Vegetarian Pozole Soup

I had a number of friends over this weekend, some of which are vegetarians. Serving soup on a cool Fall day was the only idea I could come up with for lunch. I just don’t like the gotta-make-pasta for vegetarians cop out for a meal. So, soup it was! But, what could I come up with that would be easy peasy?

I love pozole and I just canned several half pints of tomatillo sauce.  That’s the ticket! I decided to use two cans of black beans to give the soup some color in place of pork. In the end, it still needed something. Something was missing….No, not pork. Could not add that…. I added three scant dashes of Tapatillo sauce and that seemed to be the trick.

Just FYI, I use low sodium ingredients. If you do not, salt and pepper the soup to taste. Paul is not crazy about cilantro, so I only provide it for garnish. If you love cilantro, add a heaping tablespoon of chopped cilantro when you add the last ingredients.

Ingredients

1 medium sweet onion, chopped fine

1 each red and orange bell peppers, cut pepper in quarters, then in to 2″ slices and cut into 1.5″ long matchsticks

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp each of cumin and paprika

1 half pint homemade tomatillo sauce or small 6oz can green tomatillo sauce from Mexican aisle at your favorite store

1  4oz can diced mild green chilies

2  32oz boxes Pacific Vegetable broth (low sodium)

2  14oz cans black beans, drained & rinsed well (low sodium)

1  30oz can white hominy, drained & rinsed well

Salt and pepper to taste (I used ¼ teaspoon each)

Dash or two or three of Tapatillo or Chulula sauce

Olive oil for cooking

Directions

Heat heavy 6 qt. stock or soup pot over medium high heat, add a scant tablespoon of olive oil. Add onions and cook until tender. Turn up heat a bit and brown the onions slightly. Add the bell peppers and garlic. Turn heat back to medium high and cook until softened. Add diced green chilies, cumin and paprika, mix well. Now add the tomatillo sauce, broth, black beans and hominy. This would be a good time to salt & pepper to taste. Turn down heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.

Garnish with sliced radishes, Cotija cheese, sliced limes and cilantro. Bon Appétit!

#vegetarian #pozole #easyrecipe #soup #comfortfood