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This vegan pozole verde is hominy swimming in a blender's worth of tomatillos, green chiles, and cilantro that's been simmered down until it tastes like you ordered it from a taqueria that actually knows what the heck they're doing. This vegan version doesn't have pork in it, but it's got pulled jackfruit working overtime to capture that same comfort food vibe without harming any piggies.
Recipe tips tailored to what matters most to you:
Already gluten-free as written, hominy, jackfruit and beans, no swaps needed here.
Grab a bag of pre-shredded coleslaw mix instead (like just the cabbage and maybe carrots) of shredding cabbage yourself, saves a few minutes of prep.
Dried hominy instead of canned is usually the cheaper route if you don't mind soaking it the night before.
Pile on extra shredded cabbage and radish at serving, adds crunch and nutrients without any extra cooking.
No tomatillos around? Green tomatoes work as a stand-in, easy find at most grocery stores during the summer.
Do not politely drain and move on. Grab your jackfruit, press it until veins pop out of your forhead, pull it apart until the brine is gone and you've got ragged little shreds that actually brown.
If they taste raw, the soup tastes unfinished. Let the pozole soften, collapse, and spill their guts so the broth goes savory.
You're thickening the soup, not making a green milkshake. Blend just about ¼ of the soup, and try to get an equal amount of broth to solids in the blender when you do.
Oodles more tips, step-by-step recipe photos, info on weird ingredients, and FAQs are all still here. I just tucked 'em out of the way so you can start cooking sooner.
Hominy is mandatory. Green pozole without it is just traditional Mexican soup wearing a costume and hoping no one notices. What makes this green is tomatillos, green chilies, and cilantro. Pinto beans plus pulled jackfruit deliver protein and peak texture. Vegan Mexican recipes win again, and not a single sweet, kind-hearted pig from the southern region of Mexico had to get involved.
This one's bright and savory and absolutely built for personal customization, with shredded cabbage, radish, lime, onion, herbs, and sliced jalapeños waiting for you to mess with the heat and texture until it feels correct to your soul, like Mexico's answer to vegan pho.
Serve it with vegan carne asada and calabacitas for an absurdly satisfying rustic Mexican dinner.
Easy to make on a weeknight & super flavorful - another hit from Chef Adam!!! Thank you!!
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🥰 Why you'll adore this vegan green pozole recipe
✊ Vegan AF & GF: On paper, it's another one of the vegan gluten-free recipes that stole your heart. In real life, it's hyper-flavorful, filling, and freezes well for batch cooking or meal prep for busy weeknights.
🥣 Actually Filling, Not Soup Cosplay: Between the shredded jackfruit, the hominy, and the pinto beans pulling their share, this bowl is fiber and protein-packed and filling.
Cooked, Tweaked, Side-Eyed, Tested Worldwide: My vegan recipes got cooked, re-cooked, poked at, complained about, improved, then approved by a team of over 1,000 recipe testers.
I'm on my knees staring weirdly into your eyes, asking you in a soothing voice to be my taste-testing partner in crime. Sign up for the recipe testing crew and get early access to new recipes before they're published.
🍲 Plant-Based Pozole Verde Ingredients
Young green jackfruit
I use canned green jackfruit for this. It's the same natural meat analogue I use in my vegan carnitas, vegan tortas adobada, and vegan tamales, so yeah, it knows how to impress folks. It shreds naturally, cooks down tender, and soaks up deep layers of flavor. Squeeze it well to ditch the brine funk and get that proper texture. Oyster mushrooms or pan-fried bits of vegan chicken can also work nicely in its place.
Tomatillos
Tomatillos bring tang, color, and the whole green situation to pozole verde, then chill out once cooked. If you have never cooked with them, a couple other things they rock in are jalapeño salsa and salsa verde. If you need a great substitute, green tomatoes have your back.
