This vegan picadillo recipe a simple dish, using affordable, popular ingredients including potatoes, ground beef, tomato sauce, seasonings, olives, and oil.
Picadillo is also known as “carne molida.”
It uses affordable and easy-to-find ingredients that’s both great for your wallet and your belly.
What Is Picadillo?
Picadillo is ground beef (this recipe is vegan) that has been cooked in a tomato sauce, potatoes, seasonings and spices. It’s a common, traditional dish in Puerto Rico and across Latin America.
As a side dish, you’ll usually find picadillo paired with white rice and any other side you like. We went with brown rice, fried sweet plantains (maduros), and pinto beans (not pictured).
How To Use Picadillo?
You can also use this picadillo recipe for tacos, empanadas, or sandwiches. If you do opt to have picadillo with bready ingredients, I suggest cooking it for longer to reduce the liquid as much as possible.
Here we’ll be taking this meat-heavy dish and making it vegan. The plant-based version of this dish is still just as delicious, using all the flavors and seasonings that make this amazing in the first place.
Side Dishes To Include With Picadillo:
How To Make Sofrito For Picadillo?
Sofrito is a cooking base used in Puerto Rican cooking. It includes aromatic ingredients including peppers, onion, cilantro, and garlic.
It’s simply blended it up and cooked in hot oil before preparing the main dish.
You’ll usually find sofrito in dishes including soups, stews, beans and rice.
Vegan Picadillo Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 bag Beyond Beef Crumbles (or your choice of vegan ground beef)
- 1/2 packet sazon
- 2 tablespoon oil
- 4 tablespoons sofrito
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 russet potato
- 8 ounces tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup green Spanish olives
Instructions
- Chop potatoes into cubes. Set aside.
- Warm up the oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat.
- Once the oil is hot, add the sofrito to the pan. Saute and cook for about 1 minute.
- Next, add sazon, tomato sauce, green olives, bay leaf. Stir together and simmer for 1 minute.
- Pour in the Beyond Beef Crumbles, choped potato, and water. Reduce heat to medium-low and add a lid over the pan.
- Simmer until potatoes are fork-tender, about 15 minutes.
- Once potatoes are tender, remove the lid from the pan and turn off the heat.
- Allow everything to simmer for another 2-3 minutes to thicken up the sauce.
- Serve.
Notes
- Traditionally, at least in my household, we would peel the potatoes. I don’t do that. I think it’s a waste of food and time, so I leave them on. However, you’re welcome to peel them if that’s your thing.
- Because the vegan beef crumbles are drier and less fatty than actual ground beef, we’ll need to compensate by introducing more moisture. This is why tomato sauce and a touch of water will be an important addition to this recipe.
- Don’t use the Beyond Meat Beef Feisty Crumbles, or it’ll change the flavor of your picadillo. You want to get Beyond Beef Beefy Crumbles. You’ll find it in a red bag in the freezer section of the grocery store.
- If you prefer to use a different vegan ground beef brand, that’s fine. Be sure to find something that isn’t overly salty or flavored. Taste and adjust as needed.
- I HIGHLY suggest making your own sofrito because the pre-made stuff is not even close to being as good.
- If your sofrito has added salt, add less sazon. This dish will be seasoned enough with the ingredients listed.
- Optional:I added a teaspoon of chili powder to darken the dish.
While you’re here, check out our most popular Puerto Rican recipes that’ll pair well with your vegan picadillo:
Sin Carne Guisada (Vegan “Beef” Stew) Recipe
Easy Oven-Baked Plantains Recipe (Maduros) Recipe
Puerto Rican Stew (Habichuelas Guisadas) Recipe
Did you try out this Vegan Picadillo recipe?
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Delicious! I remember eating something similar to this growing up. So glad I can indulge in traditional flavors without the cruelty.
Yes! It was also one of my childhood favorites! So good. But yes – traditional flavors, using plant-based ingredients. 🙂