Experimental Chili

The first thing I actually made with the roasted poblanos was refried beans, but the first thing I thought of making was chili.  After some googling, I settled on a recipe from the Irreverent Vegan as a starting point, and followed Mark's instructions for roasting the poblanos, as well.

I said starting point, right?  I referred to Mark's recipe a few times, but basically did my own thing.  I post the result here not because it was so amazing (it's perfectly fine chili, but not necessarily something I would make again), but to show how my twisted thought processes work when I'm playing with a recipe.



I started with

1 large yellow onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
about 1/4 c chopped roasted poblano peppers
1/2 c red wine
1 T smoked paprika
1 t ground cumin
1 T Mexican oregano

Up to this point I'm following Mark's recipe fairly closely.  I didn't know what he meant by "smoked chili powder" so I left out both that and the regular chili powder and added some smoked paprika, which is one of my favorite things.  I played with the quantities of cumin and oregano, but nothing too drastic.  I steam-sauteed the onions, garlic, and poblanos in the red wine, then added the spices.  Then I added

3 cups thick bean broth

I used liquid I had saved from cooking the pintos for refried beans, because it looked rich and because I thought the onions and garlic would give it a good flavor.

I brought that to a boil, then added

3 cups cooked black beans
3 cups cooked red kidney beans

The mixture looked pretty thin, so I decided not to add as many tomatoes as Mark called for.  I added

1 15-oz can diced tomatoes in juice

There was supposed to be some bell pepper in there, but I didn't have any.  I did, however, have some zucchini and yellow squash aging in the refrigerator, so I chopped that in big chunks and added it.  How much?  About this much:

Cute, right?  But then I cut open the big one and found this:

Ew.  I was only able to salvage about a quarter of that one, so I added these:

At this point I tasted the broth.  It seemed kind of bitter to me, so I got to thinking about what could sweeten it.  I settled on carrots.  By this point, of course, the squash was almost cooked, and if I added chunks of carrot the squash would be total mush by the time the carrot softened.  So instead I added

4 medium sized carrots, peeled and grated

I grated them in the food processor and threw them in.

This was bubbling away, and it still looked pretty watery to me.  I find that this is often a good time to add some raw bulgur.  It slurps up the excess broth and adds nice texture and grainy goodness.  I didn't have any bulgur, though, so I added

2 cups organic textured soy protein granules

I specify organic, because the non-organic stuff, TVP, is made by Archer Daniels Midland.  Ew.  Did you know the name TVP is actually trademarked to ADM?  True story.  Plus, non-organic soy most likely = GMOs.  Double ew.

After a few minutes, I covered the pot and turned off the burner, leaving the TSP (NOT TVP, remember?)  to soak up as much liquid as it wanted to.

I had already eaten dinner, so I left this to sit overnight.

The next morning, the chili still seemed like it needed something, so I added a pound of frozen corn.  I used Trader Joe's roasted corn kernels, which are my favorite way to eat corn these days.  I heated a bowl of chili up for breakfast, and ate it with shredded raw cabbage and a squeeze of lime.

It's pretty good plain, but the cabbage and lime really perk it up.  I learned to eat posole this way and it has become one of my favorite ways to add veggies to bean dishes.