This article brings my favorite sofrito recipe to you. With summer here many men are looking to carve an chisel their forms into the solid beach body that other men want and women cream themselves over. A hard beach body is not an easy task though.

It requires diligence, willpower, and many hours in the gym. One thing that is universal though, is that getting cut starts in the kitchen, not on the bench. Protein is the basis of a good diet. While some fats are good, and veggies always desirable, protein is what will build your muscles while keeping you lean.

For many going out and buying a steak for every night of the week isn’t doable. For most of us we’re left facing down cheaper simpler, less naturally tasty, forms of protein.

Chicken, types of white fish, and beans.

There’s is nothing wrong with these, but they require a little more love then say, a steak, or a nice piece of salmon.

In this post I’m not going to teach you a method of cooking, but a recipe which you can use as a marinade, a cooking base, and a seasoning. How you choose to use it is up to you. I’ll give a few ideas at the end.

Its said that France is built upon a foundation of duxelle, if that’s true, then Latin America is held together with sofrito. It is one of the keys to making authentic tasting Latino food and something I picked up not in any book or class, but from years with working with people from all over Latin America.

The recipe I’m going to give you isn’t traditional.

Its an avant-garde work around that’s easy for almost anyone to put together

Hardware

• A food processor, immersion blender, or bar blender

Software

• 1 bunch of fresh cilantro
  1 large red onion
  1 red bell pepper
  1 green bell pepper
  3-4 cloves of garlic
  3 tbsp of citrus juice, lemon will work, lime is best
  4 tbsp of olive oil

Do Work

Start by prepping the peppers and onions. You’ll want to peel the onions and take the seeds, membranes, and stems out of the peppers. Cut these both into pieces large enough to be handled by your blending apparatus
Blend all the ingredients. You wont get this mix to be smooth, and I personally I think the little flecks and chunks are nice as they add color.

Season with salt and pepper and feel free to blend in some fresh jalapeños if you like spice.

That’s it, what you’re now left with will be a colorful and slightly chunky liquid with a very fresh flavor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgPb2r7E1Gc

It makes for a great marinade for any kind of meat, chicken, tilapia, even flank steak. Let it sit in the sofrito over night then cook however you like, grilling or roasting work best.

Mixing sofrito with equal parts water and a little more salt, use it as a cooking liquid for rice and then mix in red beans and you’ve got an easy side dish that can be made with the leftover marinade from your meat.