National Dishes of the World

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Arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas)
Photo: USDAgov, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

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Arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas)

arroz con gandules

Rice turned golden with achiote and cooked with pigeon peas, sofrito, pork, olives and capers – the heart of a Puerto Rican holiday.

Eaten in: Puerto Rico

Prep
20 min
Cooking
50 min
Total
1 h 10 min
Servings
8

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About the dish

Arroz con gandules is rice cooked with pigeon peas (gandules), a legume that reached the Caribbean from Africa and is hugely popular here. The dish starts with sofrito – a blended paste of ají dulce peppers, culantro, onion, garlic and sweet pepper – fried with pieces of pork or ham and with achiote oil, which turns the rice golden. Alcaparrado, a mix of olives and capers, and tomato sauce go in as well. The rice is cooked in a wide, heavy pot (caldero), and the most coveted part is the crisp, toasted layer at the bottom, called pegao. Arroz con gandules is regarded as one of the island's national dishes and is a must during the holiday season, next to roast pork, pasteles and coquito.

Main ingredients

  • medium-grain rice
  • pigeon peas (gandules)
  • sofrito
  • pork or ham
  • achiote
  • olives
  • capers

Puerto Rico: With roast pork (pernil), an essential part of the Puerto Rican holiday table.

More: Wikipedia (en)

Recipe

Arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas)

https://foodmap.ominuvo.com/dish/arroz-con-gandules

Ingredients

8 servings

8 servings

Method

  1. Blend the onion, pepper, garlic and coriander to a thick paste – this is your sofrito.

  2. In a wide, heavy-based pot, warm the oil with the achiote until it turns orange (remove the seeds if using them). Fry the ham for 3–4 minutes.

  3. Add the sofrito and fry for 5 minutes, stirring. Add the passata, olives, capers, oregano and bay leaf and cook for 2 minutes.

  4. Add the rinsed rice and stir to coat it in the sauce. Add the pigeon peas with their liquid and enough water to cover the rice by about 1.5 cm. Season with salt.

  5. Cook uncovered over medium heat until the liquid has reduced to the level of the rice. Stir once gently from the bottom, then cover tightly (for example with foil and a lid).

  6. Cook over very low heat for 25–30 minutes without stirring until the rice is tender and a crisp pegao has formed on the bottom. Fluff with a fork before serving.

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