Sunday's Soup

During this busy time of year, it's so wonderful to come home to a lovely aroma and know that dinner is ready. Now more than ever, I feel that we need to come back to home cooked food and family meals. Nothing is more precious than time spent together. Especially this week, we are all too aware that there is no promise of tomorrow. And in what we feel are the safest situations, sending our child to school or simply walking across a street on an evening walk, life can be over in an instant.

I am always experimenting in the kitchen, I love it! Today I am sharing my crazy little version of 

Slow Cooker Vegetarian Pozole 

The recipe is so very simple. Basically, chop everything up and throw it all in a slow cooker.
Ingredients;
1 large onion, chopped
2 green bell peppers, chopped

2 poblano peppers, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 14 oz. bag of Dried White Hominy

1 14 oz. bag of red beans

2 28 oz. cans of fire roasted tomatoes 

1 bottle of beer, Mexican if you have it, but any beer will be fine

1 tablespoon of Mexican Chili powder

1 teaspoon of ground cumin

1 teaspoon of ground chili ancho, can be found in any Mexican market

1 teaspoon of oregano

3 bay leaves

2 cups of water, you may need to add a little more water while cooking

salt and pepper to taste

*Dried hominy can be found in a Mexican market. If you cannot find the dried hominy, substitute 2 large cans of hominy. Be sure to drain and rinse the hominy if you are using canned. The bag above represents what I buy.

This stew takes very little time to prepare. I begin by soaking my beans and hominy overnight.

The next morning drain and rinse the hominy and beans and add to your slow cooker.

Chop your vegetables and add all other ingredients to the pot. I know that the beer sounds like a weird ingredient. Please don't leave it out as it really makes this stew wonderful and you will never know it's there, but you'll miss it if you leave it out. If you would like a non vegetarian version, you can add ground beef, pork, sausage or chicken. Just be sure to brown your meat before you add it to your slow cooker. Or, it is a good way to stretch your leftovers. 

You can see from the above picture that this makes a large pot of stew.

Cook on low for the entire day, 8 hours.

When I took the pictures, I had just mixed the ingredients. It's cooking as I write this post.

To serve, chop some cilantro, avocado, green onions and or maybe some shredded cheese of your choice and serve.

This does make a large pot. What I like to do when I make my soups is freeze the extra in serving size containers. When someone stops by, I love to send a container of soup home with them. Just a little love from my kitchen.

Enjoy!

Rhonda