Pepper Sisters Pozole

Travesty. Pozole should have big chunks of pork. But this was super tasty, and pretty close to what I remember from Pepper Sisters.

Ingredients

6-8 cups vegetable stock

2oz Epazote (dried herb available in any Latin market)*

3 bay leaves

3 dried chilies (ancho, pasilla, guajillo or whatever)*

2 tsp olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp cumin

2 tsp coriander

3 carrots peeled and chopped

3 stalks celery peeled and chopped

1 28 oz can tomatoes (whole or diced)

1 28 oz can  hominy, drained and rinsed.

2 zucchini seeded and chopped.

3 corn tortillas, chopped. (Optional)

Salt and pepper to taste.

Directions

1. Remove stem and seeds from chilies. Toast in a dry pan until fragrant. Cover with hot water or stock. Let stand for 30 minutes, then add ½ cup of soaking liquid and chiles to a blender. Blend until smooth.
2. Infuse stock. Add Epazote and bay leaves to stock. Let simmer while you do the rest of your prep.*
3. Add olive oil to a dutch oven or heavy stock pot. Saute onions until they start to brown.
4. Add garlic, cumin, coriander and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Cook spices for about a minute then add carrots and celery. Saute for 2-3 minutes.
5. If using whole tomatoes, crush by hand, then add to dutch oven along with chilies and hominy.
6. Strain stock and add to soup, simmer for ~ an hour.
7. Taste for seasoning. Add zucchini and tortillas if using. Summer but zucchini is tender and tortillas break down.
8. Garnish with avocado and diced radish if you’re super fancy.

Cook’s notes:

This is based on a soup I love at Pepper Sisters in Bellingham, Washington. It’s also a pretty standard minestrone recipe with a very Mexican twist.

Epazote looks like weeds and smells a little like dill. More sour though. It’s distinctive and what, along with the chilies, makes this taste like pozole. I strained it out of the stock before I added it to the soup…because it looks like your lawn. Which you shouldn’t eat.

I used a combination of all three chilies because I happen to have them. I think whatever you had on hand would be fine.

In the end I wanted to add a little body to the broth so I added three chopped up corn tortillas and let them break down. You could also keep it brothy or serve it with crushed corn chips on top.