Better Homes and Gardens 'Skinny Slow Cooker': Red posole soup recipe

Red posole soup from "Better Homes and Gardens Skinny Slow Cooker" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) When a slow-cooker recipe takes less than four hours to cook, it’s obviously not a dish that can sit home alone during a work day or simmer overnight as you sleep.

The new Better Homes and Gardens “Skinny Slow Cooker” cookbook (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $19.99) boasts “more than 150 recipes to cook while you’re away,” but many will finish in less time than it takes to run a few errands.

As slow cookers increase in popularity, the number of ways to use them is expanding. We’re seeing more recipes for relatively quick dishes in the two- to four-hour range. Such options are perfect during the cooking-area crunch for holiday or party spreads, or if a kitchen is being remodeled.  The “skinny” part of this volume comes in lower-calorie ingredients, less fat and more fiber.

Want to enjoy the health benefits of steel-cut oats without adding 40 minutes stovetop cooking time on a busy morning? The cookbook has two overnight oats recipes, one with dried fruit.

Recipes cover all cooking seasons, with soups, stews and heartier selections appropriate for winter, and lighter dishes perfect for warmer weather. We tested several of the cookbook’s recipes, including a chicken and artichoke dish, and a tasty “red posole” soup of pork, hominy corn, ancho chiles, enchilada sauce and cabbage (recipe below).

We had not previously seen a recipe for stuffed onions and thought it a good choice, anticipating the appearance of sweet Vidalia onions in spring. Another standout recipe, the coffee cake featured is an exceptional upside-down-style cake, baked with fresh fruit on the bottom and batter spread on top. When turned out, the moist cake is enhanced by the soaking of fruit juices captured in the required crock-lining bag. It’s the only dessert recipe that exceeds 200 calories, but still a smart choice at 244 calories a slice.

The red posole soup featured is one of the cookbook's two posole recipes. The green chile-pork posole is cabbage-free and uses salsa verde from a jar, but is otherwise similar to the recipe featured below. Hominy is a super-size field corn that is soaked in a solution that makes it puff up. Also ground into grits and masa flour, it is easy to find whole in cans at stores that stock Latin-American and Caribbean groceries. We found Goya brand hominy at Wegmans in Woodbridge.  

Red posole soup recipe

(8 servings)

1-1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes

2 15-ounce cans hominy, rinsed and drained

1 cup chopped onion (1 large)

1 4-ounce can diced green chiles, undrained

1 tablespoon ancho chile powder

1-1/2 teaspoons dried oregano, crushed

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

2 14-1/2 cans reduced sodium chicken broth

2 cups coarsely chopped cabbage

1 10-ounce can enchilada sauce

Lime wedges

Fresh pineapple wedges, optional

1. In a 4- to 5-quart slow cooker, combine pork, hominy, onion, green chiles, chile powder, oregano, garlic and cumin. Pour broth over mixture in cooker.

2. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 8 to 9 hours or on high-heat setting for 4 to 4-1/2 hours.

3. Stir in cabbage and enchilada sauce. If using low-heat setting, turn to high-heat setting. Cover and cook for 30 minutes more.

4. To serve, garnish with lime wedges and, if desired, pineapple wedges.

- From "Skinny Slow Cooker" © 2014 Better Homes and Gardens (Hooughton Mifflin Harcourt) All rights reserved.