And now, on to our story...
This recent foray into food blog-ism had it's start with a great documentary called Forks Over Knives. (If you have Netflix you can watch it here, if not you can watch it on hulu). Now... I am and have always been a huge proponent of the belief that humans, with our giant brains and meat tearing teeth, are intended to be omnivorous and for a truly well balanced diet we should be eating meat regularly. This being the case, when my girlfriend turned on a documentary about eating a plant based diet being the cure for a variety of diseases, and the path to a healthy lifestyle I tried really hard to ignore it. Even so, as I listened to the bits and pieces of the movie I caught from the other room I was driven to give the film my undivided attention. I'll let you watch it for yourself and draw your own conclusions but it made me feel like I should try to shift my diet away from frequent meat consumption. So now here I am, a barbecue-loving-red-blooded-meat-and-potatoes kinda guy, about to take a wide eyed journey into vegetarian and vegan food. With you. Exciting, right?
So; vegan chili. It seems like a pretty quintessential vegetarian recipe and a non threatening place to start. I've always prided myself on my Cincinnati style chili (that I'll eventually post about) and while it's nothing particularly special I always thought I had done a good job of capturing the Je ne sais quois of something decidedly not at all french. When Letitia (my girlfriend) suggested we take on vegan chili my gears started turning.How would I make chili be chili with out glorious protein-laden flavor-enhancing meat? After browsing a few recipes that suggested using a bunch of soy based meat substitutes to round out the texture of the dish I decided to see what we had in the pantry to use instead. I'm still not particularly sold on the virtues of soy and I'm trying to avoid consuming too much of it. (Note to self: Blog on pros and cons of soy consumption at a later date.) Anyway, I was looking for an ingredient to take something that was basically Mexican flavored vegetable soup and turn it into a dish I could truly in my heart call chili. That's when I opened the cupboard and saw a clear plastic bag filled with everyone's favorite chenopod: quinoa. For those of you not in the know, this pseudocereal is a seed that provides a complete protein source and is also high in fiber, iron, and magnesium. Not only that but it's fairly robust and it's texture stands up to time even in soups. I knew that I had found my meat substitute. It definitely had the body I needed to round out some stick to your ribs chili. (I'm thinking of trying bulgur wheat next time) Now that I'd acquired everything I needed, it was time to get cooking. These can sizes might not be exactly correct but they're my best guesses. I'll be sure to document better in the future, ya know with like pictures and stuff. I will also try to do more measuring.
Ingredients:
1 (15oz) can of kidney beans
1 (15oz) can of great northern beans
1 (16ish oz) can of tomatoes
~3 Cups vegetable stock
1 cup of quinoa
1 red onion chopped
1 yellow pepper chopped
2-4 cloves of garlic minced (some people like garlic... some people don't. I often add twice what is directed...that being said do not add eight cloves of garlic to this recipe.)
Tabasco Sauce (any kind will do, I used the green kind this time)
1.5 Tbs Chili powder (more on this later)
2 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Turmeric
Ground cayenne pepper
Black pepper
1 Tbs tomato paste
salt
olive oil
I like this recipe especially because it all cooks in one pot. Less dishes = more winning. SO. Take your one pot, I've got a nice aluminum job with a heavy bottom that disperses heat quite well and holds about six quarts, and put it over a medium high heat. Let it heat up for about 45 seconds and then add a tablespoon of olive oil. Throw in your onion, yellow pepper, and garlic with a pinch of salt and saute them until they're slightly tender but not mushy. They don't need to really take on any color, we're just trying to get our aromatics pumping before adding a bunch of liquid into the equation. After a minute or two of cooking I added in my spices. I used a good amount of garden variety chili powder, probably somewhere in the neighborhood of a tablespoon. In addition to that I used a couple of smoked chili powders that I really like. McCormick Spices makes an ancho and chipotle chili powder both of which are awesome. I'm guessing between the two of them I added another teaspoon or so of seasoning. Anyway, add all your spices in there. I put turmeric in just because its good for what ales you including joint pain and muscle fatigue. Saute a little longer. Keep in mind Kevin Malone's advice from The Office. "The trick is to under cook the onions, everyone's going to get know each other in the pot".
Once you've got your vegetables going, drain your beans and dump them, plus the can of tomatoes (and all the tomato liquor) into the pot. Pour in enough vegetable stock to cover everything and put the spurs to the heat. Bring everything to a low boil and give it a healthy dash of your favorite Tabasco sauce. Now is also the time to put in the tomato paste. Add the quinoa last and make sure to stir everything frequently to prevent stuff from sticking to the bottom of your pot. Once the quinoa is cooked (about 15-20 minutes) you're ready to dine.
This dish ends up not only being vegetarian but vegan and gluten free and thus can be served to even the hippest of your friends without fear of dietary restrictions.
So that's it. My first blog entry. I hope that you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave me feedback on any aspect of the content, because as much as this is an ego trip for me, I hope it is entertaining and educational for you.
