Any food…sandwich, salad, soup, burgers, stir fry…Doesn’t
matter: same recipe, same ingredients, when someone else puts their love and
spit into your food, it tastes better…That is unless it’s CHILI. I make the
best chili. I never used a recipe, I just whipped ingredients together and
taste tested with trial and error. It is probably the first combination of
ingredients I “invented;” my first real recipe.
It is hard for me to put into a recipe what makes it so
good…but as simply put as possible, it is…THE TASTE. It is a simple, spicy and
good. So here you go people…Don’t say I never gave you anything.
Ingredients:
1-2 Bell Peppers
1 Tomato (extremely optional)
½ a large onion
Mushrooms (if you have some, I did…)
2-3 Cloves of Garlic (sub powdered if necessary or you feel
like it)
Steak Seasoning
Chili Powder
Cumin
Sriracha or Ceyenne Pepper or a fresh Jalapeno or canned
jalapeno (something spicy for crap’s sake)
24oz tomato sauce (or a reasonable mixture of tomato paste
and water)
Cup or so Soy Curls (Pre-Hydration status)
2 cans of beans (Pinto, kidney, navy…you choose it’s your
freaking chili. Do I have to do everything?!)
Brown Sugar
Instructions:
Cut stuff up while your pan gets hot; add a smidge of oil
(medium heat)
Sautee onions, mushrooms and minced fresh garlic (if using
powdered add with other spices) Make them sweat, if needed add a TBL of water to aid in the
steaming sweaty process.
Add rehydrated soy curls
Add some chili powder…I’d say I use appx. 1.5 TBL to start.
Add powdered garlic to taste (if using), and a reasonable
shake of cumin
Stir it up.
Add Bell peppers, Jalapeno (if using) and drained beans
Pour the large can of sauce and stir, add more if needed…should be slightly soupier than your intended final consistency.
Add the tomato (mostly it makes it look like you made your own tomato sauce, haha tricky.)
Smell it.
Determine if you think it has enough chili powder. I almost always decide HELL NO and add at least a tsp more. 
Cover and let it simmer…While you make cornbread
CORNBREAD
I always make the recipe in the picture. I go full on vegan
imitation ingredients…egg replacer and Earth Balance…It is not rustic. It is
cake like and sweet…retardedly moist.
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| This piece of paper has traveled across the USA |
I throw everything on the recipe in a bowl. (I don’t mix the
wet and dry ingredients separately. Just toss them in a large bowl.)
Stir the chili
I added a cup or so of frozen sweet corn too, b/c I felt
like it.
**Secret ingredient: Heaping tablespoon of brown sugar. I
like when it is sort of clumpy b/c it creates delicious pockets of sweetness in
the cornbread, so don’t worry about whisking it up too much.
Grease a pan of your choice. Here I chose my tiny loaf pan,
often I make muffins, or I have a “Bakers Edge” pan, or I’ll kick it old school
with a 9x9…there are so many options…variety is, after all, the spice of
life…live a little.
Put the pan in the pre-heated oven.
ADD THE BROWN SUGAR TO THE CHILI!
Stir the chili
Bake until toothpick comes out clean. Edges should start to
brown up and look irresistible, that is pretty much how I know they are done
The chili should be pretty well simmered and have thickened
up a bit. If not to your liking/expectation, add a bit of flour or cornstarch
and bring it up to a boil to thicken. If you are like me and kind of don’t care
because it is Tuesday night and you just rode your bike for an hour home and
are too hungry to wait, then ignore this suggestion.
My favorite way to eat chili and cornbread is to split the
cornbread in the bottom of the bowl, schmere some butter **on it, add a few
drips of agave and top with chili. The cornbread gets all melty and soaked with
sweetness and the tasty goodness of the spicy chili…gahhhh…drooooollllll…..
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. As
always, DON’T BURN YOUR MOUTH.
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| CORNBREAD |
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| Yep...This is real. |
**Vegan Buttery Spread…duh.
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