I made a fabulous tomato-free, vegetarian chili tonight!
10/25/05 12:08 AM
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Thanks to Kate's mock-tomato sauce  , which I covet, since I can't handle tomatoes at all. I can't find the link with your recipe Kate, but this is pretty close, or what I did at least! Also I apologize for the lack of exact measurements... that's the way I do everything 
Anyway, it turned out really, really well - I was kind of shocked actually how much it really did taste like a tomato based chili!
Tomato-Free Vegetarian Chili
To make the "mock tomato sauce," put all the following ingredients into a blender or food processer and blend until sauce-consistency:
- a can of beets (drained)
- a can of carrots (drained)
- fresh herbs (I used basil and parsley)
- a few fresh chili peppers (depending on how hot you want it!)
- enough lemon juice or vinegar to make it "acidy" like tomatoes (I used both, lemon juice and RED WINE vinegar, which was a great choice). This is to taste, and depending on your tolerance to acidity of course, but I think I probably used total 1/4 cup lemon juice + vinegar
- enough vegetable broth to get the right consistency, if needed
Mix the sauce with a can of mixed beans (kidney, white, chick peas etc. - or whatever kind of beans you like) and a can of mushrooms. (If you were to use fresh mushrooms, obviously you'd cook them first. And I sauteed my mushrooms before using them too because even though they're cooked, I find canned mushroom so ugh, soggy, lol)
Add to the chili, to taste (I was fairly liberal with all these):
- garlic salt
- onion powder
- cumin (lots and lots)
- cayenne pepper (if you want more heat, which I did)
- and a bit of honey (about 2-3 tsps I'd say)
Heat in a saucepan or in the microwave and serve over rice or a baked potato, or with bread for dipping.
Notes: If you heat this in a saucepan instead of the microwave and let it simmer for a while, the flavours will be blended much better.
And obviously, it would be much better with FRESH ingredients rather than canned... but it was still good with canned too and soooo ridiculously quick easy to throw together.
The mushrooms add a nice "meatiness" even though it's totally vegetarian. However, you could quite easily add some ground turkey if you wanted to too!
You could also add cooked vegetables like onions, celery and green peppers, typically found in chili. That would have taken longer though lol and it was good without them too.
Edited by retrograde (10/25/05 12:17 AM)
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