Habichuelas Con Dulce 2 Ways: Traditional and Flipped
- April 2021
- By Naihomy Jerez
- Recipe from Dominican Republic
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- (3)
Habichuelas con dulce has forever been a family-favorite Easter sweet treat in the family of Naihomy Jerez, one of our favorite Dominican cocineras. The New Yorker remembers her Dominican mom making her family-famous recipe of the dessert and trading different versions with friends, comadres and cousins.
“I’d sample all of them every year to see which I liked best,” remembers Naihomy, who is the founder and owner of her own food guidance consulting company specializing in Latino nutrition and diet. Naihomy’s wellness superpower is flipping favorite traditional dishes into healthy 2.0 versions (all the flavor, less calories, more healthy goodness), so her clients can continue to enjoy our platos favoritos and lose weight and feel better in our skin.
But don’t take it from us. Check out some of Naihomy’s cleaner, good-for-you recipe flips here at Familia Kitchen, including: her moros de guandules, Dominican-style lentil soup and arroz con pollo.
In honor of Easter, Naihomy and her mom, Mamá Rosa, offer us dueling versions of this traditional Dominican postre de Pascua. The mother-daughter duo did the same flip thing last fall with pumpkin flan in their 2-ways versions oof Dominican Flan de Calabaza 2 Ways: Classic and Dairy-Free—and the Familia Kitchen community is all the better for it.
”Here’s what I did to flip my mother’s habichuelas con dulce recipe and make it cleaner and vegan,” explains Naihomy. “I swapped out the cow’s milk and evaporated milk for coconut milk—which is common, but I used the coconut milk with cleaner ingredients—in addition to unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Although I ended up using some raw sugar, the majority was coconut sugar. And finally, instead of using a ’vanilla blend,‘” she adds, ”I kept the ingredients all natural and used actual vanilla extract.”
Taste this new flip for yourself. Below are both Mamá Rosa’s traditional recipe for habichuelas con dulce and Naihomy’s healthied-up take on the classic Dominican dessert.
Gracias, Naihomy, for offering us this delicious mom/daughter Easter food flip. Feliz día de Pascua to you both!
Ready to Try Habichuelas Con Dulce 2 ways: Traditional & Flipped?
Habichuelas Con Dulce: Traditional and Flipped
12
servings10
minutes3
hoursIngredients
- TRADITIONAL Mamá Rosa’s Habichuelas Con Dulce
4 cups dried roma beans
1 can coconut milk, 13.5 oz.
2 cans evaporated milk, 13.5 oz each
5 cups whole milk
2 Tbsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 lb purple sweet potato
2 oz raisins
5 to 6 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp cloves
- FOOD FLIP: Healthy and Delicioso Naihomy’s Habichuelas Con Dulce
3 cups dried roma beans
1 can coconut milk, 13.5 oz.
4 1/2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
5 cups infused cinnamon/clove water
1 Tbsp Himayalan salt
2/3 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup raw sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon powder
1 to 2 purple sweet potatoes
1 oz raisins
6 to 7 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp cloves
Directions
- Traditional: Mamá Rosa’s Habichuelas Con Dulce
- Wash and put beans in a large pot (approximately 4 quarts) and fill with water. Place over high heat and bring to a boil.
- Boil the beans until they become very tender. If the water begins to dry in the pot before the beans have softened, add more water.
- In a separate saucepan, add the cinnamon sticks and cloves with approximately 4 cups of water. Place over high heat, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer.
- Simmer the cinnamon and cloves until water turns brown and has been infused by the spices
- Once the beans are soft, let them cool for about 10 minutes.
- Place beans with their liquid in the blender. Blend until smooth.
- Secure a strainer over a large pot (approximately 8-quart size) and pour the blended beans to strain. If the liquid is too thick, thin out with the infused cinnamon/ clove water.
- Place the pot with the strained beans over high heat and pour in the remainder of the infused cinnamon/ clove water, after running through strainer as well.
- Add the coconut milk, evaporated milk, whole milk, salt, sugar and vanilla extract.
- Clean and chop the sweet potato into large chunks. Add into pot along with the raisins. Continue to stir until it starts to boil.
- Once it is boiling, lower heat to medium and continue to stir occasionally.
- Let beans continue boiling until sweet potatoes have softened and the liquid has thicken. Your traditional version is ready!
- Healthy & Delicioso Makeover: Naihomy’s Flipped Habichuelas Con Dulce
- Wash and put the beans in a large pot along with 2 cinnamon sticks and fill with approximately 4 quarts of water. Place over high heat.
- Boil the beans until they become very tender (about 2 hours). If the water begins to dry in the pot before the beans have softened, add more water.
- In a separate saucepan, add the cinnamon sticks and cloves with approximately 6 cups of water. Place over high heat, and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, reduce heat to a simmer.
- Continue to simmer the cinnamon and cloves until the water turns brown and has been infused by the spices. This should leave you with 5 cups of infused cinnamon clove water.
- Once the beans are soft, let them cool for about 10 minutes.
- Place the beans with their liquid in the blender, and blend until smooth.
- Secure a strainer over a large pot (approximately 8-quart size) and pour the blended beans to strain. If the liquid is too thick, thin out with the infused cinnamon/ clove water.
- Place the pot with the strained beans over high heat, pour in the remainder of the infused cinnamon/ clove water, after running through strainer as well.
- Add the coconut milk, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, Himalayan salt, coconut sugar, raw sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon powder.
- Clean and chop the sweet potato into large chunks. Add into the plan, along with the raisins.
- Continue to stir until it starts to boil.
- Once it is boiling, lower the heat to medium and continue to stir occasionally.
- Let the beans continue boiling until sweet potatoes have soften and the liquid has thicken. Your flipped version is ready!
Notes
- If either version’s mixture is too thick, infuse some more water with cinnamon and cloves and pour through strainer.
- Be sure to taste your habichuelas con dulce before serving and adjust with with a pinch more salt and/or sugar, if desired.
- From our family to yours: Naihomy and her mom invite you cook up a habichuela con dulce taste test and drop us a line to tell us which one your family made and how they enjoyed it! Did you like one better? Why? Email us at hola [at symbol] FamiliaKitchen.com (we’re trying to avoid spam) and tell us all about it.
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