Puerto Rican Sofrito

Name: Puerto Rican Sofrito
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Cuisine: Puerto Rican
Ingredients: 1 yellow onion; 1 green bell pepper; 4 cloves garlic; 1 cup cilantro (you can also use ½ cup of culantro if you have it!); 1 jalapeno (optional)

★★★★★ from 8 reviews

Mar 1, 2020 / by Salima Benkhalti / 21 Comments(updated Mar 30, 2023)

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Learn how to make my family's version of Puerto Rican Sofrito and use it as an easy and flavorful base for stews, rice dishes, and more! It comes together with a few easy ingredients in less than 10 minutes.

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If you've ever tried any Puerto Rican recipes, chances are you've had sofrito.

While you can find it at select grocers and online, it's on another level entirely when made fresh, and surprisingly easy to make.

It's commonly used as a base to build flavor in recipes that are staples in Puerto Rican culture like this Arroz con Pollo and Picadillo.

Ingredients

I like to think of Sofrito as like the latin equivalent to what is known in French cuisine as Mire Poix.

It's a beautiful blend of alliums, herbs and veggies, blended up, stored in your fridge and ready to use as a soup starter, rice flavoring, or stew base.

Traditional Puerto Rican Sofrito uses a combination of these ingredients:

onion
garlic
cilantro
culantro
sweet peppers
bell peppers

Culantro is an herb that is basically a cousin to cilantro in flavor and smell.

This along with sweet peppers can be difficult to find, so we are making this recipe a bit more accessible by using cilantro and bell peppers instead. If you know a Spanish store or product stand where you can find culantro and other varieties of sweet peppers, feel free to add in a small handful and a pepper or two!

Depending on which Puerto Rican family you're eating with, this recipe will vary.

In addition to the more traditional ingredients listed above, my mom will sometimes throw a jalapeno or serrano pepper in for some added spice.

Some Puerto Ricans will go heavy on the spice while others prefer to use only sweet peppers. Others may even add in whole ripe tomatoes to the mix, so don't be afraid to experiment with this and adjust the flavors to make something you will love!

How to make sofrito

Making sofrito is one of the easiest Puerto Rican recipes you will ever make. It requires a knife, a cutting board and a food processor.

A food processor with ingredients for sofrito — Start by prepping your ingredients. Remove any seeds and stems from the peppers, and toss them into your food processor. With the peppers, add in a roughly chopped onion, some peeled cloves of garlic, your cilantro and get pulsing!

a food processor full of sofrito — I let my go-to food processor do all the work here and the recipe comes together in less than 5 minutes.

Where to Use it

One batch of this sofrito makes enough for several uses, so let's dive in to some of my favorite recipes to use your leftovers in:

Puerto Rican Rice and Beans (Arroz con Gandules) - an easy vegan dish to dip your toes into the Sofrito party!
Arroz con Pollo- this classic Puerto Rican dish is the perfect example of how to use sofrito in rice dishes!
Steak Stuffed Avocados - as if this dish wasn't already full of flavor, using Sofrito to cook your steak adds a level of spice that is truly unmatched.
Empanadillas - these picadillo stuffed empanadas start with a generous spoonful of Sofrito
Alcapurria - this fried Puerto Rican delicacy uses picadillo filling, which like many of the recipes above, starts with our delicious sofrito

And don't forget, you can freeze any leftovers in ice cube trays so they keep longer! Thanks to Illyanna Maisonet for that life saving trick.

More Uses for Sofrito

If you're not in the mood to hit the grocery store and plan an entire meal around this ingredient, not to worry! There are plenty of more casual uses for sofrito that help to produce maximum flavor.

Here are some of my favorite uses:

Sofrito as a base for soups & stews - sofrito makes a super flavorful base to almost any savory dish you would use onions and garlic in.
Stuffed in things - similar to my empanadillas recipe, sofrito makes an excellent addition to anything you're adding a filling to. Think empanadas, dumplings, and fritters.
Sofrito as a sauce - swirl a spoonful of this stuff into your sauce and taste the impact of the garlic, onion, peppers and herbs.
As a dip - this isn't exactly conventional in Puerto Rico, but the ingredients and flavor profile matches that of a salsa. This makes the recipe wonderful with some crispy corn chips or just about anything you'd dip into salsa.

Don't let a drop of this delicious ingredient go to waste! Experiment with it and see what you can create.

Recaito vs. Sofrito

What's the difference between recaito and sofrito?

Many people who love Puerto Rican cuisine may get confused about the difference between the two recipes. The truth is that they are very similar.

Both are made with a blend of aliums, veggies and herbs that result in big flavor.

The main differences I've noticed in the variations I've had is the use of tomato and spicy peppers. At the end of the day, I will happily eat any dish made with either recaito or sofrito.

Buen provecho!

Salima