Two Bean Sweet Potato Chili

Last night I wanted to make a chili for me and Dave to eat. But for some reason, I didn't really want tomatoes. And I had some sweet potatoes that I scored from my mom's kitchen. I think this dish can be called chili with its spices -- if white chili exists, then tomatoes certainly can't be a requirement!

Ingredients
1 T extra virgin organic olive oil
1 medium organic sweet onion, chopped
2 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
1/4 cup water
1 can organic black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can organic pinto beans, rinsed and drained
ground cumin
ground cinnamon
paprika
Mexican chili powder

What to do
While trying to get Jacqui to finish her dinner, chop the onion.
Heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the chopped onion and saute for 5 minutes.
Add the sweet potatoes and the water. Add some cumin, cinnamon, paprika, and chili powder (to taste). Cover the pot and let the sweet potatoes steam.
When the sweet potatoes are steamed and bright orange, add the beans and some more spices. Stir to mix everything together well. Cover and let it all cook together for another 10 minutes or so. (Or, like me, until Jacqui finished her sesame green tea noodles.) Taste again, and see if you want to add any more of the spices. I added a little more chili powder and cumin because Dave and I were going to eat this dish, not Jacqui. :)
I let this sit (covered) until I had gotten the girls to sleep (45 minutes or so), but you could eat it right away too!
We ate it with chunks of a whole wheat baguette I picked up on the way home. I found it very comforting and filling -- just what I was looking for last night!

Eggplant Would-be Chili

This wasn't quite a fail. But it was not a success. And I won't be making it again.

I had two gorgeous eggplants to use. Gorgeous. Not the full purple ones, but the streaks of purple on white. Gorgeous. I wanted a soup with eggplant and garbanzos (I had cooked up garbanzos earlier in the week and wanted to finish them off).

I also wanted a chili. To be chili, a dish needs cumin, chili peppers/powder, and oregano. I like my chili with beans (come on, vegan here!). And I wanted my chili to have eggplant.

I was out of onions, so this chili didn't get any onions. (I didn't even have onion powder or granules, only garlic.) I had a little bit of red lentils that I thought would add good texture and iron, and millet remaining from a lunch meal for me earlier in the week. I don't know why this turned out so blah.


I chopped up my eggplants, chopped up two small red turnips, added the golden zuchinni I had cut up for J (she asked for "chinni" and then ate one bite of one piece), about a cup of cooked millet, my garbanzos (about a cup), cumin, oregano, Mexican chili powder, 1/3 cup dry red lentils, and 1 1/4 cups water. Hello slowcooker Friday night, cook please so that I have chili for Saturday.

Ok, maybe I know what happened. I was afraid of the spices (I wanted J to be able to eat, and the Mexican chili powder has been too much for her in the past), so I didn't use enough initially. When I tasted the would-be chili in the morning, I added more. But it just wasn't enough. It looked like chili, but the taste just wasn't there. I added fresh oregano and roasted squash seeds when J and I ate it for lunch, which really improved the dish, but still, not something I'm making again. And J had a really hard time eating it...because she didn't like it at all! Eck!

The leftovers...I'm thinking maybe putting them in bread or something. We'll see as the week progresses.

Halloween Happiness

It's Saturday, October 31 --- Halloween! Happy Halloween!!

I made Halloween Chili (aka Sweet Black Bean Chili) and Sweet Potato Spelt Biscuits for dinner. A black bean chili that looks blood red with orange sweet potatoes and squash peeking through, paired with quick and easy biscuits. I've been dreaming about making this chili all week.

I'm also entering (is this the right word) it in my first Blog Event, My Legume Love Affair, an event created by Susan at The Well-Seasoned Cook and hosted this month by Cook sister!.



Sweet Black Bean Chili
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups dried organic black turtle beans, picked through and soaked for one day
5 1/4 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 tsp ground cumin + shakes
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon + shakes
1/4 tsp Mexican chili powder
28 oz crushed organic tomatoes
2 sweet potatoes or yams
1 small orange squash
2 T olive oil
1 small yellow onion

What To Do
Pick through and soak the black beans at least the night before (if not more). Change the water once or twice. Drain, then place in large LeCrueset with 5 1/4 cups of water and two bay leaves. Cook for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. To see if your beans are finished, you can take one out and blow on it. If the skin comes off, the beans are done. You can also taste them! My beans, fresh from the Cayuga Pure Organics farm stand at my farmers' market, took a little more than an hour to cook. When they are cooked, remove one cup of beans and set aside for another recipe. Keep the remaining water.
While the beans are cooking, peel sweet potatoes, then chop them into 1 inch or 1/2 inch pieces. Peel the squash, cut it in half, scoop out the insides, and then chop into 1 inch or 1/2 inch pieces.
The beans are done and you've removed the cup of cooked beans. Add the sweet potato and squash, the spices, and the crushed tomato. Stir well to combine, then cover with tipped lid and cook on medium-low heat.
Chop the onion. Heat up a saute pan over medium-low heat, then add the olive oil. When warm, add the onion and sprinkle on the ground cinnamon and ground cumin (as much or as little as you like). Saute for approximately five to seven minutes, until the onion is soft and fragrant. Add the onion to the large pot. Stir to combine and continue cooking with the cover tipped. Total cook time should be approximately one hour to allow all the flavors to combine.






