The Best Prep For Veggies If You're Craving Mole Sauce

The creative upgrade that your favorite veggies desperately need might just take inspiration from one of Mexico's most iconic dishes. Mole is a thick, rich sauce that varies from region to region, but some of its key components are a mix of popular dried Mexican chiles such as ancho, guajillo, and chipotle as well as garlic, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, nuts or seeds, and tomatoes or tomatillos. Mole usually blends sweet, bitter, and vaguely fruity notes that add depth to anything it's drizzled on, whether that's chilaquiles (a Mexican corn-based breakfast), or empanadas.  While mole is traditionally prepared alongside meat dishes, veggies are a perfect accompaniment to it, and roasting vegetables is the best way to prepare them for a tasty veggie mole dish. Roasting brings out their natural sweetness paired with a hint of caramelization, enhancing the rich and complex flavors in mole.

Preparing mole itself is a labor-intensive affair, but roasting vegetables is simple and provides a complementary earthy and nutty flavor, especially if you opt for root veggies like carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, or turnips. Vegetables also add interesting texture to the dish, and mole works its magic to enliven the meal with as much spiciness, sweetness, or chocolatiness as you desire (despite what you may have heard, chocolate isn't actually the main ingredient in mole). Plus, the nuttiness from a typical mole's peanuts, pecans, and other nuts also complements the roasted vegetables.

There is no one way to make mole. In fact, there are over 50 variations. Pretty much any mole can pair well with roasted vegetables, but there are three moles in particular that merit attention for their perfect pairing with veggies. 

One popular version of this sauce is mole poblano (hailing from Puebla), which is known for its spicy and chocolatey-sweet flavors. Mole poblano is one of the most known moles outside of Mexico, and is one of the most popular moles to pair with roasted vegetables. Its sweeter flavors can beautifully enhance milder veggies like roasted potatoes, turnips, and cauliflower. 

Oaxaca is known as the land of the seven moles, and a slow-cooked chicken mole is particularly popular there, where you'll hear it by the name mole negro (black mole). Being less sweet than mole poblano, some great choices for this sauce are sweeter vegetables like roasted carrots, yam, sweet potatoes, or nutty chickpeas to truly enjoy and bring out the chocolatey depth and complexity that mole negro is known for. 

Red mole (mole rojo) is another popular Oaxacan mole that pairs exceptionally well with roasted vegetables. It has a sweet and spicy profile, with some recipes calling for sugar or even cookies and raisins. This sauce can lend some excitement to roasted turnips and cauliflower, which bring balance by not overloading the palate with extra sweetness. Also, remember that roasted cauliflower tacos are a thing, so bring along some corn tortillas to enjoy this vegetable mole.