Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Vegetarian recipe - 4-bean chili

We're moving offices next week. Things are a bit...hectic. I'm a bit...stressed.

(I found out my new office is about 6 inches deeper than my old one. Someone said "What will you do with the extra space?" I answered "Pad the walls." I was not kidding.)

Anyway, I'm not above resorting to rerun posts to fill space, especially if I can make them fit the theme for the month. Here is the vegetarian version of my chili. This is actually a good recipe for a busy week...I'll get several meals out of it, and the prep time is minimal. Plus it seems so appropriate for the chill in the air in the mornings now.

Here goes:

Cook a chopped onion and two cloves of chopped garlic in olive oil. When the onion is soft, pour a few ounces of beer in the pan. (It doesn't matter what kind of beer, although I wouldn't use anything too sweet. I'd say a "full-bodied ale" would be best.)

Simmer the onions and garlic in the beer for a few minutes.

While that simmers, drain four cans of beans. I like a variety...black, kidney, navy, pinto. Dump the beans and a 28-ounce can of undrained tomatoes (crushed are good. If you use whole tomatoes, break them up.) into a Crock Pot, then add the onion, garlic, and beer.

Season to taste with Super Secret Chili Spice Mix and cook for a few hours (you know, like the length of the early football game plus the first half of the 4:00 game) on low.

Serve over spaghetti, topped with chopped raw onion, chopped fresh tomato, cheddar cheese, and maybe a little sour cream if you were too heavy-handed with the Super Secret Chili Spice. (That stuff sneaks up on ya.)

Leftovers make a good lunch wrapped in a tortilla, and very small amounts of leftovers can even be used up as an omlette filling. It's also good on a baked potato.

And the "super secret spice mix":

Equal parts salt, pepper, paprika, oregano, ground cumin, chili powder, and red pepper flakes.

You might be saying "Wait a second...isn't that just the ingredients in chili powder, plus the chili powder itself?"

Yeah, pretty much. But it works.

As for amounts, spiciness is so individual. I use about 4 tablespoons of the mix per batch of chili; I think Victor would prefer it hotter and I've had a few people tell me it was too spicy.

I will say (again) that the heat kinda sneaks up on you, so taste it twice and wait a second before deciding whether to dump more spices in. The first time I made it I had to brown an additional pound of meat (that was the non-veg version, obviously) and chop a second onion to get it back to where I could eat it.

Posted by Nic at October 7, 2004 07:09 AM