This vegan recipe for rice with pigeon peas or Arroz Con Glandules is based on a Puerto Rican recipe. The traditional dish does have ham and chicken stock which my recipe doesn't. This is a perfect side dish recipe for the Holiday get togethers, BBQs etc.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Gastronomia Latina, Puerto Rican
Keyword Arroz con glandules, Rice with Pigeon Peas, Vegan Rice Dish
6ozstomato sauce, diced tomatoes or homemade tomato pulp by blending soft tomatoes.
15ozsfrozen glandules
1.5tspcumin
1tspsalt (add to taste)
1tsporegano
0.5tspblack pepper
3bay leaves
5cupshot water
1packetAchiote seasoning (gives yellow color and flavor)optional
0.5red bell pepper
2tbspsfresh chopped cilantro
Instructions
Making Sofrito
Clean all the peppers. Peel the onion and the garlic.
Chop the peppers in large pieces, add to blender. Chop the onion and add to blender. Throw in chopped cilantro, oregano, chopped culantro, garlic. Add few tbsps of water and then pulse or blend until everything is finely minced.
Use about 4 tbsps in Rice with Pigeon Peas recipe and store the rest in the refrigerator for other dishes.
Rice with Pigeon Peas
Use a big pot for this side dish. Turn heat to medium. Start by warming up the oil and adding 4 tbsps full of sofrito. Cook the sofrito for about 3-4 minutes, stir occasionally so it doesn't stick to the bottom.
Add tomato sauce and continue cooking for few more minutes.
Then add pigeon peas, stir everything well and let cook few more minutes. At this point add cumin, salt, pepper and bay leaves.
Proceed by adding rice and 5 cups of hot water, stir it once so everything mixes well. Let it cook for about 13-15 minutes. In the meantime chop the cilantro and the remaining red bell pepper. When you can barely see any water anymore on the surface, add chopped bell pepper and cilantro. At this point, I just mix it once with a wooden spoon but you don't want to stir too much.
Then lower heat to low, cover it up so it stays warm. It just takes few minutes at this point to be ready.
When ready to serve, transfer rice to a family size bowl, fluff with a fork and it's ready to eat:). Bon Appetit!!
Notes
Sofrito recipe will yield more sofrito than what you need for this rice side dish. Refrigerate the rest in an air tight container.
If not making this vegan recipe but instead going for the traditional dish with ham and stock, you might want to use a little less olive oil than what I'm using here.
If you can't find culantro (recao) add more cilantro. Also, I'm pretty sure that my sweet red pepper is not exactly what they use in Puerto Rico but it is the closest I could come to the description.