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30-Minute Mole
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- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 3cups unsalted vegetable broth or water
- 3tablespoons neutral oil, such as canola
- 3dried pasilla chiles, stemmed and seeded
- 4dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded
- 1medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped
- 4garlic cloves, minced
- 6tablespoons unsalted roasted natural peanut butter or almond butter
- 3tablespoons tahini
- 2tablespoons turbinado or raw sugar
- 2tablespoons cacao or unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼cup dark chocolate chips or chunks
- 1tablespoon dried oregano, preferably Mexican
- ¼teaspoon plus ⅛ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 16-inch corn tortilla, toasted, or 1 tostada
- Salt and pepper
- Seared cauliflower or other vegetables or proteins, for serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat broth in a small saucepan over medium-high until steaming; remove from heat. Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons oil in a medium pot over medium. Add all the dried chiles and sear until darkened, turning constantly so they don’t burn and become bitter, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer chiles to the hot broth to rehydrate for 10 minutes. Set a bowl over the chiles to keep them submerged.
- Step 2
Add the remaining tablespoon oil and the onion to the same medium pot (no need to wash). Cook over medium, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly toasted, about 1 minute. Transfer to a blender, along with the chiles and their soaking liquid, the peanut butter, tahini, sugar, cacao, chocolate, oregano, cumin, cinnamon and toasted tortilla. Blend until completely smooth and creamy. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Step 3
Pour the mole back into the same medium pot and set over high heat. Once the mole starts to bubble, lower heat to medium and simmer, stirring every couple of minutes to make sure the mole isn’t burning or sticking to the pot, until the flavors marry, at least 10 minutes and up to 30 minutes. Use immediately or refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
- Step 4
Serve with cauliflower or vegetable or protein of your choice.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Neat recipe. I'd probably use what's in the pantry: any dried mildly hot chile, e.g., ancho, would work, and a single chile variety might be OK. See "Mole sauce" in Wikipedia: the dish's history suggests leeway to improvise. As for Southern vs New England cornbread, sweetness can vary. A non-sweet, 20-min mole (gimmesomeoven.com/holy-mole-sauce) and one using chicken broth (tasteofhome.com/recipes/mole-poblano) both use tomato for sourness, which bitter cocoa (or even instant coffee) offsets.
Many people cannot digest onion and garlic due to the FODMAPs they contain. These are short-chain carbs that can be hard to break down.The good news is that FODMAPs are not soluble in oil....so garlic oil and onion oil are fine. I might replace a bit of the broth with some of these oils to add to the flavor. Garlic oil is easily found in stores. Onion oil can be easily made (store in fridge). Chives and scallion tops (the green parts) are also low in FODMAPs and could be substituted.
I have an issue with the “just 30 minutes!” timeline. How in the world would one cook onions until browned and soft in only 5 minutes on medium heat?
Loved this abbreviated version of molé. I made with chicken, so brown chicken first and then made the sauce in the same pan. Only real substitution was raisins for sugar, and also added three small diced tomatoes.
Delicious! This recipe made mole, which I grew up eating and was missing dearly, accessible.
Hmm, I think this can be a great, relatively easy mole if you omit the dark chocolate (keep the cocoa powder). I love chocolate but this was too chocolatey for mole. And very thick. I had to add broth. I will definitely try again being careful about the chocolate and then adjusting the salt at the end.
Commenters say this takes WAY more than 30 minutes. Like an hour just of cooking time, excluding prep.
Loved this abbreviated version of molé. I made with chicken, so brown chicken first and then made the sauce in the same pan. Only real substitution was raisins for sugar, and also added three small diced tomatoes.
This recipe makes a large quantity—more than a quart, maybe. I rehydrated the chilis in boiling water, discarded the water, then used fresh broth in the blender, because the rehydrating liquid can be bitter sometimes. I also used mulato chiles instead of pasilla chiles, which made it less spicy. I might add some cayenne pepper next time.
Whipped this up on a Sunday afternoon, not overly complex, but simple to prepare (minus assembling and disassembling the ingredients). Ended up mixing in some mole that I had made from some Juquilita mole paste and that took it to a new level.
I like it but didn't love it. The chocolate flavor was a bit too strong for me; would reduce the amount of dark chocolate if I made it again. The flavors became more complex and nuanced after it simmered a while (mine prob ended up simmering for an hour or so) and the next day.
A reminder to all that NYT doesn't include prep time in their recipes. Even with that having been said, this did not take 30 minutes -- more like an hour. But it does make an excellent quick mole, and improves with time for the flavors to marry well.
No way this only takes 30 mins. After I pureed it, I had to strain it because it was full of bits of chile skin. Also, when I simmered it, it kept sticking to the bottom of the pan, even on the lowest flame possible.
I'm slow, but this took a lot longer than 30 minutes, and mine came out with some bitterness that I don't like - maybe I over-seared the chiles at the beginning? It's hard to tell "until darkened" when they are already dark. Also I will definitely use less tahini next time, it's presence is too much. I'll let it meld and see if the flavors mellow. Hopeful...
I have an issue with the “just 30 minutes!” timeline. How in the world would one cook onions until browned and soft in only 5 minutes on medium heat?
Thank you Laura for the Low FODMAP cooking suggestion. I do not know why NYT cooking will not offer any Low FODMAP recipes or modification suggestions when so many of us (15% of the population) need to follow a Low FODMAP diet, I have written NY Times cooking myself about this (they encourage you to write) and was blown off. I agree that this is an easily modifiable recipe that I would like to try!
Folks who go through the FODMAP elimination process have wildly different FODMAPS they react to; I can't more than 1/4C of onion or beans, but others are fine with onions and react to lactose or fructose. This recipe uses one onion over 6-8 servings (it makes 4.5C) so even I should be fine.
Any suggestions on substitutions for the onion and garlic? I can't digest those properly.
Many people cannot digest onion and garlic due to the FODMAPs they contain. These are short-chain carbs that can be hard to break down.The good news is that FODMAPs are not soluble in oil....so garlic oil and onion oil are fine. I might replace a bit of the broth with some of these oils to add to the flavor. Garlic oil is easily found in stores. Onion oil can be easily made (store in fridge). Chives and scallion tops (the green parts) are also low in FODMAPs and could be substituted.
Neat recipe. I'd probably use what's in the pantry: any dried mildly hot chile, e.g., ancho, would work, and a single chile variety might be OK. See "Mole sauce" in Wikipedia: the dish's history suggests leeway to improvise. As for Southern vs New England cornbread, sweetness can vary. A non-sweet, 20-min mole (gimmesomeoven.com/holy-mole-sauce) and one using chicken broth (tasteofhome.com/recipes/mole-poblano) both use tomato for sourness, which bitter cocoa (or even instant coffee) offsets.
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