I have never been a meat-eater.
By meat, I mean seafood and poultry as well .This is of course by virtue of being raised in a Tam-Brahm family. But that reasoning only holds good for a few years, if we are all being truly honest. At some point, every young vegetarian comes to a crossroad in their life where they consciously or sub-consciously decide to go or not go to the dark side :D To paraphrase the Bard himself, "To eat, or not to eat: that is the question". Or something like that.
For me, I have had several such opportunities when I was in college but something held me back. I cant explain or put a finger on it but I sub-consciously made that decision in my teens and it has stuck so far. For a lot of people, it is more straightforward than that, more of a conscious decision. If you ask Arvind, he insists that he will violently throw up of he eats meat. And he says this right in front of other meat eaters, which I find terribly rude but, hey, that's my dear husband for you!
I never questioned my decision to go meatless for the most part but there were a few times when I just wondered 'what if...'! The first was when I was working in good old Chennai. A colleague and good friend of mine used to bring mushroom masala to work. I never had really eaten mushrooms before so this was all new to me. Man, I just went nuts over it. The juicy, supple texture of the mushroom... that delicious chewyness, the spicy masala... I was in foodie heaven. My colleague was convinced that I would just love poultry and really tried to talk me into it! It makes me laugh to just think about it. Good times!
Anyway, here I am trying to make a hardcore non-vegetarian dish into a meatless meal. I believe Chili is traditionally made up of ground beef and sometimes ground turkey, the only veggies being onions and garlic. But if you ask me, you cant go wrong with beans and a whole bunch of veggies for some some real good flavour!
Look at that! Isn't that just gorgeous! Mmmmm veggies =P~
The Best Vegetarian Chili
Ingredients:
1 cup cooked black beans
1 cup cooked kidney beans
1 onion - chopped
4 pods of garlic - finely chopped
1 tomato - chopped
2 jalapeno - seeded and chopped
1 carrot - peeled and chopped
1/2 zucchini - peeled and chopped
1 cup mixed peppers (red, green, orange and yellow) - seeded and chopped
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels - thawed out
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup water or vegetable broth
A bit of Mexican blend shredded cheese
salt to taste
crushed black pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil
This recipe serves 2
By meat, I mean seafood and poultry as well .This is of course by virtue of being raised in a Tam-Brahm family. But that reasoning only holds good for a few years, if we are all being truly honest. At some point, every young vegetarian comes to a crossroad in their life where they consciously or sub-consciously decide to go or not go to the dark side :D To paraphrase the Bard himself, "To eat, or not to eat: that is the question". Or something like that.
For me, I have had several such opportunities when I was in college but something held me back. I cant explain or put a finger on it but I sub-consciously made that decision in my teens and it has stuck so far. For a lot of people, it is more straightforward than that, more of a conscious decision. If you ask Arvind, he insists that he will violently throw up of he eats meat. And he says this right in front of other meat eaters, which I find terribly rude but, hey, that's my dear husband for you!
I never questioned my decision to go meatless for the most part but there were a few times when I just wondered 'what if...'! The first was when I was working in good old Chennai. A colleague and good friend of mine used to bring mushroom masala to work. I never had really eaten mushrooms before so this was all new to me. Man, I just went nuts over it. The juicy, supple texture of the mushroom... that delicious chewyness, the spicy masala... I was in foodie heaven. My colleague was convinced that I would just love poultry and really tried to talk me into it! It makes me laugh to just think about it. Good times!
Anyway, here I am trying to make a hardcore non-vegetarian dish into a meatless meal. I believe Chili is traditionally made up of ground beef and sometimes ground turkey, the only veggies being onions and garlic. But if you ask me, you cant go wrong with beans and a whole bunch of veggies for some some real good flavour!
Look at that! Isn't that just gorgeous! Mmmmm veggies =P~
The Best Vegetarian Chili
1 cup cooked black beans
1 cup cooked kidney beans
1 onion - chopped
4 pods of garlic - finely chopped
1 tomato - chopped
2 jalapeno - seeded and chopped
1 carrot - peeled and chopped
1/2 zucchini - peeled and chopped
1 cup mixed peppers (red, green, orange and yellow) - seeded and chopped
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels - thawed out
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup water or vegetable broth
A bit of Mexican blend shredded cheese
salt to taste
crushed black pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil
This recipe serves 2
- Heat olive oil in a pan and saute the onions and garlic for 3-4 minutes, until soft and fragrant. Add the chopped tomato, jalapeno, carrot, zucchini, corn and mixed peppers. Add some salt to the veggies. Saute until slightly cooked, for about 5-7 minutes.
- While the veggies are cooking, mix the black beans and kidney beans in a large bowl. Add a little water to them and mash them slightly with a potato masher. This helps the chili get a nice ooey-gooey texture which I love.
- Once the veggies are cooked, throw in the slightly mashed beans. Add the cumin powder, coriander powder, oregano, red pepper flakes, crushed black pepper and mix well. Adjust the seasoning as needed. Add in the water or vegetable and simmer for about 15 minutes with the lid on, stirring occasionally. Adjust the water/broth as well depending your preferred consistency.
- Remove the lid and give this a taste. Adjust the salt and other seasoning as needed. Simmer for another 5 minutes stirring occasionally.
No comments:
Post a Comment