Recipe courtesy of Ryan Sylvester
Mole Verde
- Level: Intermediate
- Yield: 2 quarts
-
- Nutritional Analysis
- Per Serving
- Serving Size
- 1 of 32 servings
- Calories
- 60
- Total Fat
- 5
- Saturated Fat
- 1
- Carbohydrates
- 4
- Dietary Fiber
- 1
- Sugar
- 1
- Protein
- 1
- Cholesterol
- 0
- Sodium
- 67
- Total: 45 min
- Active: 45 min
Ingredients
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large white onion, sliced into 1/8-inch julienne
1 large russet potato, peeled and cut to 1/2-inch dice, reserved in water
3 sage leaves, whole
2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 quarts water
2 Anaheim peppers, stems and seeds removed and rough chopped to 1/2-inch pieces
1 large head broccoli, broken into small florets and cores sliced thin
1 cup parsley, stems and leaves, rough chopped
1 cup sunflower seeds (plain, not salted or roasted)
Directions
- First things first, get all of those vegetables chopped and your other ingredients ready to go before you begin! The timing of adding each ingredient is important so you don't want to burn your onions while you're trying to chop the broccoli, okay?!
- Okay, grab an 8-quart pot, add the tablespoon of oil and set on a medium-high burner. Once the oil is hot but not smoking add the onions and potatoes. You want to cook the onions til they just start getting a bit of color. Keep stirring them with a wooden spoon. Bonus points if you have a flat bottom wooden spoon! When the onions are ready, add the sage leaves, bay leaves, garlic, salt and pepper. Stir all that up real good and saute until you can really smell the sage and garlic, 1 to 2 minutes. Now add the water, scrape the bottom of the pot with your spoon to get up all those good bits and bring this up to a boil. Let this boil until your potatoes are soft, about 5 minutes.
- While you wait for the potatoes to get soft you want to set up your blender and a fine mesh strainer over another pot, bowl or container that you'll strain the sauce into.
- When the potatoes are soft, you'll add the Anaheim peppers and broccoli to the pot and stir to combine. Cook until the broccoli stems are just soft, aka al dente. This is a key step so don't get distracted! Put your phone in another room and focus on the vegetables! You want your sauce to be bright green so pay attention. As soon as the broccoli is ready, kill the heat on the pot and add the parsley and sunflower seeds and give it a good stir. Immediately take your pot to where you're going to blend the sauce. Blend the mole in two or three batches, depending on the size of your blender. Remember that your mole is piping hot so make sure to start your blender on low and increase the speed slowly, unless you want mole on your ceiling. As you increase the speed, reserve enough of the remaining 1/2 cup olive oil for each successive batch add the oil to the blender. Let the mole blend on high for about a minute until it's really well blended. As you work each batch you may want to adjust the amount of liquid in the blender. If it seems too thin, then don't add as much of the cooking liquid on the next batch and vice versa. Think rich, silky potato soup you could scoop up with a tortilla.
- Strain each batch through your strainer. You can use a ladle to help push the mole through the strainer and speed things up a bit. After you have blended up and strained all the mole, whisk it together so the final sauce is consistent throughout.
- At this point the mole is ready to serve. If you're making ahead of time, try and get the mole into an airtight container and cooling in the fridge as quickly as possible to keep that bright green color. You can also freeze the mole for that dinner party you're having in a month.