White hominy
Hominy is one of the main ingredients here and provides chew, body, and the unmistakable texture that defines pozole. It also helps thicken the rich broth naturally when blended. Canned hominy is standard and easiest here, but you can cook dried hominy if you have some on hand and prefer to use it.
Serrano or jalapeño
Serrano peppers tend to bring more heat than jalapeños, though neither one is consistent enough to trust fully. They're here so everyone can choose their own level of chaos without messing with the main pot. Go easy or go wild.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯 Variations
Vegan Pozole Rojo
If you want something darker, smokier, and a lil more intense, this vegan pozole rojo recipe goes full-on with toasted dried chiles, smoky chipotle soy curls, and a deep red broth.
New Mexico Corn Chowder
I know this isn't really a legit form of pozole, but vegan corn chowder that's packed with hatch chiles and potatoes? Tell me that's not bangin'.
Taco Soup
Look, this one-pot vegan taco soup isn't really trying to be traditional, or even a little bit authentic. But thanks kinda what vegan Tex Mex recipes are about. Yummy, just not traditional.
Grab my easy-yo-use app that builds your whole week with real, chef-tested vegan dinners in 30 seconds, customized to your budget, time, and taste, with a shopping list sorted by aisle.
📖 How to make vegan pozole verde
Already picturing yourself cooking this vegan recipe like an executive chef from a revered tavern restaurant? Relatable. The printable recipe card is waiting below if speed is the goal. If you want the scenic route with tips that actually help, stay right here.
Step One
Shreddy Kreuger:
Drain the jackfruit thoroughly in a wire mesh strainer, then squeeze firmly to remove excess brine and break it down into shredded, meaty pieces.
Step Two
Sautérday Night Live:
Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. After 90 seconds, add the jackfruit in an even layer and sauté for 7-8 minutes until lightly golden on all sides.
Step Three
No Jalapeño, JalaGain:
Add the jalapeño, garlic, coriander, cumin, and Mexican oregano. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the jalapeño softens, then transfer the jackfruit mixture to a bowl and set aside.
Step Four
Put Your Head Onion Shoulder:
Heat olive oil in the same Dutch oven over medium heat. After 90 seconds, add the diced onion and sauté for 4-5 minutes until translucent.
Step Five
Tomatillos Hanks:
Add the tomatillos and continue cooking for another 4-5 minutes until they release their juices and begin to soften and collapse.
Step Six
Bones Thugs and Hominy:
Add the hominy, pinto beans, cilantro, vegetable stock, agave nectar, lime juice, and salt. Bring to a steady simmer over medium heat, then lower to medium-low and cook for 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
Step Seven
Blend it Like Beckham:
Transfer about ¼ of the soup to a blender and blend until completely smooth. Return it to the soup pot along with the cooked jackfruit and stir until fully combined.
Step Eight
Good Golly, Miss Pozole:
Portion this easy pozole into bowls and serve hot, topped with cabbage, radishes, avocado, lime wedges, fresh cilantro, white onion, and sliced serrano or jalapeño.
💡Serving Ideas
Make this Mexican cuisine part of a bigger spread so nobody leaves asking what else there is to eat on special occasions. It plays extremely well with vegan chiles rellenos, vegan tostadas stacked with vegan refried beans or tofu chorizo, and a huge-ass scoop of traditional Mexican rice, and a side of vegan taco salad, like it's Cinco de Mayo.
This is also a prime excuse to channel your creative ways and put multiple salsas on the table and let your vegetarian friends (or not) self-select their chaos. Salsa roja for the classics, salsa macha for the brave, chile de árbol salsa for heat seekers, and pico de gallo for balance. Nobody uses just one red or green salsa. If you do, you must be fun at parties.
👉Top tips
- Squeeze the Jackfruit. Hard: Do not politely drain and move on. Grab it, press it, pull it apart until the brine is gone and you've got ragged little shreds that actually brown.
- Cook the Tomatillos Until They Collapse: If they taste raw, the soup tastes unfinished. Let them soften, collapse, and spill their guts so the broth goes savory.
