Puerto Rican Sofrito (Made with Easy-to-Find Ingredients)

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Sofrito is a staple in Puerto Rican cooking and is used to season many dishes, from rice and beans to stews and braised meats. This vegetable paste is made with bell peppers, onions, herbs, and plenty of garlic. Since some traditional ingredients are not always easy to find year-round (and here in Vancouver, Canada), I have created an adapted sofrito recipe using ingredients that are easy to find in grocery stores, while still honouring the authentic recipe.

Uses and Variations of Sofrito

Sofrito is an essential ingredient in Puerto Rican cooking, and once you make it yourself, it is easy to understand why. It consists of a blend of peppers, herbs, onion, garlic, and olive oil forms the flavour base of many recipes such as Pernil (roasted pork shoulder), Arroz con Gandules, and more. It is not meant to be used or eaten on its own, but is meant to be added to recipes to build depth and add lots of flavour.

Like many traditional recipes, there isn’t just one recipe for sofrito. Through my countless hours of research and testing, I discovered just how many variations there are. Some versions rely solely on red bell peppers for a deeper colour, others use cubanelle peppers instead of green bell peppers. Some cooks even add tomato, lemon juice, olives, or even orange juice to shift the flavour profile. After experimenting with several approaches, and using what I had access to here in Canada, this version became my favourite.

Ingredients and Adaptations

The base of this sofrito consists of three simple and widely accessible ingredients: green bell peppers, yellow onion, and lots of garlic. From there, I have substituted traditional ingredients with what is available locally. Here are my substitutions:

Aji Dulce Peppers → Red Bell Peppers: Aji dulce peppers are used to provide a sweet, gently smoky flavour, but they are not always easy to find in Vancouver (especially in winter). To recreate that balance, I include a red bell pepper, which adds sweetness without overpowering the herbs
Culantro → Cilantro: Culantro is a herb that is used often in Caribbean and Southern Asian cooking. It has a deep, more pungent flavour than cilantro. Since I usually only see culantro available locally in Asian grocery stores (and garden centres) the summer months, I rely on cilantro instead. I use several bunches and include the stems for maximum flavour.

To finish the sofrito, I season it with salt, black pepper, olive oil, and dried oregano, then blend everything until a nice fine vegetable paste forms.

How to Store Sofrito

This recipe makes a generous batch, which is exactly how sofrito is meant to be made. I like to keep a small jar in the fridge to use in recipes I make during the week. I find that it will only last for about a week in the fridge– after that, the freshness is lost. However, sofrito can easily be frozen to keep its flavours fresh and vibrant.

I prefer to freeze my sofrito in plastic ziptop bags. Pour the sofrito in, flatten it out into a 1 centimetre-thick slab. Remove all the air from the bag, seal, and place in the freezer so that it freezes in a flat sheet. Once frozen, it is easy to break off a piece and add it directly to a pan or thaw in a bowl and use whenever a recipe calls for it. Having sofrito on hand makes weeknight cooking faster and more flavourful, and can easily add Puerto Rican flavours to your everyday meals!

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