Although pozole is a chile-filled concoction usually eaten on New Year's Day or Christmas, we're still in the throes of soup season.
Often, pozole is enlivened by either verde (green chile) or rojo (red) with pork or chicken. But, since the USA is experiencing a deep freeze from coast to coast, I included both types of chile in this pozole recipe.
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Ingredients:
- Pork shoulder (bone-in for best flavor)
- Olive oil
- Hominy corn
- Green chiles, diced
- Onion, diced
- Garlic, minced
- Red chile Bueno frozen or a canned brand
- Cumin
- Oregano, preferably Mexican
- Kosher salt, divided use
- Black pepper, freshly ground
- Limes
Green and red chile: This recipe features fresh green chile grown in New Mexico plus frozen red chile from Bueno foods.
Chile verde (green) was sourced locally at the Santa Fe Farmer's Market.
Animal or vegetable? Pozole rojo or verde?
The pork shoulder will fall into tender shreds at the end of the cooking time, but you don't have to use meat in your pozole. The main requirements for pozole are chile and hominy corn.
A vegetarian option would be soyrizo, which is a plant-based protein that tastes like chorizo. Pozole also tastes excellent with only hominy corn and green chile.
Many pozole recipes with chicken are also available. Here's a good one by Emma Christensen on the Fine Cooking website.
Traditionally, chicken pozole features salsa verde, while red chile is the star of pork pozole.
Nutrition bone benefits with pork pozole
As mentioned, cooking pozole with bone-in pork adds flavor. Adding a bone to a soup or stew always amps the umami.
Also, there are nutritional goodies from the bone, cartilage, and connective tissue. You'll add collagen, along with calcium and a slew of other minerals like magnesium and phosphorous.
(If you want to know more about how collagen can benefit your joints, skin, and other body systems, read Collagen: 3 or 4 Ways It Keeps a Body Together.)
You'll actually be adding gelatin and its associated amino acids to the soup since collagen becomes gelatin when it is cooked. This is why soups and stocks cooked with bones and animal parts turn jelly-like as they cool.
Maybe you are wondering, "what are these beneficial amino acids, and what makes them so great?" Mainly, they are proline, glycine, and glutamate.
- Proline helps with cartilage and joint repair
- Glycine acts like a neurotransmitter in the brain. It's good for improving sleep.
- Glutamate is also a neurotransmitter, but it has an excitatory function, and it is important for digestion. It endows foods with an umami depth of taste.
Of course, the bone marrow itself contains iron (since this is where your red blood cells start their life).
According to Medical News Today, it boasts many other nutrients:
- Fatty acids
- Vitamins A and K
- Selenium
- Zinc
- Manganese
Pozole soup is not bone broth, but it will have many of the same health benefits as bone broth if you make it with chicken or pork that contains bones.
Before serving, however, remove the meat from the bones. Shred the meat and return it to the soup. This will make for a better eating experience.
(Collagen peptides are a worthwhile supplement. I recommend Vital Proteins, Garden of Life, and Neocell.)
More nutrition bonuses: Hominy corn & nixtamilization
The hominy corn in the soup is a healthy, gluten-free carbohydrate, rich in fiber. Part of what makes hominy so wholesome and so large -- it's sometimes called giant corn -- is nixtamilization.
Nixtimalization is a process that uses lime, wood ash, lye, or calcium hydroxide to create an alkali soaking solution for the corn that frees up nutrients like niacin (vitamin B3) and eradicates fungi, e.g., mycotoxins. It improves the flavor and aroma of the corn.
Corn soaked in an alkali (like lime juice and water) puffs up, becoming hominy corn.
Native peoples in the Americas have used the soaking process for centuries to make their corn more wholesome. They showed European settlers how to make the nixtamilization solution (with wood ash) when they arrived in the U.S.
(The Story of Corn, by Betty Fussell, is an excellent social history of grain and its role in American food culture. You wouldn't expect a book about a commodity to be such a page-turner, but it's a fascinating read.)
