Chilli con carne

[Pepper Pig Profile]

Can anyone point me in the direction of a veggie/vegan recipe for chilli that works and is freezeable please? I’ve had a bad reaction to Quorn in the past so would rather avoid that,

I have got fed up with eating the things OH eats and am going to try cooking separate meals. Mine might as well be veggie.

[Lusciouslush Profile]

Why not cook in the 'usual' way but omit the meat - you'd definitely have to use soaked dried beans - they absorb so much more flavour from the chilli, & let stand for a day or two - I've often thought that most of my chilli's didn't need meat at all - the sauce & beans are the shinning stars.

[Pampy Profile]

Would tofu work?

[northleedsbhoy Profile]

Wetherspoons used to do a lovely 5 bean chilli and even though I’m a meat eater I used to enjoy it. I’ve just Googled it and there are a few recipes there, including a BBC one.

Cheers
NLB

[Binky Profile]

This is the recipe we've used since 1995, so nearly 27 years. We have tweaked it to our taste and use canned kidney beans instead of soaking dried ones, we skip the bulgar wheat and have reduced the amount of chilli.

Moosewood recipes are reliable and one of the best known vegetarian restaurants in the US. I think they've been going for 40 years now. Lots of recipes online and it's where we always look first for ideas.

https://recipeland.com/recipe/v/moosewo ... hili-20786

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

I made a vegan black bean chilli, tamale.
I loved it - I'm a big fan of Eric Tucker vegan recipes. He gave me permission to post his recipes too at the time - what a charmer.

Here's the recipe in different parts: https://gillthepainter.blogspot.com/201 ... -tofu.html

And the black bean chilli part

[liketocook Profile]

I like Mary Berry's roasted butternut squash & black bean chilli. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/ar ... hilli.html

[scullion Profile]

I’ve had a bad reaction to Quorn in the past so would rather avoid that,

have you tried subbing the meat in your normal recipe (as that is the one i assume you like best) with soya mince instead of quorn mince? i would imagine there are a number of hydrated, flavoured brands out there as well as the plain dried stuff you can buy.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

I never make it Scully. Only ever have it when I eat out (so not for quite a while). OH has never done beans or chillies. Soya mince is a thought, thanks.

[scullion Profile]

linda McCartney does a vegemince. i don't remember if i've eaten it or not but the brand is usually a reasonable sub for meat products.

the dried stuff, although it needs a good flavour soak, is very useful in the fact that it can be stored for a long time and you only have to rehydrate what you need at the time. i haven't bought it for years but i gather it's used in quite a bit of srilankan cooking (well, i've eaten it in one of the srilankan restaurants in wembley).

[Seatallan Profile]

PP, this one is to die for. I just love it...

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/bur ... gie-chilli

[carrotdill Profile]

if you going with veggie chili con carne
you might be better off making
soya Mapo Tofu or mushrooms
instead meat in regular chili con carne

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Much as I like ma po tofu (might make some this week) I don’t think it’s really what PP is looking for, the dish known as chilli is made from meat and/or whole beans

I made quite a nice chilli sin carne (sin being without) using rose coco beans (similar to pinto beans) with all the things I’d normally put into chilli co carne, but rather more veg including grated carrots and quite a lot of sweet peppers

It’s pretty good but I’d hoped the carrots would cook down into the sauce like minced meat does in a Tex Mex chilli, and I realise that’s why Nigella and other often put some red lentils in with the whole beans, to give that background mush

[slimpersoninside Profile]

PP, this one is to die for. I just love it...

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/bur ... gie-chilli

Total carnivore here but I really like the look of this! Might try getting it past hubby but won't hold my breath .

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I tried the aubergine chilli back when it came out and was unimpressed but might give it another go

Looking at it again, I might not have have followed the recipe exactly

I notice it has the mixture of lentils for texture

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Veggie Chile con Carne KKA:

1 large onion, diced
Olive oil
4 large cloves garlic, minced
2 green finger chiles, minced
1/2 red pepper and 1/2 green pepper, diced
1 tin red or brown beans,drained ( 400 gm tins)
1 tin tomatoes ( 400 gms)
2 tsps oregano
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp achiote/annato/onoto ( if you can´t find it, omit)
1 tsp smoked páprika
1 tbsp groud sesame seeds
1 tbsp ground Mexican chiles ( guajillo, ancho, what ever you find)
1 tsp fresh coffee ( NOT Nescafé! )
Vegetable stock
1 square dark chocolate
Salt to -taste

Put the oil in a large pan and heat. Add the onions and cook until they wilt, then add the garlic and the chiles and stir fry for a minute.
Now add the peppers and cook for five minutes. Add all the spices and stir for 1-2 minutes.
Put in the tomatoes, the beans and the coffee, stir for a while until the flavours mix and then add the veg stock. I usually add 1 lt, but you may need more. lower the heat, put a lid on the pan and cook gently for about an hour. taste frequently for seasoning.
After about an hour, taste - the sauce should have thickened. Now add the chocolate, let it melt into the sauce and cook for about 10 minutes more.
Serve with sour cream and corn tortillas - or baked potatoes.