- Blend for Structure, Not Smoothness: You're thickening the soup, not making a green milkshake. Blend just about ¼ of the soup, and try to get an equal amount of broth to solids in the blender when you do.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
Yes, and this is where my seitan earns its keep. Mushrooms are fine in a pinch, but seitan keeps that meaty texture. My vegan chicken recipe and seitan masterclass can help you learn how to make it from scratch.
It's usually mild to medium, depending on the chiles used in the topping. Heat is easy to adjust at the bowl with sliced fresh chile.
🧊 Refrigeration
Let the pozole cool all the way down, then stash it in an airtight container in the fridge. Keep your favorite toppings separate and add them fresh when you reheat, it's an excellent way to keep things from getting soggy. You've got about 5 solid days of very good soup ahead of you.
❄️ Freezing
Freeze the pozole in a freezer-safe container with space left for expansion. It will keep its quality for up to 3 months.
🌬️ Thawing
Thaw overnight in the refrigerator or gently on the stovetop over low heat. Stir occasionally as it loosens to keep everything even.
🔥 Stovetop reheating
Reheat over medium-low heat, stirring now and then, until hot throughout. Add a splash of vegetable stock if the soup has thickened and enjoy it like a cold weather stew.
✌️You'll love these vegan Mexican recipes too
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Vegan Pozole Verde Recipe
Ingredients
For the Jackfruit:
- 20 oz. Young green jackfruit in brine drained
- 5 teaspoons olive oil
- ¼ cup jalapeño diced
- 4 teaspoons garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon oregano
For the Soup:
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 cup onion diced
- 1 lb. Tomatillos husked, scrubbed and diced
- 29 oz. canned white hominy drained and rinsed
- 15.5 oz. canned pinto beans drained and rinsed
- ½ cup cilantro chopped
- 5 cups unsalted vegetable stock
- 1 tablespoon agave nectar
- 4 teaspoons lime juice
- 1 ¾ teaspoons salt or to taste
To Garnish:
- 1 cup cabbage shredded
- 2 red radishes small diced
- 1 avocado diced
- Lime wedges
- ¼ cup cilantro leaves
- ¼ cup white onion minced
- Serrano or jalapeño thinly sliced
Instructions
- Drain the jackfruit well in a wire mesh strainer, and squeeze it firmly to both get rid of extra brine, and also to pulverize the pieces of jackfruit into natural meaty bits.
- Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. After 90 seconds, when the oil is hot, add the jackfruit in an even layer. Sauté for 7-8 minutes, until lightly golden all around.
- Add the jalapeño, garlic, coriander, cumin, and oregano. Sauté for 2-3 more minutes to soften the jalapeños. Transfer the jackfruit mixture to a bowl and hold to the side until ready to finish the soup.
- Heat olive oil for the soup in the same Dutch oven over medium heat. After 90 seconds, when the oil is hot, add the diced onion and sauté for 4-5 minutes until translucent.
- Add the tomatillos and continue to sauté for 4-5 more minutes until they release their juices and begin to break down.
- Add the hominy, pinto beans, cilantro, vegetable stock, agave nectar, lime juice, and salt. Bring to a steady simmer over medium heat, then reduce to medium-low heat and cook for 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
- Remove about ¼ of the soup and transfer it to a blender. Blend until completely smooth, then return it to the pot and stir evenly.
- Stir the cooked jackfruit into the soup.
- Portion the pozole into bowl and serve hot, topped with cabbage, radishes, avocado, lime wedges, cilantro, white onion, and either sliced serrano or jalapeño.
Notes
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Akriti says
Easy to make on a weeknight & super flavorful - another hit from Chef Adam!!! Thank you!!
OneShotWunder says
This was my first ever pozole recipe! I can’t believe how amazing it was. I added purple cabbage instead of green but otherwise I made it exactly as per the recipe. We had leftovers for four days and it just got better and better each day. So easy and so good!