StewsMedium

Romeritos in Mole

Name: Romeritos in Mole
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 75 min
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 500 g Romeritos (wild herb) (quelite) limpios; 250 g Mole rojo en pasta; 100 g Prawn seco; 300 g Cactus paddles en cubos; 4 Eggs; 3 Potatoes; 500 ml Chicken stock; 100 ml Vegetable oil; 1 to taste Salt

75 min (30 prep + 45 cook) Medium 8 servings Ciudad de México

Edmond Bojalil

Recetas Mexas

Published: 20 Mar 2026 · Updated: 29 Mar 2026

Wild greens braised in red mole with cactus paddles, dried prawns and prawn fritters. A festive Christmas dish from Mexico City.

About this recipe

Romeritos is a traditional Christmas stew from Mexico City, made with a wild herb of the same name, cooked in red mole with nopal cactus, dried prawns and ground prawn fritters.

History & Origin

Romeritos is one of the most singular dishes in Mexican cuisine, a stew that combines pre-Hispanic ingredients with colonial techniques. The romerito is a quelite that grows on the chinampas of Xochimilco. This dish has a dual seasonality: consumed during Lent and at Christmas, when Catholic tradition restricts meat consumption. Dried prawns and prawn fritters provide the protein. The preparation is laborious and requires multiple steps: cleaning the romeritos leaf by leaf, preparing fritters from ground dried prawns with beaten egg, cooking the nopal cactus and preparing the mole. In Mexico City, romeritos are as emblematic of Christmas as salt cod and tamales. They are sold in markets during November and December. It is a dish that few people outside the capital know, which makes it even more special for capitalinos.

Estimated cost

£11.80

Total cost

£1.48

Per serving

* Approximate prices based on UK supermarkets

Nutritional information per serving

310

Calories

18g

Protein

28g

Carbohydrates

16g

Fat

Fibre

680mg

Sodium

* Approximate values. May vary depending on ingredients used.

Method

1
Limpia the romeritos retirando the leaves marchitas and the tallos gruesos. Wash them very well in varias aguas.
2
Cook the romeritos in water with salt for 10 minutes. Drain well and set aside.
3
Cook the cactus paddles in water with salt, onion and garlic until tender. Rinse for retirar the baba and drain. Cook the potatoes peladas and cut into cubes.
4
Para the tortitas: grind the half of the prawns dried in blender. Separa the claras and bátelas a punto of turrón. Fold in thes yemas and the prawn molido. Shape tortitas and fry in oil hot until dorar.
💡 Las tortitas deben be esponjosas; not comprimas demasiado the mixture.
5
Dissolve the pasta of mole in the hot chicken stock, revolviendo well. Cook over medium heat 15 minutes until thickened.
6
Add to the mole the romeritos cocidos, the cactus paddles, the potatoes, the prawns dried enteros remaining and the tortitas of prawn.
7
Cook all junto over low heat 10 minutes for that the flavours integren. Serve hot with tortillas.