Description
Habichuelas con dulce is a traditional Dominican dessert very popular during Easter / Holy Week. It’s an easy dessert recipe to make with pureed red kidney beans cooked down on the stove with coconut milk, evaporated milk, sugar, raisins, small cubed sweet potatoes; spiced with cinnamon sticks and whole cloves; and served with milk cookies called casabe.
Ingredients
- 4 cups red kidney beans
- 7 cups water to cook the beans
- 3 cups (24 oz) lite unsweetened coconut milk
- 4 cups (36 oz) low-fat 2% evaporated milk
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1-1/2 cups white sugar
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 12 whole cloves
- 1/2 lb white sweet potatoes (batata), cut into small cubes
- 1/2 cup raisins
To garnish
Instructions
- Pressure cooker:
- Place the beans in a large bowl and fill with water to rinse them. You will notice that the bad beans will float to the top. Remove those beans, then drain out the water.
- Add beans in the pressure cooker/instant pot and add 7 cups of water to cover with 3” of water over the beans. You can add another cup without exceeding your instant pot capacity.
- Close the lid and set your pressure cooker for 60 minutes with a natural release. For stove-top method and other important information see the notes.
- Blend the beans with the remaining cooking liquid. Blend in batches. If you think the mixture is too thick, use some of the milk in the blending process. You want to have a loose consistency you can put through a fine mesh strainer.
- Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a large pot. Add the light coconut milk, low fat evaporate milk, sugar, sea salt, cinnamon sticks, raisins, and whole cloves. Mix to combine.
- Bring the pot to a light boil on the stove over medium heat. Reduce heat to a low simmer. Stir throughout the cooking time to prevent the mixture from sticking to the bottom. Cook for about 30 minutes. Remove the cinnamon sticks and cloves.
- Boil the small cubed sweet potatoes in a small saucepan with a pinch of salt and one cinnamon stick, for about 10 minutes or until they are cooked through but still holding their shape. Add the cooked sweet potatoes to the sweet beans.
- Transfer the cream of sweet beans to a large serving bowl. Let it cool at room temperature and then transfer to the refrigerator. Serve in individual bowls with some milk cookies.
Notes
Once the sweet cream of beans is cold it becomes thicker. Keep this in mind when you are cooking the beans. You want to get it to a loose creamy soup consistency.
You can eat these sweet beans warm or cold. Traditionally, we wait at least until they are room temperature or chilled.
Is 15 servings too much? Check out the full recipe post for a modified 8 servings batch
Soak the beans overnight? I don’t pre-soak the beans. If you prefer to soak the beans overnight, check out the recipe blog post for pro tips on how to do that and modified cooking time.
No pressure cooker or instant pot? If you don’t have a pressure cooker or instant pot, no problem. Check out the full recipe post for the stove-top method of cooking the beans
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 80 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Stove-top
- Cuisine: Dominican
