Vegetarian Chili

It began on a rainy day. The sun was ... not out. The air was ... filled with fog. You could see ... well, about five feet in front of you. Needless to say, this was going to be a blah and lazy day. I woke up to an incredible headache that I couldn't make heads or tails of why I had it. But I knew that I had to get out of my apartment, so I put on my rain boots, dug out my umbrella and headed out to The Growling Rabbit - my local coffee shop and café. A 12oz coffee and one salted caramel cupcake later and I was feeling better, but the momentary relief of my headache was just that...momentary. I knew that only comfort food was going to make me feel better. What better comfort food to make on a cold and rainy winters day than a hearty chili?

A simple search for Vegetarian Chili lead me to FoodNetwork.com featuring Emeril Lagasse's Vegetarian Chili recipe. Let's just get to it, shall we?

The Recipe


Vegetarian Chili
Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2003
Prep Time: 25 min

Cook Time: 30 min 

Level: Easy 

Serves: 6 to 8 servings


 Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons canola oil 
• 1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions 
• 1 cup chopped red bell peppers 
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic 
• 2 to 3 serrano peppers, stemmed, seeded, and minced, depending upon taste 
• 1 medium zucchini, stem ends trimmed and cut into small dice 
• 2 cups fresh corn kernels (about 3 ears) 
• 1 1/2 pounds portobello mushrooms (about 5 large), stemmed, wiped clean and cubed 
• 2 tablespoons chili powder 
• 1 tablespooon ground cumin 
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt 
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne 
• 4 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped 
• 3 cups cooked black beans, or canned beans, rinsed and drained 
• 1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce 
• 1 cup vegetable stock, or water 

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves 
• Cooked brown rice, accompaniment 
• Sour cream or strained plain yogurt, garnish 
• Diced avocado, garnish 
• Essence, recipe follows, garnish 
• Chopped green onions, garnish 

Directions

1. In a large, heavy pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions, bell peppers, garlic, and serrano peppers, and cook, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes. 
2. Add the zucchini, corn, and mushrooms, and cook, stirring, until soft and the vegetables give off their liquid and start to brown around the edges, about 6 minutes. 
3. Add the chili powder, cumin, salt and cayenne, and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. 
4. Add the tomatoes and stir well. Add the beans, tomato sauce, and vegetable stock, stir well, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes.
5. Remove from the heat and stir in the cilantro. Adjust the seasoning, to taste.

To serve, place 1/4 cup of brown rice in the bottom of each bowl. Ladle the chili into the bowls over the rice. Top each serving with a dollop of sour cream and spoonful of avocado. Sprinkle with Essence and green onions and serve.

Emeril's ESSENCE Creole Seasoning (also referred to as Bayou Blast):

• 2 1/2 tablespoons paprika 
• 2 tablespoons salt 
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder 
• 1 tablespoon black pepper 
• 1 tablespoon onion powder 
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper 
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano 
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme 

Combine all ingredients thoroughly.

Yield: 2/3 cup

Recipe from "New New Orleans Cooking", by Emeril Lagasse and Jessie Tirsch can be found here.
Published by William and Morrow, 1993.


This recipe is so simple and so delicious! The way that I prepared it was just slightly different. Instead of serving it over a bed of rice, I wanted to do it served with cornbread. However, trying to keep the budget low I didn't want to buy cornbread mix. In my refrigerator I had a package of quick biscuits, so I used those instead and it tastes wonderful!

I am also a huge fan of cilantro, so instead of mixing the cilantro into the big pot I was chopping it up for each individual bowl. Add a dollop of sour cream - or in my case Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream - and the Essence seasoning and "Whallah!" Dinner is served.

For this recipe I paid a whopping $11.07 including tax. Eleven dollars to feed a family of four AND have leftovers? You can't go wrong here!

Until next time...
Happy Snacking!

Mushroom Shichimi Rice Bowl

This year Christmas was spent away from my family and in the big city. For my friend, Oriana, and myself it was our first year alone on Christmas in Chicago. Naturally we spent it together. There was the traditional gift exchange, and movies. And just like every other time that we hung out together there was hookah, board games, and of course, food!

As we are both vegetarians it was puzzling us on how we were going to pull off a Christmas dinner. The friends that we had invited to share this dinner with us all found their ways back home, so cooking without having to have them in mind made the planning a lot easier. For me, I was all about the desserts - Raw Key Lime Pie and a Vegan Pecan Pie. (Will post those later in the week)

Oriana, on the other hand, had ideas left and right and after a trip to the grocery store, where everything seemed to be on sale, we had our ingredients. But what were we going to do with them. It wasn't until Oriana found the recipe for Mushroom Shichimi Rice Bowls that we knew that Christmas dinner was going to be Japanese inspired.

I didn't have anything to do with this recipe, but I needed to share it because it was so delicious.

The Recipe

Mushroom Shichimi Rice Bowl (in the bowl) and Sweet Potato Falafel (on the plate) 

Mushroom Shichimi Rice Bowl

Ingredients 

• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 cloves garlic, very thinly sliced
• Fine-grain sea salt
• 12 ounces / 340 g mushrooms of your choice (I used shiitake, sliced 1/4-inch thick
• 8 ounces / 225 g firm tofu, cut into tiny cubes
• 1 small bunch kale / 3 oz / 85 g, well chopped
• Shichimi Togarashi or red pepper flakes, to taste

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet over high heat. 
2. Add the mushrooms in a single layer, stir well, and cook until the mushrooms release their liquid, and then brown, about 5 minutes more. Stir a few times along the way, but don't overdo it; you want the mushrooms to be deeply browned on both sides. 
3. Stir in the garlic roughly 20 seconds before the mushrooms finish cooking. If you need to cook the mushrooms in two batches, do so. Transfer the mushrooms to a plate, set aside.
4. Using the same large skillet, no need to clean it out, cook the tofu along with a couple pinches of salt over medium-high heat until heated through, and until it starts to brown a bit. Roughly one minute before the tofu is finished cooking, stir in the kale. It should collapse and cook down over the next 60 seconds.
5. Season all the components generously with Shichimi Togarashi and salt to taste. For each serving, dish up a heaping spoonful of brown rice along with some of the tofu/kale mixture and a some of the mushrooms.

Serves 3-4.


This recipe was so delicious that I have made it three times in the last week. Not only that, but it includes two of my favorite super foods: Mushrooms (Shiitake, in our recipe) and Kale. When we made this recipe we didn't use tofu as I am limiting my soy based products that I am eating. It still turned out amazing and it is probably better because it didn't have the tofu. We also topped the entire bowl off with soy sauce to taste.

I can guarantee you that if you make this you and are not a vegetarian that you will not miss any meat in this meal. It is simply seasoned, but with a bit of soy sauce the flavors will be bursting in your mouth. Be careful not to over salt the kale as I did the first time that I tried to recreate this dish. Honestly, I would say not to salt the kale as it is just going to get some soy sauce before you eat it anyway.

Cost for this meal is around $5 for the rice, the kale and the Shiitake mushrooms. I only suggest shiitake, but that is my own personal preference for this recipe. I hope you enjoy this one!

Please comment if you have tried this and tell me how you like it.

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Thank you to Heidi from 101cookbooks.com for sharing this recipe.
Recipe can be found here.

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Until next time...

Happy Snacking!