Titi’s Easy Puerto Rican Beans with Calabaza
- January 2021
- By Kim Caviness
- Recipe from Puerto Rico
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These super-easy, super-good Puerto Rican beans — habichuelas guisadas — with calabaza or pumpkin were served at my aunt’s house regularly. Unlike my from-scratch grandmother’s recipe for red beans, Titi’s recipe starts by opening a can of red or pink habichuelas and uses sofrito, always a good thing in Boricua cooking.
The beans then simmer for about half an hour—and are ready to serve with flavorful white rice, or this arroz by one by one of our favorite Puerto Rican cooks, Michelle Ezratty Murphy. She and her Boricua husband Pat love to make his family’s traditional dishes.
Rico, auténtico y simple, what’s not to love about these habichuelas?
For more hearty Puerto Rican traditional dishes, check out: Michelle’s Familia Kitchen Recipe Contest-winning arroz con pollo, picadillo, pastelón (Puerto Rican lasagna made with plantain strips, fried and stuffed alcapurrias y mucho mas!
And don’t miss her winning entry to Your Family’s Favorite Picadillo Recipe Contest, which relies on the classic Puerto Rican flavors of sofrito (yes, again. It really is used in everything) and achiote oil. Michelle calls her picadillo recipe ”the Puerto Rican sloppy joe.”
To try more of her Boricua dishes, check Michelle Ezratty Murphy’s double-fried-plantain tostones with garlicky mojo sauce; pastelón, the Puerto Rican lasagna; her step-by-step guide to baking melty quesitos, and her contest-winning eat-every-last-bit-of-pegao arroz con pollo family recipe.
Ready to Make Traditional Puerto Rican Beans?
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