Sweet Potato Spelt Biscuits
Ingredients
1 cup freshly milled spelt flour (bought this morning at the farmers' market!)
1/2 cup organic whole wheat flour (King Arthur's)
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
4 T organic vegetable shortening
1 medium sweet potato
1/4 cup vanilla (unsweetened) almond milk

What To Do
Scrub the sweet potato and cut off any bad parts. Cook it. I cooked mine in the microwave by piercing it many times and cooking it for five minutes at 5 power, then flipping it over to cook for another six minutes at 5 power. Mash it when it is finished cooking and eat the skins.
Mix the flours, baking powder, and sea salt.
Cut in the vegetable shortening until the flour mixture looks like coarse meal.
Mix in the mashed sweet potato and the almond milk with your hands.
Make 12-14 rounds for the biscuits and place on a cookie sheet.
Preheat over to 410, and then bake biscuits for 20 minutes.



Enjoy!

We (D, J, and I) had this for dinner. It was enough for us all and for D (several bowls) to not claim severe hunger later. Slightly sweet, but not overly so, and delicately spiced. Definitely something to make again.

Beans and Chili!!!

Saturday night, I "dreamed" about making beans while I put the babies to bed. So, once they were finally asleep, I got out the beans and started them soaking:

2 cups garbanzos
1 cup small kidneys (or small chili beans)
1 cup pintos

Sunday morning, I cooked up the garbanzos and kidneys. 2 cups dried garbanzos are supposed to need 8 cups of water (plus one strip kombu) to cook. My pot only held the soaked beans and four cups of water, so I had to keep adding water as they cooked. 2-3 hours for garbanzos, so they were the first beans to start. (Lots of foam to scoop off!) Then, I started the kidneys. 1 cup dried kidneys to 3 cups water and one strip kombu. The soaking took away a lot of their bright red color, and the cooking some more. The kidneys were done in a little less than an hour and a half, before we left for the day to see a kung fu competition in Queens. The garbanzos got put on hold while we were out, and the pintos soaked some more.

When we got home around 6 Sunday evening, I finished up the garbanzos (another 20-30 minutes) and started the pintos. 1 cup dry pintos to 3 cups water and one strip kombu. They made the water really dirty looking...but seemed to cook just fine.

Why was I making beans? Well, two reasons. One: CHILI!!! Two: I don't have any canned beans any more, just dried beans, so I needed to make some and freeze them so I can actually cook during the week! :) I made the chili up this morning for D (and maybe J if it's not too spicy) for lunch. And lunch for me tomorrow!

Total yield from my four cups of dried beans:
5 1/2 cups cooked garbanzos (3 1/2 to the freezer)
2 1/2 cups cooked kidneys (1 1/2 to the freezer)
2 1/2 cups cooked pintos (1 1/2 to the freezer)

Slow Cooker Chili
2 cups cooked garbanzos
1 cup each cooked kidneys and pintos
1 small yellow onion, chopped
olive oil
1 large (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
1 large (28 oz) can fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp Mexican chili powder
1/2 tsp + more ground cumin
some shakes paprika
2 small bay leaves

What to do
Turn the slow cooker on and add the olive oil. Add the onion once it's a little warm; add the spices. Stir together and let the onion and spices heat up for a few minutes if you can. Add the beans and tomatoes. Stir well to combine everything. Put the cover on and leave the slow cooker on high. Head off to work. Hope D remembers to turn it to warm at lunchtime! (He did!)

Thoughts
The Mexican chili powder, that I bought (at KeyFood) when my last chili powder ran out, is super spicy. And I mean SUPER. This chili, like my last, ended up too hot and spicy for J. I made it extra tomatoey (note the two LARGE cans of tomatoes) just for D, who loves beans and tomatoes. I had two small bowls (one is in the photo) of this for dinner, along with a bowl of the coconut squash casserole. Very satisfying dinner, and plenty of leftovers for lunch and dinner later this week.

Cheezy Chili Casserole

Tonight I decided to try combining a few things into a casserole. I wanted a shells and cheeze dish, but I also wanted tomatoes and beans...so I combined them all into one.

I based the cheezy sauce on a recipe from Vegan Yum Yum.

