3 dishes people actually cook in Cuba: what they are, how long they take, and what you need to buy.
What can you cook from Cuba? 3 traditional Cuba dishes, from Tostones (30 min, the quickest) to Moros y cristianos (850 min, the longest). Each recipe is written step by step with full ingredient lists, free to read.
Cuba on the map. Drag to spin the planet.
Cuban rice cooked in the black liquor of its own beans, in one pot, which is exactly what separates it from rice served with beans.
Beef simmered whole, torn into long threads like old rags, then finished in a sofrito sauce sharpened with green olives, capers and dry Cuban cooking wine.
Green plantain rounds fried soft, flattened, dipped in salted garlic water and fried again until the crust blisters.
Copper documents three dishes from Cuba: Moros y cristianos, Ropa vieja and Tostones. Garlic and bay leaves each appear in more than one recipe. Two of the three are simmered. Not one needs an oven — they cook entirely on the hob. Between them they use 21 different ingredients.
The three recipes need 21 ingredients between them, of which 6 are shared by more than one dish. Bay leaves and dried oregano the hardest to find: of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas, 23 use bay leaves and 13 use dried oregano. Every ingredient list on this page is complete, with quantities, and free to read.
Tostones is the quickest at 30 minutes. Moros y cristianos is the longest at 850 minutes, most of it unattended. The median is 190 minutes — a weekend dish rather than a weeknight one.
Moros y cristianos and Tostones are rated easy — start there. The full method is on each recipe page, step by step, free to read.
Cuba is part of Caribbean.
Countries close to Cuba on the globe — and close on the plate.
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