My wife, Ashlee graduated from culinary school several years before we adopted a plant based diet. There, she mastered the art of cooking really good Mexican food. You name it and she can make it from scratch. It’s a talent I am extremely jealous of, but I’m learning along the way, and I’d like to think I can make some great Mexican Inspired dishes as well.
Among some of her amazing dishes, her menudo is my favorite.
Since becoming vegan, it has been Ashlee’s goal to make Mexican food taste just as authentic without any animal products in it. Being the menudo connoisseur that I am, I can tell ya’ll that she hit the nail on the head and this vegan menudo is phenomenal. If you have any doubts, you must try it for yourself and your mind will be blown away!
Anywhoooo, with winter coming to a near end here in the good ol’ Central Valley, I figured we better share Ashlee’s vegan menudo with you.
The recipe for Ash’s vegan menudo is a bit time consuming, but I promise, IT’S WORTH IT!!! I’m almost positive you could fool anyone into believing this dish is not vegan.
We hope you guys love this recipe for vegan menudo as much as I do and as always, if you make this dish, please take a photo and tag us on Instagram at @Eat_Figs_Not_Pigs. Til next time, guys!!!!
XOXO
- 6 dried guajillo chiles
- 2 dried cailfornia chiles
- 1 dried pasilla pepper
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 small yellow onion, minced
- 4 cups vegan beef broth or vegetable broth
- 1 teaspoon ground oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Menudo base (recipe above)
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 3 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 - 3 oz package of dried snow fungus mushrooms
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 jalapeno, minced
- 6 cup vegan beef broth or vegetable broth
- 1 -29 ounce can of white or yellow hominy, drained
- 1 tablespoon ground oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Sliced radish
- Avocado
- Cilantro
- Jalapeno
- Cabbage
- Red onion
- Cover dried mushrooms with enough warm water so that they are fully submerged. Set aside for 30 minutes to rehydrate.
- Turn oven broiler on high.
- Remove stems and as many seeds as you can from the dried chiles.
- Broil chiles for 1-2 minutes on the middle rack of the oven. Make sure not to broil the chiles too long, or they will burn and ruin the base of your menudo. Remove from oven and set aside.
- In a pot on high heat, add oil and pan fry onions until they become crispy on the edges, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add garlic and toss until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add broth, dehydrated chiles, and seasonings.
- Bring to a boil for about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool, about 15-20 minutes.
- Once cooled, add all ingredients to a blender (including broth). Save the pot aside for menudo.
- Blend on high until you reach the smoothest consistency. For us, it took about 2 minutes.
- In a fine mesh strainer, strain chile liquid into a bowl of any extra seeds, skin, ect.
- Once your dried snow mushrooms are rehydrated, chop roughly and set aside.
- In the same pot you used to rehydrate your chiles, add oil on medium high heat.
- Once oil is hot, saute onions, jalapeno and garlic for about 5-7 minutes.
- Add broth, menudo base or chile paste, rehydrated snow mushrooms, oregano, and cumin.
- Stirring constantly, bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to low, add hominy and simmer for 10 minutes. Add carrots and simmer another 10 minutes or until carrots are cooked through.
- Garnish with desired toppings, serve and enjoy
2. We buy our Not Chick’n broth from Sprouts Grocery Store. The brand is Edward & Sons.
3. If you cannot find bouillon cubes, you can substitute for vegetarian chicken broth or vegetable broth.
4. Dried snow fungus mushrooms can be purchased at most Asian specialty markets. They resemble tripe and have almost no flavor, so they take on any flavor you season them with!
Where can I get the dried snow mushrooms?
Hi Mariah!!! You can find dried snow mushrooms at most Asian stores!!!
I have found some on Amazon but I would love to have a tip from Ashley if she is familiar with any of the brands/types they advertise. Some might be much better than others. Snow fungus mushroom, Cauliflower mushroom, tremella mushroom – they all come up in the search.
Ashley… or anyone else who tried Ashley’s recipe – do you have a tip on any of those? Thanks!
