Recipe: Sweet Potato Pozole

So the confession to make here is that I've never had authentic pozole! I adapted this recipe from one in a Moosewood vegetarian cookbook, but their recipe uses squash, and I'm not a big squash guy; over the years, I've made other refinements. My wife once brought leftovers into work, and her actual Mexican coworkers made fun of her for it, and gave her a recipe for the authentic stuff... but I lost it. I keep meaning to get some pozole at a Mexican restaurant, but we haven't gotten around to it yet.

But regardless of its authenticity, I really like this and that's what matters; like many soups, it's even better after it sits in the fridge overnight and you reheat the leftovers. (I need to come back and take a picture of this dish, otherwise it's not an authentic food blog post.)

Ingredients:

• vegetable oil
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves, pressed
• salt
• 28-oz. can chopped tomatoes, with juice
• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
  
• can of beer
• three bell peppers (one red, one orange, one yellow), chopped
  
• 2 15-oz. cans hominy, drained
• 2 tsp. lime juice
• tiny dash red pepper flakes
  
• 1 tbsp. oregano
• shredded Mexican cheese, avocado cubes, and/or crushed tortilla chips for garnish

Directions:

1. Warm oil in a soup pot. Add onion and sauté on medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes, until golden.
2. Stir in garlic and ⅛ tsp. salt and sauté for 2 more minutes.
3. Add tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and beer and simmer for about 10 minutes.
4. Add bell peppers, cover, and cook for 10-15 minutes, until sweet potatoes are tender.
5. Stir in hominy, lime juice, red pepper flakes, ¼ tsp. salt, and oregano. Simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Serve with your favorite garnishes.

Most recently I used a lager for the beer (specifically Landshark), and I think that came out really good; one time I used a beer I thought did not work at all but I don't remember what that was, sorry. The original recipe calls for 2-3 tbsp. chiles in adobo sauce, but there's no way my wife or children would go for that, so I dialed it back to just the red pepper flakes.

I think it pairs well with cornbread. My favorite garnishes are the cheese and chips, but I'm sure you can think of other good stuff too!