Sofrito!

Look at how beautiful that is. Up until yesterday, I had no idea what sofrito was. I bought a container of what I thought was green salsa, and upon getting home, I actually read the label/

It is green pepper, red pepper, onion, garlic, culantro, cilantro and tomatoes all diced up super fine. What is culantro? It’s a type of herb used in Latin American cooking.

Culantro (Eryngium foetidum) is native to Latin America and the Caribbean and is related to cilantro. It has tall, stiff, serrated leaves with a prominent central ridge and a more penetrating aroma than cilantro. Culantro is used extensively in Southeast Asia and parts of the Caribbean, especially Cuba and Puerto Rico. In Asia, culantro is most popular in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, where it is commonly used with or instead of cilantro for soups, noodle dishes, and curries. The Vietnamese use it to wrap other foods.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make with it, so I conferred with my friend at work who I thought might be familiar with it. She sent me a link to a recipe, and I adapted mine from that with what I had on hand. I made Chicken Sofrito!!

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 cloves of garlic
1 can diced tomatoes (which I pureed of course!)
1 container of sofrito
1 cup chick peas (or black beans if you want!)
Cooked rice

In a large skillet, I added the garlic with a little Canola oil. I cut up the chicken into cubes so it would cook faster. Once the chicken was cooked, I just poured in the sofrito, the tomatoes and stirred in the chick peas and rice.

Has anyone tried sofrito before, and if so, what have you made with it? For less than $2.50 for this big container, it is an awesome deal!

My whole family devoured this!