This Vegan Picadillo Boricua is the perfect weeknight meal and Puerto Rican comfort food. Cooked with traditional spices like sofrito and sazón, along with sweet plantains for a twist.
Vegan | Gluten-free | Soy-free
It’s been a long time since the last #VeganizedPuertoRican! Today I will be sharing with you Vegan Picadillo Boricua, a quick and easy meal that comes together with minimal ingredients. It’s one of those dishes that can be customized to your liking, and everyone has their own way of making it. That’s certainly the case in my household; you’ll see that my mom’s recipe has a very special ingredient, that in my opinion, really elevates the dish. I might be biased tho;)
This recipe can be used as a main dish with a side of white rice or as a filling/stuffing for alcapurrias, pastelillos, tostones cups, or a wellington, enjoy it, as it is super simple to make. It’s truly pure Boricua comfort food!
The making of: Vegan Picadillo Boricua
Puerto Rican Picadillo is very easy to veganize. Traditionally, this dish is a blend of ground meat, peppers, onions, potatoes, olives, sofrito, and spices simmered in a savory vegetable broth. As you can see, the only ingredient that needs to be switched is ground beef for plant-based ground beef.
On the other hand, as I mentioned above, my mom’s recipe deviates from the traditional Puerto Rican Picadillo with one of the most Boricua ingredients ever, amarillos/sweet plantains. Yes, we’re ditching the potatoes for yellow sweet plantains to give this dish a sweet & savory touch.
To make Vegan Picadillo Boricua, first, you’ll need to prepare the sweet plantains. Peel and cut one sweet plantain into cubes. Then you’ll need to briefly fry them until golden brown. Once the plantains are done, you can start preparing the rest of the dish.
To a medium-sized pan, add olive oil, minced garlic, onions, peppers, and sofrito; cook over medium heat until soft and fragrant. Next add the plant-based ground beef along with the vegetable stock, sazón, oregano, and recao/culantro. Break the soy ground apart with a spatula and mix well together. Lower heat and cook for 10 minutes covered. Then add the fried sweet plantains, and optionally green olives (we prefer to not). Stir well and cook for another 10 minutes covered or until fully cooked.
Now it’s time to serve! This Vegan Picadillo Boricua is super versatile and can be used as a side and filling/stuffing in a number of dishes. For an easy weeknight dinner, serve it topped with vegan shredded cheese as a side to white rice, along with tostones and avocado slices. However, you can use it to stuff pastelillos, alcapurrias, green plantain or breadfruit cups, and even a wellington!
Notes:
- For this recipe I’m using Gardein’s soy ground beef, however, there are plenty of soy-free vegan options out there like Quorn and Beyond.
- Homemade sofrito is always better than the store-bought one. Make your own sofrito with this bomb-ass recipe.
- If you don’t like or have sweet plantains, you can substitute it for potatoes (cubed small). To cook it that way, you can either fry the potatoes beforehand or add the potatoes at the same time that you add the vegan ground beef.
Ingredients
Procedure
Did you make this recipe? I would love to know how it turned out for you! Tag me in your Instagram creations for a chance to be featured in my insta stories! Use @veggiejeva and the hashtag #veggiejevaskitchen.
When you leave feedback it helps me improve and grow, leave me a comment below!
If you have Pinterest, you can find me here and Pin the following picture, if you like!
All images & content are protected. Please do not use my images or content prior to permission. If you want to republish this blog post, please link back to this post. Thank you for supporting VeggieJeva!
