Arroz a la Cubana, a la tuna and chopped veggies

Arroz a la Cubana is another Filipino dish with Spanish roots. Typically made with giniling, we made ours with chopped eggplant, carrots, and red bell pepper sautéed with canned tuna until soft and combined.

Topped with fried egg, and a hearty side of super ripe, heavily-caramelized fried saba banana slices. These two are some of the signature ingredients of Arroz a la Cubana, says the internets.

This is my first time making it, and I love the sweet and savory of this dish. We also fried the rice with garlic for a nicely flavored sinangag. So I guess this is tusabsilog (tuna-saba-silog) too?

If you like sweet and savory with rice, you gotta try this with what you have in your cusina.

Ingredients

• 1 can tuna
• 1 eggplant
• 1 carrot
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 8 saba bananas, ripe
• 3-4 tbsp. oil
• Eggs

Directions

1. Peel and slice the saba bananas length-wise into thin strips, typically 3 slices per banana.
2. Heat a pan with oil, and fry the bananas for 2-3 minutes each side or until golden brown. Set aside when done on a paper towel or rack to drain excess oil.
3. In the same pan, cook how ever many sunny side up or malasadong itlog as you want. Set aside.
4. Coarsely dice all the veggies the same size.
5. On the same pan you fried the bananas, add oil if needed, and heat.
6. Heat the onions and garlic until onions are glossy.
7. Add all the vegetables and toss for 5-8 minutes.
8. Add the canned tuna. Cook for another 5-8 minutes until cooked.
9. Plate 2-3 pieces of banana, 1 egg, 1 scoop of rice, and 1 scoop of the vegetable tuna per plate.