Habichuelas Rosadas — The Pink Beans That Start With Perfect Sofrito

This week was about the sofrito, which means this week was about everything, because in my kitchen the sofrito is the beginning and the foundation and the reason. Let me tell you what happened.

Trish — my new dietary aide, the Jamaican girl, remember — asked me what sofrito is. She has been working in my kitchen for six weeks and she asked me what sofrito is. I put down my clipboard. I took off my gloves. I said, Trish, come with me. And I took her to the prep station and I made sofrito right there in the hospital kitchen, which is against no regulation because sofrito is a vegetable base and vegetables are allowed in a hospital kitchen, thank you very much.

I showed her the culantro — different from cilantro, deeper flavor, wider leaf. I showed her the recao. The aji dulce — sweet pepper, no heat, all fragrance. The garlic — six cloves, minimum, and if you are using less than six cloves you are not cooking, you are playing. The onion. The tomato. I put them in the blender and I said, Watch. This is the foundation. This is what everything starts with. You put this in a pot with oil and you let it cook until it smells like someone loves you, and then you add whatever you are making — chicken, beans, rice, pork — and the sofrito makes it Puerto Rican. The sofrito makes it mine.

Trish said, We have something similar in Jamaica. She told me about seasoning paste — scotch bonnet peppers, thyme, scallions, garlic. I listened. I tasted hers the next day when she brought some from home. It was different from sofrito but it was the same idea — a mother base, a grandmother base, the thing that says this food comes from somewhere specific and someone specific made it. I told her, Trish, we are the same. Different islands, different peppers, but the same love in the pot.

Eduardo came home to the smell of sofrito because I made a fresh batch at home too, inspired by the lesson, and I used it to make habichuelas rosadas — pink beans stewed slow with ham hock and potatoes. He ate two bowls and said, This is perfect. I said, Of course it is perfect. The sofrito was perfect. Everything that starts with perfect sofrito becomes perfect food. That is not opinion. That is science. I have a nutrition degree. I know things.

Called Mami. Told her I taught a Jamaican woman to make sofrito. Mami said, Did she like it? I said, She loved it. Mami said, Of course she did. Everybody loves sofrito. Nobody with a working tongue does not love sofrito. Mami is seventy-nine and still dispensing absolute truths from Bayamon. She is not wrong. She has never been wrong about sofrito. She will never be wrong about sofrito. Sofrito is the one thing in this world that is beyond debate.

Eduardo ate two bowls that night, and I want you to be able to do the same thing in your own kitchen—so here is the recipe for the habichuelas rosadas I made after the sofrito lesson with Trish. Start with the sofrito I described above: culantro, recao, aji dulce, six cloves of garlic minimum, onion, tomato, blended smooth. That is not optional. That is the whole point. Everything that follows is just the pot listening to the sofrito.

Habichuelas Rosadas (Puerto Rican Stewed Pink Beans)

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 55 min | Total Time: 1 hr 10 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup sofrito (homemade: blend 1/2 cup culantro or cilantro, 4 aji dulce peppers, 6 cloves garlic, 1/2 white onion, 1 plum tomato until smooth)
• 1 smoked ham hock (about 1 lb)
• 2 cans (15 oz each) pink beans (habichuelas rosadas), drained and rinsed
• 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup water
• 2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 packet (1.41 oz) Sazon con culantro y achiote
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• White rice, for serving

Instructions

1. Build the base. Heat olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the sofrito and cook, stirring frequently, for 5–7 minutes until it deepens in color and smells—in the words of the person who taught me this—like someone loves you.
2. Add the paste and seasoning. Stir in the tomato paste, Sazon packet, and dried oregano. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly, so the paste blooms into the sofrito base.
3. Add the ham hock and liquid. Nestle the ham hock into the pot. Pour in the chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes so the ham hock begins releasing its smoky flavor into the broth.
4. Add the beans and potatoes. Add the drained pink beans and potato chunks. Stir gently to combine. Return to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook for an additional 20–25 minutes until the potatoes are fork-tender and the broth has thickened slightly.
5. Shred and finish. Remove the ham hock. Use two forks to pull the meat from the bone; discard the bone and any excess fat. Return the shredded meat to the pot and stir. Taste for salt and pepper. For a thicker consistency, use the back of a spoon to mash a few beans against the side of the pot and stir them back in.
6. Serve. Ladle generously over white rice. Two bowls is not a problem. Two bowls is the point.

Nutrition (per serving, beans only, without rice)

Calories: 310 | Protein: 22g | Fat: 9g | Carbs: 34g | Fiber: 9g | Sodium: 610mg