The Menudo With a Twist

The soup menudo is a traditional Mexican dish, made with hominy and tripe in a clear broth or occasionally with a red chile base (this variation is called menudo colorado). It is traditionally served on special occasions or with family. Usually, lime, chopped onions, and chopped cilantro are added, as well as crushed oregano and crushed red chili peppers. Source: Wikipedia.org

Personally I thought it was an original Filipino dish but the wiki says otherwise. Anyway even if it's not entirely Filipino I still like it and I know many Filipinos love it too.


What brought about the idea of creating a twist


Just recently we celebrated Easter and here in the Philippines we go by tradition by going to church and fasting(not eating meat) during Good Friday. I haven't been following the tradition for quite some time so I decided not to eat meat for the whole Holy Week duration as my sacrifice. That means I couldn't eat my favorite dish because the main ingredient is pork meat and liver and sausage. I badly want to eat a Menudo dish during those times, just imagine the pressure I'm in.


So what's the twist?


Since I cannot eat meat I tried to innovate. I'm not sure if my idea is unique because the idea I had would be very a common option for meat lovers. I bought tofu in exchange for pork meat and to replace the sausage I bought fish sausage. I decided not to add liver in the end because I could not find anything that could possibly come close to it's taste.


How did it taste?


I cooked everything the usual way as how I cook the dish with pork as the main ingredient. I'm happy to tell you that it tasted good and it was almost like the original pork Menudo minus the pork liver. You can even eat it without rice because the taste also resembles the taste of a Spaghetti. I will post the recipe and how to cook my Tofu Menudo soon. I don't usually use artificial seasonings and MSG's.