Mofongo with Garlic Sauce (Paleo, Whole30)

In each issue of Paleo Magazine, I team up with Steph Gaudreau to share the history of a traditional recipe and adapt it to fit into a healthier paleo lifestyle. (I write the words; she makes the gorgeous photos.) In this column, we pay tribute to Puerto Rico with a dish that’s as much fun to say as it is to eat.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Google is matching donations—dollar for dollar, up to $2 million—to two excellent organizations to provide aid in Puerto Rico: Mercy Corp and Hispanic Corporation. Donate here.

Plantains and Chicarrones

Bordered by the sparkling Caribbean Sea and burly Atlantic Ocean, Puerto Rico is a jewel box island of mountains, waterfalls, and tropical rainforest. Words like lush, sultry, and balmy are murmured wistfully to describe the island and its culture

And the food!

Dishes like pernil (roasted pork shoulder), pasteles (Puerto Rican tamales), asopao (a sort of gumbo), arroz con gandules (yellow rice with pigeon peas), tembleque (coconut pudding), jamón con piña (ham with pineapple), and serenata de bacalao (salted cod salad).

Sadly, like most cross-cultural cuisines, the deliciousness of Puerto Rican food has a dark side. Puerto Rico was colonized by the Spanish conquistadors in the early sixteenth century and when the Spaniards had exhausted the local population, they imported slaves from West Africa.

The African influence contributed coconuts, coffee, tamarind, yams, sesame seeds, pigeon peas, bananas, and the technique for deep-frying food. The Europeans brought ingredients like black pepper, onions, garlic, cilantro, citrus, and olives, all of which made their way into another definitive Puerto Rican dish, picadillo: ground meat simmered with olives, raisins, and spices.

But it’s mofongo—a.k.a., Puerto Rico’s unofficial national dish—that inspires the deepest affection.

At its most basic, mofongo is a side dish made from cooked plantains, crushed chicharrones (or crumbled bacon) garlic, salt, and oil. These rustic, aromatic ingredients come together to form a mash with the texture of American bread stuffing and the seductive taste of the tropics. As with traditional dishes the world over, mofongo doesn’t suffer from a little addition of this and that. Popular variations include swapping yucca root for the plantains or boldly combining both green (savory) and ripe (sweet) plantains for a more complex flavor. Some recipes also include the Puerto Rican kitchen staple sofrito, a pesto-like blend of onion, green bell pepper, garlic, and cilantro.

Whichever variations you try, the goal is to cook the plantain (or other starch) so it’s slightly crispy on the outside with a dense, chewy inside. When the plantains are mashed, the crispy texture is broken up and distributed throughout the mofongo for a texture with occasional surprises on the tongue. Chewy, salty, crispy, garlicky, and luscious with healthy fats, mofongo is greater than the sum of its simple parts.

Imagine an epic dinner fiesta. It’s nearly impossible to separate the food from the soundtrack that gets the festivities moving. In Puerto Rico, that music is plena—Puerto Rican folk music that’s heavy on percussion and social commentary. Mofongo is so beloved, it was celebrated in a plena song called “Mofongo Pelao” by Ismael Rivera, a popular musician known as “El Sonoero Mayor.” Listen to the song while you prep your Mofongo and dance around your kitchen!

In a traditional Puerto Rican mofongo recipe, the plantains are deep-fried before they’re smashed with garlic and a generous amount of additional fat. To increase the nutrition of the dish without losing the luxuriousness of the fat, our recipe uses a Cuban-influenced approach: The plantains are boiled first, then quickly sautéed in a small amount of healthy fat before they’re mashed with more fat for flavor.

Although purists use a mortar and pestle to mash their mofongo, this version can easily be prepared in a mixing bowl with a potato masher, or in an electric mixer fitted with the flat paddle. Be sure to mash gently so the plantains retain some texture and the whole mixture holds together with the consistency of Thanksgiving stuffing.

Paleo Mofongo with Garlic Sauce

Serves 4-6 | Prep 10 minutes | Cook 20 minutes

Serve mofongo the traditional way—alongside roasted pork or chicken, or grilled shrimp or chicken—and drizzled with Garlic Sauce. Or try it with Steph’s Pork Chile Verde or Mel’s Cuban Meatballs.