Vegetarian chilli/Soy veggie chilli

Soy in vegetarian chilli

Short days and long cold nights! There must be something to warm up the sinking spirits. A hot Chilli dish would do the trick for me!

Vegetarian chilli called, “Chili sin carne” in Spanish, meaning – chilli without meat is a variation on the original meat chilli. This is a Mexican dish introduced to American palette in the early days. It is a fulfilling meal and the official dish of Texas. It is easy to prepare and a mom’s delight as you can hide a lot of veggies to strengthen up the chilli.

Indian recipes would always be my husband’s first choice, but he is ready to embrace food from other cultures too. To make things interesting, I consulted the recipe by Canadian chef, Michael Smith as my husband admires his organized cooking. So, that will be an incentive for him to eat this chilli without a fuss.  The original recipe is  here/michael-smiths-vegetarian-chili/  There are some minor changes made, like adding peas and soy chunks.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• 1 medium carrot cubed
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tomato chopped
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 can red beans or any beans
• 1 red or green pepper
• 2 tbsp frozen corn
• 2 tbsp peas
• salt
• 1/2 cup soy chunks
• fresh oregano to garnish

1. Soak soy chunks in very hot water.
2. In a heavy bottom pot, add oil and saute onion, garlic and carrot pieces for 5 minutes.
3. Stir in chilli powder, cumin powder and oregano.
4. Add chopped tomato and cook until it gets mushy.
5. Stir in tomato paste and add water.
6. Add beans, chopped green or red pepper and boil until they absorb the flavours.
7. Add corn, peas, salt and soaked soy (break them to smaller pieces if desired).
8. Allow it to simmer for 20 minutes.
9. Serve in bowls garnishing with fresh oregano.

This is a one pot meal but you can include some grains to add carbohydrates. It is normally accompanied by corn chips, flour tortilla or corn bread. Mine, as you see is corn bread, which I baked earlier. Normally, chilli is ladled into a bowl and looks thicker. The consistency of chilli is not thick here as I expected soya chunks to absorb some water. Anyways, it complemented the grainy corn bread.

I have to try cooking it in my slow cooker next time and try this recipe with some beef too. This is very close to the Kenyan dish Githeri except for the spices. Serve and smile!