Vegan Sancocho, My Way
Ingredients
Sofrito
- 1 Medium Onion Coarsely Chopped
- 1 stalk Celery sliced
- 1 Medium Carrot sliced
- 1/4 cup Parsley
- 4 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 Small Green chile pepper, Serrano or Jalapeno, optional, or more if you like it spicy
Proteins
- 1 Vegan chorizo sausage sliced
- 1 cup Mexican flavored seitan cut into 1/2" chunks
- 1/2 cup Soy curls soak in water 30 minutes
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ` tsp Annatto Seeds
Vegetables
- 4 Small Red Potatoes peeled and quartered
- 1 large Carrot sliced
- 1 Green Bell Pepper chopped
- 1 cup Cut fresh green beans
- 1 small Cassava peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces also called yucca
- 1 can Kidney beans or cooked hominy rinsed and drained
- 1 Yellow plantain peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 Chayote squash, zucchini or summer squash
- 2 Ears Fresh corn sliced into 1pieces
- 1/4 Head cabbage, or other green optional, chopped or thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup Cilantro chopped
Broth
- 1 quart Vegetable bouillon beef flavored , or 1 qt homemade vegetable stock
- 1 8 oz Can Tomato Sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp Adobo seasoning
- 1 qt Water You want enough liquid to cover by one inch at least.
Garnish
- Avocado sliced
- Lime wedges
Instructions
Make the Sofrito
- You only have to coarsely chop the vege's as the food processor does all the work for you. Pulse the garlic and chile pepper in a food processor until chopped, add the remaining ingredients and pulse until pretty finely chopped. Don't overdo it, you don't want it pureed, there should be some texture left, but you want it pretty fine as this will become the base for your stew. Set aside.
Prepare your vegetables and proteinsand proteins
- Thinly slice sausage. Rinse soy curls and squeeze out excess liquid. Cut seitan into cubes. Cut vegetables into large pieces.
- Slice and cube vegetables.
Make the Stew
- Heat a large soup pot over medium low heat, add olive oil and annatto seeds and gently heat until the oil turns red. Be careful not to burn them. Remove the annatto seed and discard once oil is a beautiful red color.
- Turn up the heat to medium, and add proteins to the oil. Saute for about 10 minutes stirring until browned on all sides. Remove to a plate, and set aside. Add the sofrito to the pot and saute until vegetables are softened and beginning to brown. Once again, be careful not to burn them.
- Once the sofrito is browned, add in your broth ingredients, the proteins, and the rest of the vegetables except the quicker cooking ones like the chayote (zucchini), greens and corn . Add enough water to cover by about an inch. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes until the vege's are tender.
- Add your corn, zucchini and cabbage, if using, and simmer for about another 15 minutes. Taste for seasoning and adjust with more adobo if needed. Add in chopped cilantro at the very end.
Serve
- Serve with rice and offer avocado and lime wedges on the side. Some hot sauce too if you like it spicy. Enjoy!
Notes
You can make a Jamaican version of Sancocho using 2-3 teaspoons of Jamaican Curry Powder and substitute a Habanero or Scotch Bonnet Pepper in your sofrito. Here are the changes I made: I skipped making the annato oil, and used safflower oil. I used green beans instead of zucchini as that's what I had in my fridge. I also used two tablespoons of tomato paste instead of the tomato sauce (had it in the fridge too) and I added it with the curry powder near the end of sauteing the sofrito. It's good to wake up the oils in the spices before adding the liquid. The Jamaican version came out awesome, served with white or brown rice.
I'll keep updating as I work my way through the Caribbean islands and I will be trying out new spice blends on Vegan Sancocho as I go! Spice it YOUR Way!