New Recipe: Mami's Sofrito

Growing up, my sisters and I would help my mom do the prep work to make a big batch of sofrito (pronounced so-free-toe lol) whenever she was running low. She kept in a big plastic container in the fridge & it still amazes me that I've never seen sofrito "go bad". Well, I know that I've carried on this tradition as an adult (minus the 3 daughters to help me prep lol). It's a staple in every Puerto Rican household, well at the ones in my family! I will often use it as an ingredient in my recipes I post, so obviously, I have to share the sofrito recipe. I'm going to give you the "big batch" version & you can always scale it down.

Mami's Sofrito

WW Points Plus: 0

Ingredients
6-7 green bell peppers, seeded & chunked
6-7 tomatoes (about the same size as the bell peppers you pick out), chunked
6-7 yellow onions (about the same size as the tomatoes & bell peppers), chunked
6-7 heads of garlic, peeled
1 bunch of fresh cilantro, washed
Water, oregano, salt & pepper as needed
(Optional ingredients)
A pack of ajices dulces (small sweet peppers), seeded
Scotch bonnet peppers to your desired hotness **see warning in the notes

Directions

1. Start by putting a handful each of onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, and garlic into the blender jar. Add some of the cilantro, oregano & a little bit of salt & pepper. Add just enough water to get the blending started (I would start with 1/8 of a cup).

2. Blend until it's the consistency of a purée. If your blender isn't full if purée, keep the blender going & add in equal amounts of each ingredient through the hole in the jar lid EXCEPT the water, salt, pepper & oregano.

3. Once the blender is pretty full, pour out almost all of the sofrito into an air-tight storage container. Leave just enough in the blender jar to get the next round blended (this now replaces the water from Step 1).

4. Repeat Steps 1-3, minus the water, until you have no more peppers, onions, tomatoes, garlic & cilantro left.

NOTES

- This recipe is very flexible! I love garlic so I usually have more garlic than I do the other ingredients.

- If you want your sofrito to be spicy, that's what the optional Scotch Bonnet peppers are for. **WARNING** Do not seed the Scotch Bonnets with your bare hands... SERIOUSLY, your skin & nails will be burning like crazy & if you then accidentally rub your eyes - YOWZA! I speak from experience! I couldn't get it off my hands for almost a week :-(

- We use sofrito for lots of different things, including but not limited to, the base for yellow rice, marinating pork roasts & turkeys, a base for stewed beans/meats.

- The sofrito will be a bright, light green or possibly have a light reddish tint when you first make it. It will change to a darker color after a few days in the fridge. Don't freak out, it's still good & I've had a batch last me a whole year (but then again it is just me in my house lol).

- Sometimes my mom would use cleaned, empty spaghetti sauce jars to store the sofrito & give to her friends. Once you start loving sofrito, you're gonna want to share it's yummy goodness with others, so save your spaghetti jars LOL