Saturday, December 7, 2013

Big Batch O' Chili

It may not be winter yet by the calendar but it is DEFINITELY winter here in Oklahoma this weekend. Snow, sleet & freezing rain started early enough Thursday that our boss let us go home early. Friday we woke up to a winter wonderland.




Beautiful. Peaceful. And COLD. Absolutely frickin' cold. Wow. The temps have been hovering close to single digits - the wind chill has definitely been there. And what sounds good for dinner on cold winter days? Uh, hello? Chili, of course! But chili is full of beef or venison, right? Well, not my chili! :)

I made this last winter when we had a houseful for some occasion... not sure when. When I make it now I know we'll have plenty of leftovers to enjoy over the next few days and that's okay. Like all chili, this vegan chili just gets better and better the next few days.

I didn't think to start taking pictures until I was pretty far into making this tonight but the recipe is so easy you won't need pictures for the first parts. Just start with a chopped onion, a couple of stalks of chopped celery (I chop mine pretty small because sweet hubby thinks he doesn't like celery.... sheesh), one diced red bell pepper and some veggie broth. Saute these ingredients until tender, then add a can of chopped green chiles. Next comes the spices... 2 Tablespoons chili powder, 2 teaspoons cumin, 2 teaspoons turmeric and 2 teaspoons oregano.

This is where I started taking pictures:




Then you'll want to add half a package of ground veggie crumbles. I always use Light Life Smart Ground but I've discovered recently that if you want to go gluten free you can just use reconstituted TVP instead. The Smart Ground is not gluten free but Red Mills TVP is. Because I had the Smart Ground on hand and because we don't have gluten concerns (but our next door neighbor does so this is good to know!), we just used that tonight. It chops up easily into the mix.

Next I slaved over the can opener and opened 1 can of diced tomatoes and SIX cans of beans - 2 black beans, 2 kidney beans and 2 pinto beans with jalapenos. Rinse them well and they look like this: (aren't they pretty?) :)





Add that to your chili mix and heat well. After that, you can add whatever you'd like to the top of your chili bowl. Hubby adds mustard to his. I add mustard and ketchup, sometimes chopped red onion or maybe Daiya cheese. And, of course, this is one area where we splurge and add Fritos. What is chili without fritos? Not chili. At least not in Oklahoma. We've served this to die-hard carnivores and they were none-the-wiser. :)





Stay warm, everyone!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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