[ZeroCook Profile]

Some good chilis on here.

That looks really good KDKA.
Nice touch, the Mex chiles and achiote.

Love black beans and remember your chili, Gill

Ditto the aubergine chili - looks great, even tho BBCGF puts up a cookie wall which I refuse to agree to

I actually really like soy TVP. But it's not necessary. Chili beans are fine on their own without a 'meat' stand-in in any case, even for meat eaters. Chili sin Carne.

.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Veggie chilli is a staple for me when staying on island bird observatories. A perfectly good dinner can be achieved with food cupboard ingredients plus some fresh stuff that can be stored and others that need time to ripen. I've never felt the need to put pretend meat in. Just use a variety of pulses to achieve a variety of textures.

When I make it though, it's typically to serve 10-12 people, so it's easy to buy bags of several different beans. At home I'd reduce the number and quantity. Use a mixture of dried and tinned if you want. I quite like some small ones, such as aduki, which will partly go mushy plus (let's say) pinto and black beans. Soak and cook the beans in water, you might need two pans, one for the little ones and one for the big ones.

So, in a pan with some OO make a point of annoying Gino by softening a clove or two of garlic with some onion. If you didn't want to offend the rest of Italy you could use red, white and green ones. It doesn't matter. If you wish add chopped pepper, celery, carrot - any, all or none. Fry some whole cumin seeds if you've got them but otherwise you can and should use ground cumin, paprika (smoked is good), oregano and either fresh, dried or powdered chillies or 'chilli powder' (the spice mixture) to taste. I'd add the powdered spices with chopped tinned tomatoes after the frying. If you want, add a teaspoon of cocoa powder. Lob the beans and their water in, give it a squirt of tom purée and simmer gently. Once it has cooked for half an hour, it should have thickened, there should be some mushy and some whole pulses. Season with salt and add more tom purée and chilli powder to taste, plus a handful of chopped green coriander.

Now, to serve, make a batch of tomato salsa - tomatoes, onion, salt, chilli, coriander leaf, lemon or lime juice. Make some whack-a-mole with avocado instead of or as well as the toms in the previous mixture. If you use tinned toms for these, strain off the juice first and use it in the chilli. Grate some cheese.

Serve the chilli with rice and the accompaniments, plus tortilla chips or plantain chips or both. I quite like to put a variety of chilli sauces on the table too, if feeding a group. Leftover chilli can be frozen for a further serving, but is also brilliant on fried tortillas with an egg on top as huevos rancheros.

[scullion Profile]

my rapid version, when the need to get food into the kids quickly, was -
a couple of big onions, sliced and fried in olive oil (or whatever).
a couple of tins of tomatoes, roughly chopped in the can - and possibly a squirt of paste.
a couple of tins of drained, red kidney beans.
a packet of frozen sliced peppers.
ground cumin, garlic powder, dried thyme, chilli powder, stock powder or cube, salt (all adjusted for taste but the salt, garlic, cumin levels were always reasonably strong) and a couple of squares of plain chocolate.
(never eat any of the 'spare' chocolate until you've tasted/adjusted the amount in the chilli).
water to slacken if necessary.
served with rice.

it was my basic that could morph if required.
i'd make a pressure cooker load and put two parts in the freezer and one to eat that night. as the young got bigger (older not fatter) the amount that went in the freezer decreased to none.

nowadays, other veg, quorn mince, anything i feel like goes in as long as the spices etc are pretty much the same (with, sometimes, the addition of smoked paprika - that wasn't around a few decades ago, it seems).
i also, sometimes, add in some asafœtida with the frying onions to give it an extra hit.
i don't think i've ever followed a recipe for chilli - my basic comes from copying the flavours etc that i had in a chilli, in a vegetarian restaurant in st ives, many moons ago.

[Gruney2 Profile]

Regarding spices - and using KKD's recipe as an example - if I were to make double, and freeze loads, would I double the spice quantities? I've just got a gut feeling ( come to think of it, that's what I don't want to end up with), that doing so, might be a bit overpowering.