Vegan Cowboy Chili and Cornbread.

I know this is more fall food than summer food but really, who turns down a steaming bowl of chili with a slab of cornbread? I've made this cowboy chili before. The trick is soaking dried chili peppers and pureeing them and adding the dark red emulsion into the chili. It creates a very complex flavor with some great heat. For the "meatiness", I used tvp chunks and tvp crumbles. Recipe here.


This is the famous PPK cornbread that I absolutely love. Makes good corn muffins too!

Cornbread

I'm certainly cooking my way through 1,000 Vegan Recipes aren't I? I highly recommend this book by the way. It's got everything covered in simple straightforward format. This is the cornbread recipe which turned out perfect. Moist with beautiful corn flavor. I like to serve it with Earth Balance margarine and agave syrup. This will go perfectly with the big container of four alarm chili I made last night. Can't wait.

Taco Salad

So my crockpot disaster chili came back tonight as I revamped it into a taco salad! I wished so hard that I had cubed avocado on this but oh well... This was delicious. I don't know what happened but my less than perfect chili tasted awesome on top of crunchy greens, crisp red peppers, crushed tortilla chips with creamy vegan ranch (which is just Vegenaise, lemon juice, garlic powder, onion powder, all purpose seasoning and dried parsley by the way). I think the flavors of the chili improved overnight. Whatever happened, I'm glad it did because dinner was great. I also had the last of the perfect cornbread with this.

The Crockpot Chili That Went Wrong and Then Was Saved.

This was the first time using my crockpot to make chili. I don't know what it was but after cooking for 7 hours, I tasted it and it was really sour and had a "tinny" flavor. Not good at all. I tried to save it by transferring it to the stovetop in a normal pot and letting it simmer for a while longer, after adding brown sugar, more salt and pepper, cumin and chili powder. It made it much more palatable but still not the best chili ever. I've made excellent stovetop chili with the same ingredients so I don't know why it was so off. Could it be the crockpot's fault? Well, I'll probably not make chili in it again...


It tasted good in a veggie hot dog. So all was not lost. What really made it all better was this....


The most delicious cornbread EVER.


With some margarine and agave syrup. Yummmmmm.... You can find the recipe here. I added 1/4 cup sugar to my batter because I happen to like a sweeter cornbread.

Potato-Bean Chili and Cornbread

I need to go grocery shopping soon. Tonight's delicious dinner was concocted out of the very few things I had left in my pantry and fridge. I had a couple of canned beans, stewed tomatoes, russet potatoes and a carrot stick. A chili was in order...

It turned out so well. Nice and hearty with chunks of potato and a little bit of zest. I also made the PPK Vegan Cornbread which is the best cornbread I've ever made. I added 1/4 cup of sugar to this cornbread recipe to give it a bit of sweetness. Serve it with margarine and a drizzle of agave syrup.

Potato-Bean Chili

2 TB olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, sliced
1 carrot, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 small russet potatoes, diced into 1/2" cubes
1 14 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 14 oz. can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 14 oz. cans diced or stewed tomatoes with juice
1 cup water
1 TB chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste


Heat olive oil in a pot. Saute onions, celery, carrots and garlic for a few minutes or until onions soften a bit. Add potatoes. Stir around and then cover and let cook for about 5 minutes. Stir every so often so they won't stick to the pot. Add the beans, tomatoes, water and spices. Bring to a boil then lower heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.


PPK cornbread rocks so hard.