Vegetarian Posole in the Instant Pot

December 14, 2020 at 8:10 pm (Beans, Grains, Instant Pot, Jill Nussinow, Mexican & S. American, One pot wonders, Uncategorized)

My Mom sent us a pound of hominy in a Chanukah package, and I decided to try to make posole from it. The package said you should simmer the hominy for 1 to 2 hours, which seemed like a long time, so I decided to make the posole in my Instant Pot. I looked in my “Vegan Under Pressure” cookbook but they don’t list any cooking times for dried hominy. But I looked in the index and found posole. Success! But when I actually turned to the recipe I discovered it with calling for pre-cooked, canned hominy. I guessed that the hominy would cook in about the same amount of time as dried beans, so I soaked both overnight, and then roughly followed the recipe. Except I wasn’t sure exactly how much hominy to use for the 1 can of hominy the recipe calls for. I had soaked the whole pound of dried hominy so I decided just to use the whole thing. I also had soaked 500g of cranberry beans. So that’s where I started. I sauteed some aromatics, then cooked both the soaked beans and hominy together in the instant pot for I think about 12 minutes (but that’s a guess, I didn’t write it down and now I’ve forgotten), followed by a natural release. But at that point the hominy was clearly undercooked. I cooked the beans and hominy for a bit longer under pressure, at which point the beans were definitely soft enough but the hominy was still a bit underdone. Whoops. Maybe I should have put the soaked hominy in with unsoaked cranberry beans instead, and cooked them together for 35 minutes under pressure + NR? In any case, despite the hominy being a tad firm, the posole was yummy. Derek and I both really enjoyed it, but Alma said it was too spicy for her and she really didn’t like the texture of the hominy.

I don’t remember exactly what I did, but here’s my best guess:

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound cranberry beans, soaked overnight
  • 1 pound dried hominy, soaked overnight
  • 4 large cloves garlic, mined
  • 2 cups finely chopped onion
  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 Tbs. ground cumin
  • 1 Tbs. chili powder + 1 Tbs. ancho powder
  • 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
  • 5 cups vegetable broth
  • 1.5 tsp. salt (total guess)
  • whole tomatoes (maybe 1.5 cups?)
  • tomato puree (maybe 1 cup?)
  • frozen corn (maybe 1 cup?)

I sauteed the onion over medium heat, then added the garlic, ground cumin, chili powders, and smoked paprika and sauteed another minute. I added the soaked hominy and soaked, drained beans, and added I think 5 cups of vegetable broth and salt. After the beans and hominy were cooked (see note above) I added some whole tomatoes from a jar, about a cup of tomato puree, and maybe 1 cup of frozen corn. I locked the lid back on and let it sit for 3 minutes. I seasoned with lime juice and cilantro to taste.

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