Recipe: Easy Red Posole

This can be made with only a couple of non-pantry ingredients and thus is good for times when you've not been shopping in a while. My usual posole recipe requires a giant slab of pork and is fairly labor intensive. Adapted from 101 Cookbooks.

Easy Red Posole

1 large can hominy (get the Goya, not the southern-looking stuff, which tends to be gummed together)
4 cubes tomato bouillon (could also use broth + tomato paste)
3 dried guajillo or other large chiles, stems removed
1 small white onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, pressed
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
fresh cilantro

Red Sauce:

generous dollop of oil
2 tablespoons finely diced white onion
3 medium cloves garlic, pressed
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup / 2 oz / 50g ground red chile (not chili powder---I used ground arbol chiles)
1/2 teaspoon salt
juice of one lime

Put 3 1/2 quarts/liters of water, hominy, onion, garlic, peppers, and oregano in a large pot. Bring to a boil, then simmer. You can use some of the water, once it's boiling, to reconstitute your bouillon cubes in a small cup and then add them back.

While the big pot simmers, combine the chile powder with 2.5 cups water in a small bowl, gradually adding the water to get from a paste to a uniformly consistent slurry. Fry your minced onion and additional garlic and oregano in a small saucepan until golden. Add flour and cook until light brown, then add cumin. Then add the chile slurry and stir constantly until the mixture is combined and simmering. Simmer for fifteen more minutes, then add this sauce, a spoon at a time, to the soup pot, stirring well and tasting between spoonfuls. Once soup is at desired heat level, serve with fresh cilantro. Leftover chile sauce can be used for a faster version of the soup another day.