Cuban ropa vieja features shredded beef slowly cooked with tomatoes, peppers, onions, and spices.
The beef is simmered until tender and pulled into strands, then cooked in a tomato-based sauce with aromatics. It is commonly served with white rice, black beans, and fried plantains, making it one of Cuba’s best-known complete meals.
The Spanish name ropa vieja means “old clothes,” a reference to the shredded appearance of the meat. The dish has older Spanish and Canarian culinary connections and became established in Cuban cooking through migration and colonial-era exchange.
Ropa vieja is sometimes confused with vaca frita. Vaca frita also uses shredded beef, but the meat is typically marinated and fried with onions until browned rather than simmered in a tomato sauce. Picadillo, meanwhile, is made from ground meat.