A simple rule of thumb to know whether you're eating healthy: Put color on your plate.
The reason is simple: Food with color tends to have lots of great chemistry your body craves and needs to keep you strong.
So, purple beets, yellow polenta, seeds in a freshly-baked loaf of bread looking all pretty ... you know this is a party in the mouth and a honeymoon for your cells. Cue up your favorite 80's dance music and let's get it going!
Vegan chili might seem to meat-eaters like a compromise. But, as chef/writer Anthony Bourdain-(RIP)- might say to someone who disses vegan chili, “What’s your major malfunction?” Gosh, I miss him and his profoundly spot on take on life and food. But … I digress. Back to chili.
Think about your pantry and those hardy long life vegetables, and the number one long life ingredient is the pumpkin, or hard skinned squash (any one of a dozen varieties). It’s delicious, plentiful, inexpensive, beautiful, easy to cook with ... why not make a big one-pot dish out of it? And what better set of ingredients than what we put into chili?
All that said ... we love meat in our chili, too, and when we're in that mood, we cook up some tri-tip separately and put it in the bowl first as a layer of seared, savory surprise. Read about that below the main recipe.
SPICE IS BEYOND NICE
Chili needs spice. And most people use chili powder as part of their own chili recipe. Chili spice recipes aren't as jealously guarded as, say, mole or curry mixes -- but this one is special. Just special enough that your guests will love its mystery. And it's super simple.
Chili can be elegant. Here, it's served to show off the ingredients and garnished with some clean, beautiful spring onion stalks.
2 t. ground chili powder
1 t. ground cumin
1 t. ground Harissa powder
1/2 t. smoky (aka Spanish) paprika
Not all paprika is made the same. Most paprika is related to Hungarian paprika (although we love Hungarian paprika fresh off the plane from Hungary -- it has a bigger, sweeter flavor than you normally get even in Hungarian paprika in the US). You're looking for a paprika that would be labeled "smoky", "smoked", "Spanish" -- sometimes using the Spanish word pimenton. Any paprika can quickly lose its personality ... so find a good, smoky paprika fresh from its container to make sure it puts its lovely, seductive arms around the chili spice.
VEGAN CHILI - Portobello mushrooms went into the chili I made here, but experiment with your favorites
1 large red onion diced
3 cloves garlic diced fine
2 cups mushrooms sliced into chunks
2 cups hearty squash - kabocha, butternut, acorn - cut into chunks
4 cups veggie stock or water
1/2 head of cauliflower
1 cup summer squash in chunks
4 ripe tomatoes, quartered
1 can low sodium black beans (do not drain -- the liquid has beautiful flavor and texture)
PROCEDURE
In your EuroCAST high sided fryer or medium sized Dutch oven:Add the garlic and sauté another minute
Add diced squash over low and sauté till the edges begin to caramelize
Add 1/2 cup of the veggie stock or water and let simmer over low heat
Add the cauliflower, mushrooms, and summer squash.
Simmer low and slow for 10 minutes (or a little more)
Add the beans and their liquid, cook another 5 minutes
Add tomatoes and spice blend
Remove from heat when the mushrooms are cooked through but the squash still has a "tooth" to it, and cover with lid to let the ingredients bask in the steam
BUT WHAT ABOUT MEAT?
We love the vegan chili as it is. And I bet you will, too.
But if you have meat-eaters to please, or if you just want to treat yourself to something special, here's a great way to please the inner carnivore while keeping the personality of the vegan chili: Make up some special, beautifully seared steak and, with a generous slice of the braised steak in the bottom of the bowl, cover it with the vegan chili.
The slow braising makes the steak cut like butter, and makes the experience a new kind of chili con carne.
Here's how.
COFFEE-BRAISED TRI-TIP STEAK STRIPS
1 large can whole San Marzano tomatoes in sauce
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups strongly-brewed coffee
PROCEDURE
Salt the tri-tip generously and then pepper evenly.
Put 4 T. olive oil in your largest EuroCAST Dutch oven and bring to medium heat (the oil should not be smoking).
Add the seasoned tri-tip.
Sear the steak to a hard crust, 6-8 minutes per side.
Add one large can of whole San Marzano tomatoes and 2 cups of strong brewed coffee, then add the minced garlic.
Bring to a low, bubbling boil.
Reduce heat to low and cover to braise 90 minutes. Check every once in a while for the liquid level and to break up the tomatoes. Add water as needed, but you want to keep the sauce on the dense side to capture the beef's richness and to keep the tomato acidity popping.
Remove from heat and keep covered with the Dutch oven's lid until ready to server.
You could refrigerate at this point and reheat slightly before slicing and serving.
Check seasoning (hey, one slice is always reserved for chef's testing).
SERVING SUGGESTION
In each diner's bowl, lay a big, warm tri-tip slice in the bottom. (It's fall-apart tender at this point, so each place setting will only need a butter knife -- if that.)
Cover the beef with the hot vegan chili.
And, to make it truly amazing, top with sour cream and, if you have some on hand, garlic confit.