Texas Vegetarian Confetti Chili

I saw something similar to this on the morning news. Ellie Kreiger made this one pot meal for the hosts. The only difference is she didn't spice it up quite as much. In this recipe I use red pepper flake, chili powder and some additional heat plus mushrooms and chicken stock instead of water.

This one is a perfect Fall or Winter dish. You can make it as spicy as you like. Personally I like it spicy even better. When eating vegetarian the spices are oh-so important. I used to think of vegetarian as steamed vegetables and white rice on a plate. BORING. But I don't do boring, so you don't have to worry.

I don't give exact measurements on my spices because those are all up to you. It might be hard to judge at first but once you get a handle on what you like it will become easier. All I can say about that is start with a little and work your way up. Here we go!

This serves five or six depending on portion sizes. This is one meal you can't be guilty about!

Alright for starters you'll need:
Garlic salt, if you have it
Ground pepper
Red pepper flake
Chili powder
Ground cumin
1 tbsp extra virgin good stuff (olive oil)
2 cans of black beans
4 cans of tomatos (some come flavored, pick Mexican or garlic ones)
1 can of whole corn
2 medium sized carrots
2 medium tomatos
1 large red bell pepper
8-10 button mushrooms, washed thoroughly
Alot of garlic, 8-10 cloves if they're smallish
You can use an onion for extra flavor, dice it
1 pepper of your choosing, depending on how daring you are
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock, you won't use all of it probably

Okey dokey! Here's how you do it.

First off, you gotta chop up that garlic, onion, carrot, tomato, bell pepper and mushrooms. If you're going to add a pepper make sure you do your research and know what kind of heat you can take. If you're daring chop up that pepper now. You might want to open those cans and drain them to make things easier later on. Make sure you wash off the beans real good. They come packaged in a salt brine which tends to be pretty starchy from the beans sitting around in it. Wash em off real good. Set them aside for later.

Now for the fun stuff. Get a big stock pot and put your 1tbsp of the good stuff in. Let the oil heat up over medium low heat and then put in some pepper, red pepper flake, cumin and chili powder. Let that sizzle until you can just start to smell it. Make sure your olive oil doesn't smoke or that your spices don't burn. When olive oil vaporizes it releases nasty chemicals. Go ahead and add all your chopped up veggies and aromatics plus that pepper if you want. Go ahead and nudge the heat up just to medium. So make sure those carrots get nice and soft and when everything starts smelling real good add some of the stock. How much you add depends on how soupy you want your chili in the end. A good starting point would be to just cover the vegetables with stock.

You should go ahead and dump in your tomatos, corn, beans and mushrooms (this is when I like to put them in). With all of the liquid from the tomato cans and the stock you should have a pretty good consistency of "stuff" to broth. If it seems like it needs more liquid you can add more stock. Let that simmer away to kingdom come with a lid on. I let mine simmer for about an hour (on accident) and it turned out great.

Soup and chili alike are both better on the second day or when they are allowed to sit. This is because all of the flavors get time to meet each other and mingle for longer. Taste it at the end and decide how much salt it needs. Let simmer for a bit longer so it can get absorbed into the vegetables. Serve piping hot with a cold glass of water, I know I needed one. Share with friends and good karma is sure to come your way.

A textural note: Mushrooms will be much firmer if you put them in later with the canned goods, they will be softer if you let them sizzle with the other fresh veggies at the beginning. It's a preferential thing.

Another note about the canned tomatoes. Check the labels to make sure they DO NOT have high fructose corn syrup. I was appalled to find that all of the name brand cans in my pantry had it. The HEB generic brand does not, though. Always read labels!!!