We were eating a simple breakfast in a restaurant on Isla Cozumel. We considered it a good sign that we were the only tourists there, and munched happily on chips and the salsa de la casa as locals around us talked work and pleasure.
I scratched the salsa recipe onto a napkin as an enthusiastic server explained step-by-step how to make it. Now, I scribble “Salsa de Cozumel” on jars and jars of it that I stash in the freezer every year, but really I should probably have named it for that restaurant. It’s packed with cilantro, onion, and chiles, and is incredibly tasty with chips, and here, as a base for a simple pozole verde, gringa-style.
I first made pozole verde this year after Thanksgiving, inspired by this interview with chef Hugo Ortega in Houston. His recipe reminded me of the delicious pozole verde we had in Mérida, the beautiful capital city of Yucatán state, where Mayans have been cooking with turkey for thousands of years. Pozole is a pre-hispanic pork and hominy stew popular all over Mexico: pozole rojo is usually made with red chiles and pork (pozole norteño, or menudo, uses tripe), but the more rare green pozole uses tomatillos, green herbs, and chicken or turkey.
This soup is very loosely based on the delicious memories I have of that post-thanksgiving recipe, but also on memories of lazy meals sitting in courtyards and patios, enjoying the most delicious Yucatecan food in Mérida, Tulum, and Isla Cozumel.
Mostly though, it was one of those miraculous times several ingredients (mostly straight out of the pantry and freezer) came together to make something more delicious than the sum of its parts.
This recipe is a good lesson in quarantine-induced substitutions. Not being able to run to the store has encouraged me to experiment with using what I have. To replace the soup base, I used broth and a salsa verde I had stashed in the freezer. Since our trip to the Yucatán, I make this salsa every year with our tomatillo crop.
I’ve also replaced the traditional turkey for jackfruit. Jackfruit is a southeast asian fruit that, when underripe, serves as a lovely vegan substitute for meat, especially shredded-style meat like pulled pork or shredded turkey in soups. I first discovered this ingenious us of jackfruit from Jackie Sobon’s Jackfruit Chile Verde recipe in Vegan Bowl Attack, so I knew it would work great here. I’ve added cooked white beans for a boost of protein, a couple of chopped chiles for extra kick, and some frozen hominy I found stashed in the back of our freezer.
Here’s the basic recipe, but really, the lesson here is use what you have, and make it delicious!
- 1 jar salsa verde
- 2-4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
- 1 can green jackfruit (do not use ripe)
- 3 cups hominy, rinsed
- 3 cups cooked white beans + cooking liquid
- 1-2 fresh chopped jalapeños or serranos
- for serving: fresh cilantro, chile oil, sour cream, tortillas
Start with the jalapeños for a nice smokey kick: throw them in whole and let them blacken a bit in the dry bottom of a hot soup pot. Keep an eye so they don’t scorch. You just want a little smokiness to develop. Pull them out and chop roughly, then throw them back in along with the drained jackfruit. Spend a minute breaking up the chunks with the back of a wooden spoon and letting them get a little toasty, allowing the fruit to break down a bit into it’s natural grains. Then add the salsa verde, 2 cups broth (you can always add more later), beans + 1 cup cooking liquid, & hominy. Bring to a boil, & serve!
I added sour cream, chili oil, cilantro, and some old tortillas I transformed into tortilla strips (stack tortillas, then slice tortillas into thin strips, toss in olive oil & salt, then bake at 400F for around 10 minutes or until crispy). If you want to keep it vegan, use vegetable stock and cashew crema, or just leave the cream off. It’s delicious either way.
¡Disfrútalo!
