Saturday, September 10, 2011

Guest Post: Kelly's Almost Empty Cupboards Chili!

Kelly is a good friend from college who lives in Boston and is trying to adopt a more plant-based diet to lead a happy healthy life - go Kelly! The following post is her most recent kitchen experiment, Almost Empty Cupboards Chili. It sounds delicious! 

Thanks for sharing, Kelly!




In case you haven't noticed, it's been pouring in New England all week (until today, which is beautiful). I  had no desire to go supermarket shopping in all this rain, so I scoured my cupboards for something tasty for dinner on Tuesday night. There are a few things I always have laying around: beans, TVP and some form of tomatoes or tomato sauce. I decided to try my hand at an emergency-we're-running-out-of-food chili. I had more than what I really needed for a proper chili, but I kept throwing things in the slow cooker anyway. I'm happy to say that after throwing in a bit more spice, it was delicious. Note that tomato sauce and some kinds of veggie broth use almost no salt, so I had to add some in to make the flavors really pop.
 
Almost Empty Cupboards Chili!!
 
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
2 cloves garlic
1.5 cups of dried black beans, black-eyed peas, navy beans and pearled barley (this was a mixed bag I had called Bob's Bountiful Black Bean Soup, but use whatever beans you like! Cut out the veggie broth, and you can cut your cooking time if you used canned beans, but it's cheaper to used dry!)
1-2 cups cooked corn
1 sm to medium onion
1 medium red pepper
1 or so cups of vegetable broth (or water) as needed
1/2 cup of dry TVP
Season to taste. Spices I used included:
hot sauce
chili powder
paprika
salt
black pepper
garlic powder
onion powder
and a tiny bit of curry powder
 
Stick everything (except the TVP) in a slow cooker for 3 or so hours on high, add in the re-hydrated TVP and stir. YUM.
 

No comments:

Post a Comment