Soup is life. It’s delicious and comforting. Every culture has their own classics. In Québec, we have our yellow split pea soup to keep us warm in the winter and make us feel better. France has its onion soup. Japan has ramen. Vietnam has pho. Ukraine has borscht.
In Mexico, there’s a traditional soup enjoyed on special occasions called pozole. There are many variations from one recipe to the other. But the constants are a homemade broth, meat, and hominy (which is a type of corn). The soup is usually served with condiments like onion, cabbage or lettuce, radishes, and oregano.
I tasted my first pozole soup at El Rey del Taco in Montreal near the Jean Talon Market. It was meaty, spicy and I loved every spoonful.
For the challenge, and to be able to eat more of it, I decided I would make pozole soup at home. Looking around the web to get a recipe, I was surprised to see how different the recipes were from websites to websites. I’m guessing that, like with spaghetti sauce, each family has their own pozole soup recipe and is convinced their version is the right one.
For starters, you should know that there are many types of pozole soup. Pozole Rojo is made with red salsa, pozole Verde with green salsa and there’s a white version made without salsa. You can also prepare the soup with pork or chicken. The pozole I had tasted and loved was made with pork and a red salsa, so that’s what I chose.
The Process
To cook pozole soup, you first have to prepare your own broth with your meat of choice. It takes time, but it’s really worth it. The flavors you’ll get from your broth will be wonderful. While the broth is simmering, you can prepare the peppers puree that will be your red salsa. Once the broth has been drained, and the meat put aside, you mix the salsa into it. (Since I don’t have a high tolerance for spices, I added the salsa gradually and stopped when it was spicy enough for me.) Once the soup base is done, you add the shredded meat and then the hominy.
The Result
In the end, I was really satisfied with my soup. My boyfriend isn’t a huge fan of soup as a meal. Nevertheless, the meatiness of this soup won him over. Since my recipe made a lot of soup for two people, I froze a part of my batch. When I defrosted it a few weeks later, it was as delicious as before.
Here’s a recipe for red pozole in case you want to make it at home too. In my experience, it’s not a complicated recipe, but it does take time. Even so, I highly recommend it.
You can find dried peppers and cans of white hominy in all Mexican grocery stores. But, you might not need to make a detour. Big grocery stores with a good Mexican produce section might just have all the ingredients you need to make this recipe. In Québec, you’ll find it all at your nearest Maxi.
In conclusion, soup is life and you must make pozole at home 😉
If you try making this recipe at home, please share your experience in the comments section.
Have a great day!
