freeze my sofrito in ice cube trays, transfer into Ziploc bags or plastic containers and store in the freezer for easy use! My ice cube tray makes 2 tablespoon portions of sofrito which is perfect for cooking.
This recipe is from Mama OG.. the OG Puerto Rican Grandma in our family!
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 red peppers, seeded and cut in quarters
- 1 green pepper, seeded and cut in quarters
- 3 large onions, cut in quarters
- 12 aji dulce, seeded and cut in half
- 1 head of garlic (about 8 cloves garlic)
- ¼ cup salad olives
- 20 recao leaves, washed and dried
- 1 can fancy red peppers
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
PROCEDURE:
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor . Process until smooth. Add additional liquid from the fancy red peppers if needed.
- Freeze sofrito in ice cube trays, transfer into Ziploc bags or plastic containers and store in the freezer for easy use!
