This recipe has been passed down through my family for many years and is fantastic!
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 45 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 10 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 onion, cut into chunks
- 1 green bell pepper, cut into chunks
- 1 bunch fresh parsley
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro
- 1 bunch culantro
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 tablespoon water, or as needed
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 (1.41 ounce) package sazon seasoning
- ground black pepper to taste
- 1 pinch adobo seasoning, or to taste
- olive oil
- 8 ripe plantains, peeled and cut on the bias
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 2 (15 ounce) cans green beans, drained
- 4 eggs, beaten
Instructions
- To make sofrito: Place the onion, bell pepper, parsley, cilantro, culantro, garlic, and water into a blender. Cover, and puree until smooth. Pour mixture into a bowl; cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and stir in the ground beef. Cook and stir until the beef is crumbly, evenly browned, and no longer pink. Stir in 2 tablespoons of sofrito into the beef, then season with sazon, pepper, and adobo. Drain and discard any excess grease; set aside.
- Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Heat a skillet over medium heat. Arrange the plantains in the skillet and pan fry until golden and softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Layer half of the plantains in a deep baking dish, making sure to cover the entire bottom of the dish. Pour 4 beaten eggs over the plantains, then spread the beef on top. Layer the green beans over the beef, then arrange the remaining plantains on top. Pour 4 more beaten eggs evenly over the plantains. Sprinkle the top with adobo seasoning.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the eggs are firm, 30 to 45 minutes.
- You can find adobo and sazon seasoning in the Mexican aisle of most grocery stores. You may also find premade sofrito.
- Aluminum foil helps keep food moist, ensures it cooks evenly, keeps leftovers fresh, and makes clean-up easy.
- Culantro is a tropical herb also known as recao.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 439 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 64 g |
| Cholesterol | 222 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 7 g |
| Protein | 20 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 1044 mg |
| Sugars | 29 g |
| Fat | 14 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Very good. We used frozen mixed vegetables instead .
It was delicious!! I made it without the green beans. Yum!!
Will make with riper plantin, and omit green beans
excellent recipe.
Tasted very good. But, it didn’t mention how big the baking dish should be. I must have used a larger one than recipe called for. So, next time I will used smaller dish or more plantains and more eggs. We didn’t use any oil. We fried the plantains with Pam. Now, my mother-in-law says, she sprays the casserole dish with Pam and adds the eggs first. Then Plantain and so forth. Also, the plantains should be as ripe as possible & cut lengthwise, And She adds a layer of (can) corn. I will definitely make this again.
It’s the best dish I ever ate. My new favorite food. Love it.
It should be noted that the plantains should be VERY ripe, the softer the better. The next time I’ll probably use chorizo instead of ground beef, and I used frozen green beans (sauteed in a little olive oil and fresh garlic) instead of canned.
Not very good.
This was great!! Just like mom usto make
yummy! i love pastelon!! I have my abuela recipe!!
This recipe was ok. Totally edible but not as authentic as I’d prefer. My mom has been making this for years. Although her recipes differs. Personally, the secret is in the “sofrito”. My mother usually makes sofrito in large batches and freezes it in ice cube trays. Once they’re frozen, she pops them into large ziplocs. This way, you can use as little or as much as you’d like without fear of spoiling the batch. The plantains should be as ripe as possible & cut lengthwise for best results. My husbands Italian family LOVES Pastelon!
Very good!!! It was not hard to make at all and the sweetness from the plantains add such great flavor. Will be making this again very soon.
I saw a version of this recipe on a spanish cooking show, forgot to write down the ingredients so I found this instead. My family and I loved it! I did omit the cilantro and used dried parsley instead of fresh(didn’t have any). I also layered this dish like a lasagna(on the bottom a layer of fried plantains, then egg mixture, then I added monterey jack cheese, then the meat and green beans, then another layer of fried plantains, egg mixture, and I topped it off with another layer of cheese). Yummy!!!
very authentic taste!!! My family couldn’t get enough.I only had 4 ripe (almost black) plantain, and 3 eggs and no green beans but the rest of the measurements were the same. Also, just out of habit when making puerto rican beef recipes, I added about 1/2 cup tomato sauce to meat mixture and simmered on low for 30 minutes before layering. I honestly cant see me making this as written with 8 eggs..the 3 were enough for us.thanks for a great comforting dinner!
This was incredible! I had no knowledge of this recipe going into making this dish (the ingredients just sounded unusual enough, and I love a Cottage Pie), so I didn’t know til after the fact that “Pastelon” is a lasagna w/ the plaintains as the noodle. (Otherwise I would’ve followed the recipe more accurately and cut them in lengths, rather than in rounds.) I think the homemade sofrito is one of the things that really made this meal special. I took a big spoonful of the meat while it was simmering and thought I’d died and gone to heaven. As far as the layering of the dish went, I used an 8X8 pyrex, did 1/2 the plantains (again, mine were fried in rounds) 3 eggs beaten w/ Adobo, the full 1 lb. sofrito/meat, 1 can green beans, the remaining plantains (of which total, I only used 2 — next time I will definitely use more plantains, and, *bonks self on head* cut them correctly), and 3 more eggs beaten w/ Adobo. When I made the sofrito, I had enough leftover to freeze about 5 ice cubes’ worth for another night. And I’m already anxious for that other night to come b/c I plan on making Leticia’s recipe again! (Btw, my name’s Ticia, so that made this recipe stand out all the more.)
I have made this with just the meat cooked with sofrito and sazon, and the sweet plantains fried and layered like it says. Even simply made, this is absolutely delicious!