Habichuelas con dulce is a sweet bean-based soup from the Dominican Republic. Red beans are blended with milk, sugar, and spices, then reduced with sweet potatoes for a thick, creamy texture. It is traditionally served during Lent and Easter with milk biscuits and cassava bread.
Habichuelas con dulce is a dessert from the Dominican Republic that resembles a kind of sweet bean-based soup. The dish also includes milk, sugar and spices. The liquid from the beans is cooked with the rest of the ingredients in a pot until smooth, after which a diced sweet potato is added to help develop the dessert’s thick, creamy texture. The completed soup can be served at room temperature, chilled, or made into ice cream. It is traditionally eaten during the Lenten and Easter seasons along with milk biscuits, cassava bread and raisins as a side dish.
Red beans are used as the base for habichuelas con dulce. The beans are soaked overnight and then boiled in water until very soft. Once cooked, the beans are placed in a blender – along with a little water, if they are too thick – and blended until very smooth. The resulting puree is then strained to remove any remaining skins or other particles, and the strained liquid is returned to the cooking pan.
The next step in making the dessert is adding condensed milk, evaporated milk and coconut milk to the beans. The color of the soup lightens considerably after the milk is added and boiled with the liquid. Sugar and diced sweet potatoes are added to the habichuelas con dulce and the mixture is reduced, with the sweet potatoes providing a rich texture. The soup can be reduced until very thick or left thin so it flows better, although it will thicken as it cools, especially when chilled in a refrigerator.
Spices may be added while the habichuelas con dulce is reducing. These spices are traditionally cinnamon and cloves, although the recipe tends to vary from family to family. Other ingredients that can be added are nutmeg, ginger and vanilla.
Once the habichuelas con dulce is completed and of the desired consistency, the butter and raisins are added and melted into the soup, after which it is allowed to cool a bit. It can be eaten this way or, more often, the dessert is chilled in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight. Dessert is usually served with milk biscuits and a type of cassava-based toast. The whole mixture can also be placed in a freezer or ice cream maker and frozen into an ice cream bowl.
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