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Sauce
Warm 1/3 cup Earth Balance in saucepan. As soon as it melts, add 1/4 King Arthur's organic all-purpose flour, and stir to make roux.
Then, with J's help, add 1/3 cup nutritional yeast (sprinkles) 1 T lemon juice, 1 T tahini, 1 T brown rice miso, 2 1/2 T Braggs, 1 1/4 cup soy milk. Whisk together, making sure to keep lumps out and not to boil.
Warm together, mixing, for a few minutes, then set aside.

Pasta Cook one box De Boles organic shells, drain, and set aside.

Rest of casserole
Place 3/4 cup tvp in bowl with enough water to cover. Set aside.
Drain 15-oz cans of organic kidney beans and organic corn. Open 28-oz can of organic diced tomatoes with basil.
In saucepan or casserole dish, add 1/2 cup water, 1 chopped red onion, 3 minced garlic cloves, 3 medium chopped carrots. Cook for seven minutes.
In casserole dish, add the beans, corn, pasta, tomatoes, water/onion/garlic/carrot mixture and mix well. Then add sauce. Add 1/2 tsp Mexican chili powder (probably too little, but I'm totally paranoid after my last chili dish with too much spice for J) and 1/2 tsp cumin; stir well.
Break up two slices of Vermont Bread soft multigrain and top the casserole with the bread.
Bake at 400 F for 20-25 minutes.
Serve and enjoy!

I think this makes more than eight servings...and it is *really* filling -- D only had one bowl and didn't need to go back for seconds or thirds. (At 8 servings, in each there's approximately 550 calories, 29 g protein, and and 87 g carbs.) J ate this up really quickly and didn't complain at all, try to avoid eating, or spit anything out. She said it's "tasty" -- her new thing for when she likes something -- score! (The peaches we had earlier were tasty. The tofu omelets I made this morning (not pretty) were tasty (yes, they were).)

So the only weird thing about this dinner was the odd smell of the sauce. I think it must have been the miso. I can't place the smell. D said it has a weird aftertaste; he can't place it either. It's not a bad smell or a bad aftertaste, but we can't place it. Vegan Yum Yum's recipe called for sweet miso, which I didn't have, so I used what I did have. I think that is the odd smell/taste, but even knowing that I still can't place it.

Too Hot For J Chili

Date: August 23, 2009 (made for dinner for me, Jacqui, and Dave; used for take-to-work lunches this week)

Ingredients
1 15-oz can organic garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-oz can organic pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-oz can organic kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 T minced garlic
1 1/2 T organic extra virgin olive oil
1 15-oz can organic corn, drained and rinsed
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp + 1 tsp (too much) Mexican-style chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried organic oregano
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 cube vegan Rapunsel vegetable bouillon with sea salt

2 cups brown rice
4 1/2 cups water

1 medium head broccoli, washed and broken into florets

nutritional yeast

Directions

1. Rinse rice. Put in put with water or in rice cooker and cook. If using a rice cooker, put the fresh broccoli on the steamer rack in the rice cooker and let it do double work. Otherwise, you will need to steam the broccoli separately.
   
2. Heat large cast iron pot. Add olive oil and heat. Add onion and saute for five minutes or until soft and yummy aroma rises up.
3. Add the beans, corn, tomatoes, and bouillon. Stir to combine.
4. Add the spices and garlic, stirring to combine.
5. Smell with stuffed-up nose and decide it needs more chili powder. Proceed to add enough that the chili is too spicy for Jacqui.
6. Cook chili over medium heat for 20-30 minutes, to allow flavors to blend.
   
7. Serve hot over brown rice with broccoli on the side.
8. When realize that the chili is too spicy for J, give her broccoli, brown rice, and nutritional yeast, which she loves!
   

Recipe Analysis
The chili was enough for D to have two servings, me one, and then leftovers for 3 lunches, so six big servings. Nutritional analysis from caloriecounter.com -- they give it an A. I don't know about their numbers on this one...seems like an awful lot of protein...
Serving Size: 440.7 g
Calories per serving: 873, Calories from fat: 96
Details: 48.8 g protein, 152.6 g carbs (51%), 38.5 g fiber (154%), 17.2 g sugars, 62 mg sodium (3%), 0 mg cholesterol, 10.7 g total fat (16%), 1.4 g saturated fat (7%), 35% DV Vitamin A, 58% DV Vitamin C, 24% DV Calcium, 78% DV Iron.
Highlights: Low in saturated fat; No cholesterol; Very low in sodium; Low in sugar; High in dietary fiber; High in iron; High in manganese; High in magnesium; High in phosphorus; High in thiamin.

Notes

1. This is what I get for cooking chili when my nose is stuffed up from a sinus infection/cold.
   
2. Nice thing though, rice + broccoli + nutritional yeast is still a good meal for J. :)
3. This made great lunches for me this week!
   
4. I don't trust caloriecounter's analysis on this one. The numbers seem way too high. I know my chili is good, but I don't think it's that good!