Vegan chili

I'm going to a chili cookoff on Sunday at a friend's house and if you know me you know I have a thing about food and winning. It's going to be a curry chickpea and black bean chili with red peppers, red onions, garlic, and cilantro. Any ideas for other thigs to make it better? The curry will be a thai red (or maybe panang, not sure yet) curry and I'm going to toss in a couple 6" pieces of lemongrasss to flavor it while it is simmering.

I was thinking perhaps some julienned jicama for a crunch. I'm going to top it with green onions before serving.

Can you turn coconut cream into a substitue for sour cream? I've never used it for anything other than thai curries.

Octarine wrote: I have a thing about food and winning...

Any ideas for other thigs to make it better?

Beef and pork?

I agree, in the real world, chili is meat and chilis, maybe some onion and beer.

But these are friends and I will derive a certain satisfaction in winning a cooking contest in which I never actually ate what I made I'll taste the sauce but onions, peppers, and beans are not my thing so I am quite sure I will not be eating any of it.

I'd be worried about a curried chilli coming out too much like chole chana or other Indian dishes. You're obviously heading in a Thai direction, so that changes the flavor profile significantly. If you were heading in an Indian direction, I'd say cumin should be your #1 flavoring, it at least ties in to southwest flavors well.

Garnishes will be a key -- cilantro, lime, perhaps chopped peanuts?

Cook your black beans and garbanzo's separately until near the end, or you'll end up with grey garbanzos.

Good points. There will be tomatos and cumin and oregano, the thai curry will be a counterpoint. I think I will make the main sauce sans beans tonight and let it firm up, then add the beans Sat morning to blend and soak up some of the liquid in time for the tasting Sun eve.

What did I learn from the cookoff? First, anger is a weapon only to ones' enemy; second, don't try to beat the vegetarians at their own game. I got a culinary boot to the head.

I will admit my heart was not in it, the telltale sign was the broiled ribeye I heartily enjoyed while adding the last ingredients on Sun at noon. There were eleven entries and I did not place in the top four. The winner was the owner of Ennui Cafe who had a delicious vegetable stew ( the pieces were so large I challenge it as a chili). The mushroom chili was my favorite and the kim chi based one had good flavor but was too dry and the protein crumbles detracted from it imho.

All in all a good time and I've got some good ideas for next year.

Octarine wrote:The mushroom chili was my favorite and the kim chi based one had good flavor but was too dry and the protein crumbles detracted from it imho.

One of my monk friends would make a vegetarian chili that was pretty close to regular chili by using mushrooms as a replacement for ground been. He would chop them bery fine. Most of the people did not realize that he was not using ground beef.

jlawrence01 wrote:One of my monk friends would make a vegetarian chili that was pretty close to regular chili by using mushrooms as a replacement for ground been. He would chop them bery fine. Most of the people did not realize that he was not using ground beef.

One of the biggest differences you'll find from a 'shroom chili is that unlike meat-based or even bean-based ones, it will not benefit from a freeze-thaw cycle -- too much water will leach out on the reheat, in my experience.

Agree completely. It was one of those items where you would need to finish up the pot in a day or two.

Of course, he was a campus minister and feeding college students ... so leftovers were NEVER an issue!

Coming to the party late. I love roasted vegetables in vegetarian chili. Also really good beans[url].

This year I was determined to do better than last years' last place finish. I made the controversial choice of Not Burning The Chili; I feel this was my key failing last time

With the help of my lovely co chef Fifille, we came up with a pretty good recipe. Black, kidney, and garbanzo beans went into a slowly cooked mixture of green, jalapeno, and red peppers, onions, and garlic. Then a couple cans of crushed tomatoes and a good handful of fresh cilantro along with a glug of red wine vinegar. The spice mix was cumin, guajillo, ancho, and pasilla chili powder. In addition, I was very happy to use 1 Tbs of the Spice House's Medium Hot chili powder along with their excellent Roasted Cacao Nibs and 4oz. of semi sweet chocolate. This balanced the heat nicely.

At the end we added whole canned tomatoes roughly torn apart and 1/2" dice of jicama that had been dressed in lime juice and some frozen corn. Let me tell you, the jicama was fantastic! I'm embarrassed to say I've never used it before but it's going into my next meat chili as well, I LOVE the crunch and taste. Garnish was a very fine dice of the jalapeno, red peppers, cilantro and jicama. That scattered on top put it over the edge in my opinion. The fresh crunch and bright flavors along side the cooked chili was wonderful.

I'm proud to announce we came in 1st place with a total of 76 points and 5 first place votes! I must say I was very pleased with the results, the trophy will be going onto a small shelf I am installing in my kitchen where it will sit proudly until next year when the trophy is up for grabs at the 3rd annual John and Tiffany's veggie Chili and ugly sweater contest!


The pot was 2/3rds full at the beginning and I barely had to clean it when I got home.

Sorry, no pics of the sweaters but the winner was truly hideous, greens and tans with ribbons woven through it

wow, congratulations!

Octarine,

Are you publishing your recipe?

There's an excellent recipe from The Frog Commissary Cookbook for vegan chili that uses bulgur wheat, which looks amazingly like ground meat when stewed with lots of veggies (including mushrooms and mirepoix) and chili spices like cumin, hot red pepper, plus interesting additions like lemon juice. I could probably dig it up if anyone needs it.

I will work on the recipe later this week, we sort of adapted a couple ideas on the fly. I love mushrooms but chose not to use them as I felt they would degrade too much during the two days of preparation.

I also made the conscious choice not to use any meat substitute materials like seitan or soy crumbles. Even though the 2nd place chili used it to good effect, it goes against my core beliefs vis a vis vegetarianism. Veggies are delicious!