Hi Mariah!
This recipe calls for dried Snow Fungus Mushroom. I find it at most specialty Asian markets, as well as Amazon. Hope this helps!
You are my holiday she-ro, Ashley! My thanks to your wifey for sharing!
Thanks so much, Candice!!! Hope you enjoy!
Thanks so much, Candice!!! So happy you enjoyed the recipe ❤️
I am currently sitting here watching my husband eat a giant bowl of menudo lol my mouth is watering. LMAO. So I decided to find a vegan recipe since I have been vegan for months now and luckily I found this. I’m also from the central valley, Madera. So I know anyone from the central valley has a great sense of taste when it comes to authentic Mexican food. So when I try this recipe out I will let you know, I’m sure it’s going to be great!!
to broil the chili, what temp did you set the oven? this recipe looks amazing!! i cant wait to try it!!
Hi Bree! Our oven broiler is set to only 2 features…high and low. We usually broil on high, but keep a very close one on the chili to ensure they don’t burn. It will severely affect the taste of your menudo.
When do you add the carrots?
Hi, Connie! Add the carrots when you add the hominy 🙂 We really hope you enjoy the recipe!!!
I made this for Christmas and I was told that it was amazing. Thank you for the recipe!!
I actually finely chopped the carrots and blended them in the chilie sauce, they desolved into the sauce and the kids didn’t know they were there. I made this in the crockpot. Reheats great too!
Connie, so happy you enjoyed the recipe! Good idea sneakin’ those veggies in 🙂 I’ll have to try making it in our crockpot next time, so smart!
Just tried this recipe yesterday and it was insanely good! I had a difficult time finding the fungus mushrooms, visited 4 different asian markets and none had them. Finally decided to buy it off amazon so ill be making some more this coming weekend!
That’s so great to hear Joy!!! Thank you so much for the feedback ❤️ Hopefully you love the recipe even more with the snow mushrooms 🍄
I went to a local vegan/vegetarian Chinese restaurant and had the snow fungus in a stir fry and immediately thought that it could potentially be a good tripe substitute for a vegan/vegetarian menudo. Glad I found this recipe! I’m definitely give it a try someday soon! My husband scoffs at the idea, but I think he might like it.
I hope you love it, Rene!!! It’s one of my favorite recipes on the blog 😍
This menudo is absolutely incredible. It is so worth ordering the mushrooms and the mushrooms surprisingly hold their texture for days of yummy leftovers! Even if you don’t feel like finding this special ingredient the soup base is sooo flavorful you could put literally anything in there and it would be a banger
I totally agree Ashley — the broth is sooo flavorful! It’s not of my favorite recipes!
Is tripe what makes it menudo?? This is like having chicken noodle soup without chicken. Perhaps you should just call it something else.
Hi Rena. Thanks so much for your feedback. I like to call it vegan menudo as it’s my blog and my recipes — plus it’s a VEGAN version, and the snow mushrooms replicate tripe.
This recipe is pure genius and absolutely delicious. I made this for a friend, I have never had menudo because the thought of tripe nauseated me but with the mushroom (purchased at local Asian market) I was willing to try it. My friend is not veggie but had 3 bowls. I will make this again!
Barbara, I’m so happy you loved it!!! And even happier that your friend who isn’t vegan loved it too!!!
I love this recipe! Been making it religiously for my family and I and the meat eats in my family love this as well! I was unable to find the mushrooms I went to several Asian markets and haven’t came across them yet but I swapped it with some canned jack fruit and it’s amazing!!
Joy, I’m so pleased to hear you enjoy this recipe — and that your family enjoys it too! If you’re able to order the mushrooms on amazon, I highly recommend! They’re seriously a GAME CHANGER!