This recent foray into food blog-ism had it's start with a great documentary called Forks Over Knives. (If you have Netflix you can watch it here, if not you can watch it on hulu). Now... I am and have always been a huge proponent of the belief that humans, with our giant brains and meat tearing teeth, are intended to be omnivorous and for a truly well balanced diet we should be eating meat regularly. This being the case, when my girlfriend turned on a documentary about eating a plant based diet being the cure for a variety of diseases, and the path to a healthy lifestyle I tried really hard to ignore it. Even so, as I listened to the bits and pieces of the movie I caught from the other room I was driven to give the film my undivided attention. I'll let you watch it for yourself and draw your own conclusions but it made me feel like I should try to shift my diet away from frequent meat consumption. So now here I am, a barbecue-loving-red-blooded-meat-and-potatoes kinda guy, about to take a wide eyed journey into vegetarian and vegan food. With you. Exciting, right?
So; vegan chili. It seems like a pretty quintessential vegetarian recipe and a non threatening place to start. I've always prided myself on my Cincinnati style chili (that I'll eventually post about) and while it's nothing particularly special I always thought I had done a good job of capturing the Je ne sais quois of something decidedly not at all french. When Letitia (my girlfriend) suggested we take on vegan chili my gears started turning.How would I make chili be chili with out glorious protein-laden flavor-enhancing meat? After browsing a few recipes that suggested using a bunch of soy based meat substitutes to round out the texture of the dish I decided to see what we had in the pantry to use instead. I'm still not particularly sold on the virtues of soy and I'm trying to avoid consuming too much of it. (Note to self: Blog on pros and cons of soy consumption at a later date.) Anyway, I was looking for an ingredient to take something that was basically Mexican flavored vegetable soup and turn it into a dish I could truly in my heart call chili. That's when I opened the cupboard and saw a clear plastic bag filled with everyone's favorite chenopod: quinoa. For those of you not in the know, this pseudocereal is a seed that provides a complete protein source and is also high in fiber, iron, and magnesium. Not only that but it's fairly robust and it's texture stands up to time even in soups. I knew that I had found my meat substitute. It definitely had the body I needed to round out some stick to your ribs chili. (I'm thinking of trying bulgur wheat next time) Now that I'd acquired everything I needed, it was time to get cooking. These can sizes might not be exactly correct but they're my best guesses. I'll be sure to document better in the future, ya know with like pictures and stuff. I will also try to do more measuring.
Ingredients:
1 (15oz) can of kidney beans
1 (15oz) can of great northern beans
1 (16ish oz) can of tomatoes
~3 Cups vegetable stock
1 cup of quinoa
1 red onion chopped
1 yellow pepper chopped
2-4 cloves of garlic minced (some people like garlic... some people don't. I often add twice what is directed...that being said do not add eight cloves of garlic to this recipe.)
Tabasco Sauce (any kind will do, I used the green kind this time)
1.5 Tbs Chili powder (more on this later)
2 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Turmeric
Ground cayenne pepper
Black pepper
1 Tbs tomato paste
salt
olive oil
I like this recipe especially because it all cooks in one pot. Less dishes = more winning. SO. Take your one pot, I've got a nice aluminum job with a heavy bottom that disperses heat quite well and holds about six quarts, and put it over a medium high heat. Let it heat up for about 45 seconds and then add a tablespoon of olive oil. Throw in your onion, yellow pepper, and garlic with a pinch of salt and saute them until they're slightly tender but not mushy. They don't need to really take on any color, we're just trying to get our aromatics pumping before adding a bunch of liquid into the equation. After a minute or two of cooking I added in my spices. I used a good amount of garden variety chili powder, probably somewhere in the neighborhood of a tablespoon. In addition to that I used a couple of smoked chili powders that I really like. McCormick Spices makes an ancho and chipotle chili powder both of which are awesome. I'm guessing between the two of them I added another teaspoon or so of seasoning. Anyway, add all your spices in there. I put turmeric in just because its good for what ales you including joint pain and muscle fatigue. Saute a little longer. Keep in mind Kevin Malone's advice from The Office. "The trick is to under cook the onions, everyone's going to get know each other in the pot".
Once you've got your vegetables going, drain your beans and dump them, plus the can of tomatoes (and all the tomato liquor) into the pot. Pour in enough vegetable stock to cover everything and put the spurs to the heat. Bring everything to a low boil and give it a healthy dash of your favorite Tabasco sauce. Now is also the time to put in the tomato paste. Add the quinoa last and make sure to stir everything frequently to prevent stuff from sticking to the bottom of your pot. Once the quinoa is cooked (about 15-20 minutes) you're ready to dine.
This dish ends up not only being vegetarian but vegan and gluten free and thus can be served to even the hippest of your friends without fear of dietary restrictions.
So that's it. My first blog entry. I hope that you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave me feedback on any aspect of the content, because as much as this is an ego trip for me, I hope it is entertaining and educational for you.
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