Last Updated on May 31, 2015 by Chef Mireille
Habichuela con Dulce – Caribbean Red Bean Pudding is a delicious holiday dessert from the Dominican Republic. Filled with warm winter spices like clove and cinnamon, this rich spiced pudding is a protein packed dessert.
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Translated literally, habichuela con dulce is “beans with sweet” or Sweet Beans. This sweet bean pudding is so creamy and delicious – it’s a great way to hide protein rich beans in a dessert for kids.
My best friend O since I was 8 years old is from the Dominican Republic. Being friends for so long, we are like family to each other. I have been to many a birthday, wedding, christening, birth and holiday celebrations at her family. O’s Mom is a fabulous cook and one of my favorite dishes of her Mom’s is habichuela con dulce. She and I were roommates for a few years after college and lived next door to her Mom. I loved coming home from work and finding a big pot of habichuela con dulce in the refrigerator.
Unfortunately, O moved to South Jersey last year and due to my busy work schedule, I haven’t seen her in about a year. I couldn’t get her to make it for me.
I instead went to another friend A who is from the Dominican Republic who lives much closer to me and her Mom came over and made it for me one day. However, this dish is very customizeable according to personal preferences and some things she did differently, but I adapted her basic recipe to the flavors O’s mom used and I achieved the same consistency and flavor I remember from O’s mom. I was so happy with the result as it had been many years since I had this treat.
Some prefer it with less spices like A’s mom, but I prefer the more flavorful version below using O’s mom’s version. Some like it 100% pureed while others make it not pureed at all with more whole beans in it. Some like it thicker and you can cook it for longer to achieve that. You can adjust the recipe below according to your personal preference.
Popular for Christmas, but often served at other family occasions also, Habichuela con Dulce is one of my favorite Dominican treats.
Add the freshly grated nutmeg on top.
Garnish with milk cookies.
To eat, dunk the cookies into the pudding. The cookies will soften, but wont turn mushy. This is the way to enjoy it.
Habichuela con Dulce – Caribbean Red Bean Pudding
Ingredients
- 1 lb. roman beans soaked overnight
- 12 oz. can evaporated milk
- 15.25 oz. can coconut milk
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 7 cloves
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
- 1 cup raisins
- freshly grated nutmeg for garnish
- Dominican milk cookies similar to American tea biscuits/English digestive biscuits
Instructions
- Cook beans in 8 cups water until tender. Let it cool for a few minutes.In a blender, puree half of the beans and cooking liquid (about 5 cups).
- Return to the pot.
- Add evaporated milk, coconut milk, salt, cinnamon stick, cloves, vanilla, butter and sugar.
- Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until thickened, about 1 hour.
- Halfway through the cooking time, add the raisins.
- This can be served either chilled or warm.
- Add the freshly grated nutmeg on top.
- Garnish with milk cookies.
Notes
Nutrition
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Bless them both A and O and their moms for introducing this beautiful looking treat..when you said you came from work to have it …i thoguht about my son who would love such treats…nice dish again Mir…loved the milk cookies on top as well
Pudding looks so appetizing. Recipe is really interesting. And I enjoyed reading you intro.
Omg, such an interesting pudding, looks fabulous Mir, seriously i got to introduce to this cuisine when i was searching for this BM, they do have many beautiful dishes na, hope i'll make this pudding very soon.
Love that milk cookies and very interesting recipe beans in a sweet way very new . going to check what is that roman beans, if we get them here or not let me try…
You have been lucky to have such wonderful friends..:)..never knew abt roman beans..nice pudding and enjoyed reading..
between A and O, you have a winner of a recipe 🙂 wonder what roman beans are though … can it be substituted with something else , like say kidney beans… proteins hidden in a dessert is new .. bookmarking !
Roman beans are the most popular used for this pudding but often times other beans are used – usually small red beans, (a smaller version of kidnety beans), pink beans or pinto beans
cool ! thanks Mir !
Beans is dessert is new to me, although Indian cuisine does have sweets made from lentils. Lucky to have friends near by whose moms' treat you with some yummy homemade food. Pudding looks creamy and delicious
Sweet beans are served as a dessert in Japan too..but stuffed into a rice flour..this dessert looks interesting specially I like the dunking idea.
Very interesting dessert Mir. Thanks to your friends and their moms for the recipe idea.
What a creamy & delicious bean pudding. Love those tiny milk cookie garnish on top 🙂
Bean pudding is new to me but it looks so rich and delicious !
Enjoyed reading the post Mir. This is such a lovely dessert and the clicks make it all the more delicious…
Such a lovely dessert with beans! As Usha mentioned we do make kheers / halwas with certain beans. However Roman / red variety beans is hardly ever considered a dessert material.
Looks delicious thanks for sharing with Hearth and Soul blog hop. Pinning.
What an interesting way to incorporate beans into dessert. The pudding looks so nice..
Yummilicious pudding Mir!!! Love the color of it!!! Good Food brings great memories, hope you get to meet your friend soon!! 🙂
Yummy pudding Mir. I enjoyed your intro and loved the way the pudding looks.
Yummy pudding.. Those cookies on top are so cute..
Your instructions said to run half the beans in the blender. What happens to the other half of the beans?
You leave them in the pot because you want some of the beans to remain intact.