I made a gallon of this Vegetarian Red Pozole last week and slurped up every single ounce of it 🙂 Pozole is typically simmered with pork, but here I'm making a vegetarian version and it can be just as satisfying when you make a few key adjustments. It brought me loads of soul-warming meals throughout the week, and I hope it does the same for you! Here's how to make it....
When making a vegetarian Pozole you'll want to address the savoriness. There are a couple ways to do it: Add some fat to your broth, like a neutral flavored oil. Or use some really good vegetarian stock, preferably homemade. I go with the latter as I make this Better Vegetable Stock on a regular basis. It relies on nutritional yeast to inject some of that savory umami flavor to your stock.
You'll also need some hominy for your Pozole -- have you used hominy before? It's nixtamalized, cooked corn and you can find it in the Latin goods aisle, usually sold in bigger 30 oz. cans. Hominy is the unique ingredient that makes your Pozole an official Pozole, so keep an eye out for some the next time you go to the supermarket.
To make your Pozole, start by roasting the dried chiles. The chiles are the flavor base for the broth. For this batch I used: 6 Ancho chiles 6 Guajillo chiles But don't sweat the chile combo too much. You are welcome to use all Anchos if that's what you have available and you'll still get a good result.
After de-stemming and de-seeding, give your chiles a couple minutes in the oven (400F) to wake them up. Sure, you can flash roast these in a pan, but I think it's easiest to just plop them in the oven when using this many. Once roasted you can submerge these chile pieces in the hottest tap water you've got and let them reconstitute for 20 minutes or so.
As the chiles reconstitute you can start building the Pozole. Start by cooking a finely chopped onion in a glug of oil over medium heat. Once the onion has softened you can add 6 minced garlic cloves. Let the garlic cook briefly and then add half of this onion-garlic mixture to a blender where it will become part of the chile puree.
Add the following ingredients to the remaining onion-garlic mixture in the pan: 8 cups stock 2 cans hominy (drained and rinsed) 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano 1/2 teaspoon cumin pinch of ground clove (optional) pinch of ground cinnamon (optional) freshly cracked black pepper 1 teaspoon salt
Drain the reconstituted chiles and add them to the blender along with 2 cups of stock. Half of the onion-garlic mixture should already be in the blender. Combine well and add this chile puree to the soup pot.
Bring this mixture up to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and let cook for 20-25 minutes. And be sure to take a final taste for seasoning! The exact salt level will depend on which stock you're using.
Once you're happy with the flavor you can move on to the creative part....the garnishes! For this batch I topped with: thinly sliced cabbage (tossed in some lime juice and a smidge of salt) avocado slices freshly chopped cilantro squeeze of lime thinly sliced Serrano chiles
And it was off-the-charts delicious 🙂 I hope you try out this Vegetarian Red Pozole recipe -- it's a real treat to warm up some veggie Pozole for a quick meal. Click the 'Get the recipe!' button below to see the full instructions. Enjoy!!