Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Posole-Inspired Soup with Turkey



po·so·le
[pō sṓ lày]
NOUN

  1. a thick Mexican soup made with hominy, chicken or pork, chilies, and cilantro
  2. a large kernel of white corn

Last week, we went out to dinner with a couple we know.  The Mrs. just retired from her job and the Mr. will be retiring from his job in a few weeks, so we wanted to help them celebrate the transition!  We had gone out to dinner with them before to a local Mexican Restaurant called "El Alazan" and we decided to go there again.  Most the time I go there, I just get a guacamole tostada since I like to go crazy on the chips and pico de gallo before the entrees are served.  This time I decided to be adventurous and I ordered the Posole.  There were things I loved about their Posole and things I really disliked about their Posole.  The broth, you could tell, was basically water and they simmered very cheap cuts of pork in the water.  There was not a whole lot of seasoning in the broth and I also found bones, cartilage, and fat, attached to the pork that had been cooked in the broth.  But what I loved was that, when the brought me the soup, they also brought me a bottle of dried oregano, a bottle of dried crushed red pepper flakes, as well as a pile of fresh chopped green cabbage and pile of finely diced white onion.  I could add in these ingredients to my heart's desire.

When I left the restaurant, I kept thinking how I could make the soup at home, with my priorities being (1) make it healthier and (2) make it even tastier.  I went to the grocery store today to shop for ingredients. I considered a few different options for the protein: shred up a pre-roasted rotisserie chicken from the deli, poach some boneless skinless chicken breasts in the broth, or brown some lean ground turkey. I settled on the latter since I already had ground turkey at home.

This soup is super simple to make and has very few ingredients. I had it made up in just a short time.  My husband was really turned off by the idea of the soup since it contains HOMINY:  that funny looking BIG CORN.  He was about to warm up some other leftovers while I was enjoying a bowl of the soup and I told him, "Try the soup... it's good!  Just ONE bite!"  He had a bite and liked it and made up a big bowl of Posole for himself. 

This soup is spicy, healthy, and lean. I hope you give it a try. For spice, I added in a can of Rotel (diced green chilies and diced tomatoes).  The Rotel "Original" is surprisingly spicy.  Rotel also comes in "Mild" and "Hot" so choose your Rotel according to your liking.

Posole-Inspired Soup with Turkey


Soup Ingredients:

1 pound of ground turkey (lean Jennie-O brand)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 can (10 ounce) Rotel (I used "Original" and it is quite spicy)
1 can (15.5 ounce) hominy (I used white hominy from Kroger), drained and rinsed
4 cups chicken broth

Toppings:

finely diced sweet or white onion
finely diced/shredded green cabbage
fresh limes, cut into wedges

Directions:

In a soup pot, brown/cook/crumble the ground turkey.  Add in the spices right away so they spices get mixed in really well and adhere well to the ground turkey.  When the turkey is cooked (no pink remains), add in the Rotel, hominy, and chicken broth.  Cover pot with a lid, bring the soup to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and allow to simmer on low for about 10 to 15 minutes.

While the soup simmers, assemble the toppings. I used pre-packaged, pre-shredded green cabbage, but you could chop up cabbage from a head of green cabbage.  Finely dice a sweet or white onion and cut a lime into 6 to 8 wedges.  Set aside.

Taste the soup for seasoning.  If you used low sodium chicken broth, you may wish to add in additional salt.  Ladle cooked soup into a bowl. Top each bowl of soup with shredded cabbage and diced onion.  Squeeze a lime wedge into the soup. Enjoy!




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