On The Verge of Tears

Okay, so, though in the future we may be sharing recipes that we’ve stolen or adapted from other sources, this one is purely our own.  By purely our own, I mean, that one day, in Whole Foods, we simply looked at the ingredients of another vegan chili recipe on a frozen box,  memorized the few ingredients, and developed our own loose recipe that has proven to be a true crowd pleaser for vegetarians and carnivores alike.  Here are the ingredients:

1 Crock Pot

1 can black beans

1 can pink beans (or pinto beans, or whatever other kinda beans you want)

1 thingy of tofu (we like extra firm)

2 mediumish onions

1 handful of various peppers

2 Boca burgers (defrosted)

1 tbsp taco seasoning

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp curry

1 X-Large Martini, stirred, with olives (substitute cocktails of your choice)

A bunch of tomato sauce

Okay, so Boca Burgers are awesome.  On their own, they kind of suck as veggie burgers.  They are bland and not full of veggies at all.  However, as meat replacements in various recipes, they are perfect.  So, to start, defrost two Boca burgers.  This means, put them in the microwave for two minutes.  I’d crack the bags first.

Notice:  make sure to wear a totally cool apron, otherwise, you’re totally not cool.  Just so you know…

Okay so cut a couple of onions.  In this post, we used Vidalia, but whatever, use Spanish, or white, or yell0w, or whatever you have, it really makes very little difference.  Cut in half, then cut off the top and bottom, then slice and dice and what not…make it smallish!

Okay, so, about the peppers.  In this recipe, we used all home grown peppers from our summer garden, but if you don’t have one, you’ll have to buy some at the store.  We only use hot peppers.  Do not bother with any Bell Peppers!  Use Jalapeno, Chili, Habanero, or the like, but don’t waste your time with Bell.  If you must, then make sure you add some Cayenne Pepper to the mix to give your Chili some kick.

Also, we used some crazy ridiculous orange peppers from our garden that look completely innocent but are pure evil.  Because I know better, I choose to wear a rubber glove when making chili.  I’m not kidding.  Do not cut serious peppers without a rubber glove!  If you can cut your peppers without them, then you’re not using the right  kind of peppers.

Plenty of  vegan sites on the web will tell you that you have to freeze tofu before using  it.  Then, they tell you, when it’s defrosted,  put it between a couple towels and a book for twenty minutes.  Bullshit!!  Freeze it if you want; it does indeed make some difference, but for this recipe, fuck it.  Open the package and squeeze it over a sink until it’s almost liquid free, then crumble it into the crock pot.  That’s it.

Canned beans are fine, but you’ve gotta wash ’em first.  They’re still good because they’re packed in preservatives, namely, salt and a brine solution, so just make sure to rinse the beans before you dump them into the crock pot!

Dice the defrosted Veggie burgers.  Add to crock pot.  Measure out spices.  Add to crock pot.

Bonus:!!  open a can of corn, drain the liquid, add the corn to crock pot.

Add enough tomato sauce to make it Chili-like…

Cook on high for 6 hours or so, and eat with some good, hardy whole wheat bread.

I had great pictures of a lot of this stuff, but for some reason, I’ve been having trouble with wordpress, so you don’t get more pictures.  I can assure you that if you make this recipe, you’ll be happy…enjoy!

–~r

This entry was posted on November 22, 2009 at 12:04 AM and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.