Make Canned Beans Taste Instantly Better With A Latin Seasoning Mix

Canned beans are a great, accessible, and affordable source of plant-based protein, fiber, and vitamins. There are plenty of good ones out there, as well as some you should leave at the store. Unfortunately, they're also known for being pretty lackluster in the taste department. Thankfully, there are lots of simple ingredients to take canned beans from boring to brilliant. To that end, look into sofrito, a Latin seasoning mix that will take any canned bean from mediocre to center stage star in no time.

Sofrito is a blend of spices, herbs, and veggies, usually mixed into dishes made with meats, beans, or rice. A typical, basic sofrito is made with onions, garlic, and sweet peppers. Many recipes also use cilantro and culantro, the latter of which is a savory stand-in for cilantro with a stronger flavor and much larger leaves. You can find variations of sofrito seasoning in tons of cultures from Latin America to the Caribbean, and trace its origin back to Spain. Italy and Portugal also have their own renditions, so there's no perfect consensus on how to make sofrito beyond the base ingredients and the general technique of lightly frying everything together. You can buy sofrito seasoning at your local Latin American grocery store, or you can make your own at home, so there's plenty of wiggle room for budget, energy, and variation here.

To incorporate your sofrito, whether homemade or store-bought, all you need to do is add your desired amount by the spoonful to whatever serving of beans you're heating up. Cooking the beans and sofrito together will help to meld the flavors, giving your dish a more cohesive taste. Your canned beans are begging for aromatics, so honestly, adding sofrito to them is like killing two birds with one stone. To really get the most out of your sofrito, you can pan-fry it in oil before adding your beans to the pan. This will make the dish taste fresher, even if you buy pre-made sofrito and use canned beans. You'll forget it ever had such a humble start in the form of canned beans, and enjoy it to the very last bite.

If you want a really filling meal, scoop your bean mixture out over some freshly cooked rice after you're done heating it. Add a fried egg or some rotisserie chicken if you're feeling really fancy (or want to hit those protein macro goals for the day), and then devour. A dollop of your favorite hot sauce or chili crisp never hurt anyone.