Vegan Menudo:
Vegan Menudo is the exact thing I’ve been waiting to make. I remember years ago my Uncle Ron telling me he had a friend who was vegetarian who had started making meatless menudo with mushrooms as the replacement for the tripe. At the time I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Menudo is something I was raised on, and reminds me so much of my grandfather. It’s usually the first thing Mexican vegetarians and vegans say they miss ‘food-wise’ since going meatless. Me being one of those people I had to resolve this craving. A few weeks ago I set out to do just that with my vegan menudo recipe. I basically kept the same chile sauce and hominy that I used to use when making menudo and substituded the tripe with sauteed mushrooms and onion. To give the soup some substance I used vegetable broth and blended some of the hominy into it which worked perfectly as a thickener. Go ahead and give this recipe a spin… you won’t be disappointed.
Ingredients for Vegan Menudo:
- 3 – guajillo chiles
- 2 – California chiles
- 2 – ancho chiles
- 6 – chile de arbol
- 5 to 6 – garlic cloves
- 2 – white onion ( 1 – onion will be cut into 1/4 inch slices and the other onion will be cut in half, 1/2 to be used for the chile, and 1/2 to be diced for the top of the vegan menudo)
- 1/2 – teaspoon salt
- 48 oz – vegetable broth
- 6 – cups hominy (3 – 29 oz cans) , drained and rinsed
- 1 – tablespoon olive oil
- 2 lbs – baby bella mushrooms (each mushroom cut into fours)
Toppings:
- chopped onion
- dried oregano
- lime
- cilantro
- chili flakes
Directions:
- Remove stems and seeds from all chiles.
- Boil all chiles in a pot for 30 minutes. Remove from flame and reserve water chiles boiled in.
- Add chiles, garlic cloves, 1/2 of onion, salt and 1 1/2 cups of water the chiles boiled in to a blender. Blend until completely smooth.
- Pour chiles through sieve and with the back of a spoon swirl until all chile is collected in a bowl and the seeds and skin remain in the sieve.
- In a large pot over a medium flame add vegetable broth, hominy, and chile. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer.
- Remove two cups of hominy from pot and place in a blender. Blend until smooth then pour back into pot. This help thicken the broth just slightly giving it a heartier taste.
- In a large frying pan over a medium high flame add in 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sliced onion. Saute until onion is limp for about 6 minutes. Add onion to broth and hominy mixture.
- In the same frying pan over a medium high flame fry mushrooms until slightly browned for about 6 minutes, stirring every two minutes. Add mushrooms to the broth and hominy mixture.
- Allow soup to continue to simmer for 15 minutes, then serve.
- Garnish with any of the fixings above!
- Watch my mini video below for a quick how to!