In fact, corn tortillas, tamales, tortilla chips, and more are made from masa dough that uses nixtamal or ground, treated corn. You can find this corn flour or masa harina in many grocery stores.
When populations eat a diet based on corn and don't use nixtamilization, a deficiency called pellagra can develop. It's characterized by the four "D"s: diarrhea, dementia, dermatitis, and death.
Pellagra was common in the southern region of the U.S. in the early part of the 20th century. By the 1950s, the U.S. started to fortify bread and other cereal products with B vitamins.
It's still found in economically disadvantaged parts of Africa and India where corn is a staple food.
Fix pozole for your eating style
Whether you prefer a vegan, vegetarian, or Flexitarian eating experience, pozole is gluten-free and perfect if you or your loved ones have celiac or gluten sensitivity.
Here's an easy vegetarian recipe from the SpruceEats that focuses solely on hominy corn. It doesn't even call for chiles, just chile powder!
Serve this hearty, comforting bowl with corn tortillas on the side for your gluten-free family and friends!
Other soup recipes you might enjoy...
Corn and sausage chowder is a hearty and creamy soup you can make in the slow cooker.
Mushroom and barley soup is easy to put together in the Instant Pot. It takes about 10 minutes longer on the stovetop. Either way, it's a filling vegetarian or vegan meal!
Minestrone di verdure is another vegetarian option that's only slightly less hearty.
Of course, you can add chopped, cooked meat or chicken to either the mushroom barley or the minestrone soups!
Soup season is technically fall and winter, but they are easy and delicious throughout the year.
If you want to freeze soups for later, check out these silicone storage containers. You can freeze the soup in individual portions.
Red and Green Pozole
Equipment
- Dutch oven
- cutting boards
- measuring cups
- large forks
Ingredients
- 3 pounds pork shoulder bone-in for best taste
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 2 pounds hominy corn Bueno fresh hominy corn, or use 2 25-oz cans
- ⅔ cup green chiles diced
- ½ cup onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 8 ounces red chile Bueno frozen or a canned brand
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 teaspoon oregano preferably Mexican
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt divided use
- ¾ teaspoon black pepper freshly ground
- 2 limes
Toppings:
- cabbage, shredded
- radishes, thinly sliced
- sour cream
- Cilantro sprigs
Instructions
- Wash hands thoroughly and assemble ingredients. Measure and prep as necessary to have ingredients ready to use.
- Coat the inside of a slow cooker with non-stick olive oil spray to make clean-up easier.
- Heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Place pork shoulder on a cutting board and pat dry. Season with ¾ teaspoon of salt and sear it on all sides in the hot oil. Be sure to keep raw pork separate from other ingredients and wash hands again after handling. Do not use cutting board for prepping other ingredients. Clean and sanitize after use.
- Rinse the hominy corn and spread it over the bottom of the slow cooker along with green chiles, onion, and garlic. Place the seared shoulder on top of the vegetables.(If roast is too large to fit comfortably in the slow cooker, slice it in half. Place a half on either side of the cooker. Clean and sanitize the knife used to cut the pork.)
- Add the red chile and dry spices to the slow cooker. Squeeze the limes over all ingredients, and add water to cover.
- Put the lid on the slow cooker and set on low for 8 hours or high for 6 hours. Stir the mixture a couple of times, but don't take lid off too often or it will slow the cooking process.
- At the end of the cook time, check the pork for doneness. You should be able to remove it from the bone and shred it easily, even if it is a little firm.
- Return the shredded pieces of pork to the stew and thoroughly combine with hominy corn and other ingredients. Let the stew become piping hot while you prepare the toppings.
- Serve the pozole with warm tortillas, shredded cabbage, thinly sliced radishes, sprigs of cilantro, and lime wedges.
Notes
Nutrition
Copyright © 2021 Jani Hall Leuschel
Ruth
Great slow cooker recipe!
Jeff Leuschel
Wonderful idea for a meal that normally is not thought of. Thanks.