The History of Arroz con Gandules — Plus: 5 Pigeon Peas & Rice Recipes!

Arroz con gandules or rice with pigeon peas gets our vote for Puerto Rico’s most famous dish. Google agrees. Just type “#1 Puerto Rican dish” into its search bar and see what comes up first.

It honestly couldn’t happen to a more deserving dish. This recipe has a long history of sustaining Puerto Ricans through hard times — as well as honoring their most joyous holiday festivities. Plus, this delicioso, filling rice and legume combo has range: On the island and in the Caribbean. Arroz con gandules is also a signature dish in the cuisines of lots of Puerto Rico’s neighbors, including Dominican Republic and Panama. (See these Latino countries’ very different approaches to rice and pigeon peas recipes, below.)

Most famous today as a Christmas must-serve side, arroz con gandules in Puerto Rico is traditionally cooked with white rice, gandules (obvs), sofrito, annatto or achiote, and pork.

And yet, this tiny legume is not native to Puerto Rico. (Neither is rice, btw.) So, we gotta ask: How did gandules first arrive on the island centuries ago? And, when cooked with rice, why does this dish remain so popular to this day, especially during the holiday season?

How Did Gandules First Arrive in Puerto Rico? Lo

The Puerto Rican history of arroz con gandules starts in Africa. Like rice and coffee, pigeon peas are a culinary treasure hand-carried across the ocean to the New World by enslaved West Africans. Forcibly stolen people from the Yoruba and Igbo tribes in Nigeria and the Bantus from the Guinea were sailed to the island starting in the early 16^th century to work the back-breaking fincas of Spanish land owners. They brought dry pigeon peas, an essential part of their African diet, to forestall hunger and remind them of home.

And yet: The gandul is not original to Africa, either. Historians trace the plant to India, starting 3,500 years ago. Through trade, the native legume known in India as tuar dal made its way to Africa. (As proof: Pigeon peas were found in an Egyptian grave dating to a time between 2,400 and 2,200 B.C.) Several millennia later, the pigeon pea first arrived in Puerto Rico, which proved to be an ideal agricultural climate for the shrub.

Why Is Arroz con Gandules So Popular with Puerto Ricans?

Thanks to the island’s year-round tropical conditions, gandules acclimated fast. The plant thrived in Boricua soil and humidity conditions, requiring minimal care. It is a perennial, meaning it lives longer than one year, unlike other plants, and is abundant in yield, producing two or three harvests of flowers and pods annually. One bush could give off hundreds and even thousands of protein-rich beans, becoming a protein source for even the most in-need Puerto Ricans to forage and feed their families reliably.

“Because Puerto Rico was a dirt-poor mostly agricultural society until well into the 1940s, gandules were an important dietary supplement that kept many families from starving to death and are very much appreciated in Puerto Rico to this day,” writes Quora contributor Armando Cardona. “Gandules are INCREDIBLY nutritious with a very high protein content and enough iron to restore an anemic person’s hemoglobin to normal levels in very short order, which is the reason in Puerto Rico until the 1940s they were fed in large quantities to women who had lost a lot of blood in childbirth.”

Cooks on the island learned to put pigeon peas and rice together in a savory dish that quickly became part of the Puerto Rican diet. As with so many other Latino dishes using humble ingredients (think the discarded animal parts in sancocho cooked in the Dominican Republic and the cactus paddles used to make nopalitos in Mexico), arroz con gandules was taken up by the wealthy as well.

Today, arroz con gandules remains a holiday staple that connects tables across the island, regardless of class or geography. And it’s not just for December, gente. We invite you to follow the lead of many Puerto Ricans and make the dish for Thanksgiving, as an alternative or wing-man side to the traditional mashed potatoes. The dish is delicioso, especially if you are serving it with pavochon (Puerto Rico-style whole turkey) or pasteles.

One last December detail about pigeon peas. The high season for harvesting gandules falls in December, just in time for holiday cooking. Freshly picked gandules started showing up in Nochebuena and Three Kings menus, luckily for all its fans in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Panama and other Latino Caribbean countries. Ready to get started? Here are five delicioso recipes: three from Puerto Rico, one form Dominican Republic, and a coconut-sweetened one from Panama.

Pigeon Peas in Puerto Rico: Arroz con Gandules

In Puerto Rico, the legume is called gandules. Here are three recipes from family-famous homecooks who sendtFamilia Kitchen their recipes. Luckily for all of us. Feliz holidays, Boricua-style!

Pigeon Peas in Dominican Repuiblic: Arroz con Guandules

In the Dominican Republic, moro de guandules is a holiday favorite dish. Dominicans added a “u” to their name for the legume and call it guandules. Here is a favorite recipe sent into Familia Kitchen by homecook Naihomy Jerez, who is known for her healthy food flips to Latino traditional dishes.

Pigeon Peas in Panama: Arroz con Guandu y Coco

In Panama, the legume is called “guandu,” and the dish is made with rice that’s been sweetened with coconut milk. Here is one recipe we love, sent in by homecook Lisa Kear, who grew up in Colon, Panama, in a family whose love language was cooking together.

We hope these family recipes starring gandules inspire you to add pigeon peas to your holiday table for a delicioso, nutritious side dish that has been served by Latino families for centuries.

Cook Your Way Home for the Holidays with FamiliaKitchen.com Latino family-famous recipes!