← All recipes · 🇵🇷 Puerto Rican
🇵🇷 Puerto Rican
Bacalao con Yuca
⏱ 50 min (plus overnight soak for the bacalao)
🍞 ~270g across the whole plate (almost entirely from the yuca)
🍽 4-6 (family yield — Sunday plate, leftovers for Monday lunch) servings
⭐ 4/5
⚠️ Estimates only — not medical advice. Carb counts vary by brand and portion. Always verify with your endo or CDCES.
🌍 Cultural note
Bacalao con yuca is the kind of Sunday plate that smells like abuela's kitchen — salted cod warmed through with sofrito over a mountain of warm yuca, the whole thing crowned with a slick of olive oil and sweet, silky onions. It's the dish that taught us food doesn't have to be fancy to feel like love. Mami plates it family-style on a big platter and sets a little bowl of olive oil + raw onion + vinegar on the side so each plate gets a fresh splash. Lent food. Sunday food. The food of an island.
🍽️ Kid's plate — the carb math
The bacalao + olive-oil-onion topping is essentially zero-carb — the kid's portion carbs come from the yuca. From the family platter:
| Kid portion | Carbs |
|---|---|
| ¼ cup yuca + 2 oz bacalao + dressing | ~11g |
| ⅓ cup yuca + 2 oz bacalao + dressing | ~15g |
| ½ cup yuca + 3 oz bacalao + dressing | ~22g |
Adults take their full plate. The family eats together.
Why this recipe is T1D-friendly
- Bacalao (salt cod) is zero-carb protein with a long, slow burn — pairs beautifully with the yuca starch
- Yuca has a moderate GI (lower than white potato of the same carb count) — gentler blood sugar climb
- The olive-oil-and-onion dressing means real fat slows absorption — built-in glycemic damper, abuela-approved
- Bulk the kid's plate with extra avocado, more bacalao, or a side salad to add satisfying volume without adding carbs
Ingredients
- 1½ lbs dried salted cod (bacalao), soaked overnight, drained, flaked (~0g)
- 3 lbs fresh yuca, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks (~270g carbs total, ~45g per cooked cup)
- 1 large yellow onion, sliced into thin rings (~10g)
- 6 cloves garlic, smashed (~3g)
- ½ cup good olive oil
- ¼ cup white vinegar (or fresh lime juice) (~1g)
- 3 tablespoons sofrito (see Sofrito Base recipe in this book) (~3g)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- Black pepper, freshly cracked
- Salt — go LIGHT, the bacalao is already very salty
- Optional garnish: fresh cilantro, sliced hard-boiled egg
Directions
- Soak the bacalao overnight in cold water in the fridge, changing the water 2-3 times to pull out the salt. The next day, drain, then place in a pot with fresh cold water, bring to a gentle simmer for 10 minutes, drain again. Flake into bite-sized pieces, picking out any small bones.
- Boil the yuca in salted water with one of the bay leaves until fork-tender, about 25-30 minutes. Drain. Pull out the woody center fiber from each chunk.
- Start with sofrito (the dressing base) — in a small skillet, warm the olive oil over medium-low heat. Add 2-3 tablespoons of sofrito and sauté 1-2 minutes until fragrant. This is the base of the warm dressing.
- Soften the onions — add the sliced onion and smashed garlic, sauté gently 8-10 minutes until the onions are silky and translucent. DON'T brown them — you want them soft and sweet, not crispy.
- Finish the dressing — stir in the oregano and the remaining bay leaf. Cook 1 more minute. Off heat, whisk in the vinegar (it'll sizzle — that's the magic), then crack in plenty of black pepper.
- Assemble the platter — arrange the warm yuca on a large serving platter, scatter the flaked bacalao across the top, then pour the warm olive-oil-onion dressing over everything. Toss gently to coat.
- Serve family-style with extra olive oil and lime wedges on the side. Garnish with cilantro and sliced hard-boiled egg if you like.
Dash's kid tips 🐆
- "Tell your kid the yuca is 'tropical mashed potato' — they'll try it. Once they taste the warm garlicky olive oil, they're sold."
- "Kids who don't love onion: scoop their portion of plain warm yuca + bacalao onto their plate first, before tossing the platter. Serve the dressing in a little dunk-it ramekin on the side. Choice = more eating."
- "Leftover bacalao + yuca reheats well — make Sunday's family platter feed Monday's lunch too. Just don't reheat it to death; gentle warming, not microwave-blast."