I have made this recipe 3 times now and each time it is amazing. I am vegan but my husband is not. He enjoys this more than normal menudo with tripe (he would trade his tripe for his brothers hominy). Each time I make it I skip a few steps to make it easier, like blending all the garlic together omitting one or so (I was low on garlic that time). I found a lot of the ingredients for the soup can be blended with the base to save on time finely chopping ingredients. We add extra hominy and carrots to ours as well. Again, beautiful recipe and I plan to keep making this at least once a month
I’m so happy you and your husband love the recipe, Molly!! Great idea to blend more of the ingredients together to save time 🙂
You may find this weird, but I totally made this to have for breakfast this past Thanksgiving. Usually, anything with hominy in it I refer to as pozole, but I know some recipes for menudo call for hominy. I dubbed it menu-pozole. I prepared the menudo base the night before. The snow mushrooms really grow a lot, so I only used two of them. Once rehydrated, they retain a slightly soft cartilage-like (sorry) texture, and they really hold broth nicely for a good wholesome spoonful. I also added pieces of pan fried oyster mushroom, as well as some canned oyster mushrooms I got at the Asian grocery store (which really have a weird texture–as does regular menudo). I loved it!
DUDE!!! This is amazing, I’ve been looking for a replacement for tripe. I appreciate you so much. Thank you for your inspiration!
You dont have a video? That would be extremely helpful
Hey Dominique! Unfortunately I don’t have a video.
I am currently switching to plant based diet and was worried I’d have to give up menudo only eat posole. Then I found this recipe. Thank you so much for sharing this. I do have a question though. In NM we usually don’t put carrots in out menudo. do they serve a specific purpose or just used to make it a more filling dish?
Hey crystal!! I know carrots aren’t traditional in Menudo, but even before we were vegan, my wife and I would always add them into my menudo, so that’s how we decided to keep the recipe. If you’d like, you can omit them 🤗 I really hope you love this recipe as much as we do!
Holy S**t! Is all I really have to say. I’ve had vegan menudo (that was REALLY good btw) but I’ve never had menudo like this before. The way the recipe builds the flavor from beginning to end is beautiful and honestly artistic af. The menudo was amazing, beat I’ve eve had vegan or not.
Hi, i found this recipe, and cant wait to try it! I feel like im totally over looking something. The instructions says to add bullion, but the ingredients doesn’t say bouillon. I really don’t use bullion, and since there’s already broth to the recipe would salt be fine? If not do i use vegan bouillon?
Hi Danielle! I just recently updated the recipe and must’ve made a mistake, sorry about that! That broth is fine … and you don’t need bouillon at all. Hope this helps 😀
Is it the dried snow fungus mushrooms that look like tripe? Are you using those for texture or does it add a distinct flavor?
Hey! They add a nice texture, but they also absorb a bunch of flavor! Hope this helps 🙂
My cousin sent me this recipe knowing that I’ve been doing my pozole with mixed veggies. She wanted to know if I had tried the mushrooms in this recipe. I had not. I went out and searched for them and finally found them. This made me think of beef tendons when I first tried it wow! I love this recipe it was amazing!!
Amazing! Thank you for the tip! These mushrooms made all the difference ❤️
Hi there, I am curious to try this recipe (now that I know where to look for snow mushrooms!) my question is- is there a type of root that replaces the ham knuckle? I could have sworn I saw a recipe with something called kujac root or something but I can’t remember! Anyways- I’m going to make this recipe how it is and let you know! So far positive reviews, so hoping my wife loves it!
Hey Rebekah! I haven’t heard of a root that replaces ham knuckle, but if you find one, I’d love to know 🙂
This is the third recipe I have made from Ashley’s blog. I can truly say I will continue to make this menudo recipe for my family. Loving the depth of the flavors. I used Not Beef bouillon (according to their measurements) for the broth. Loved it!
Thank you, Ashley. Can’t wait to buy your recipe book!
It got below 80 degrees so of course I made soup and this was delicious!! So flavorful and not spicy at all which is nice so I can control the heat with the jalapeños I added as a topping. I actually didn’t go out to get the mushrooms so I used yellow potatoes. I know this is totally not the same thing but with the carrots it was so hearty and filling. 100% recommend!