Slow Cooker Recipe: Part II Meatless Chili

People have an opinion about chili.  Ask them.  They’ll tell you.  It has to be just meat and no beans, it has to be hot enough to scorch the small hairs if dropped in your lap, it has to have special home crafted chili powder, it has to be made with lots of veggies, it has to be served over spagetti noodles….on and on.  Whatever.  IMHO, my take on chili is: easy, full of flavor, cheap.  Easily adjustable to individual palates and diets, this chili is just plain ol’ good.  Start it at breakfast and scarf it up at supper time with your family or some good friends.  Wash the slow cooker….done!!!!

 

Olive oil – 1 – 2 tbs4 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
Small bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
Small zucchini, chopped (or not or small chopped sweet potato). 
1 28 ounce can tomatoes (if using whole, peeled, chop or mush up with your hands)
Several shakes hot pepper sauce or to taste (Crystal, Franks, Tobasco, etc.)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp chili powder
1/3 tsp cumin
1  1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 6 ounce can tomato paste
4 standard size cans beans, drained and rinsed (I used  dark kidney, pinto, great northern, and red beans drained and rinsed, basically, what I had in the pantry) 

How To:
On medium heat, sauté chopped veggies, garlic and onion about 3 minutes, until al dente.  Add the cumin and chili powder and cook for another minute. 

Place sautéed ingredients into slow cooker.  Add remaining ingredients and stir well to combine.  Cover and cook on low setting for about six – eight hours.  About halfway through cooking, I checked for the need to add some additional liquid or adjusting seasonings.   

Serve over cooked brown rice, quinoa, or not. You can do it southwestern style and serve with tortilla chips or old school with saltines, crackers, or bread.

Non-vegan serving option:  top with low fat sour cream or plain yogurt, shredded cheese, chopped scallions, any or all.

Matant Livia’s Baked Eggplant

Creole and Cajun foods are sooooo good.  Different, but kinda sorta similar.  I spent a year in Nawlins..New Orleans to those who don’t know what Nawlins is.  I visited various parishes as well.  I collected many wonderful recipes and how-to’s while there.  All of them are “Take this, do that, add this….”  Most of them begin with “First you make a roux.”   If you are an inexperienced cook and not sure about amounts or methods, you’d best leave Cajun and Creole food alone.  I would suggest though, you learn how to cook without a recipe.   Make it individual, make it with joy, and like all good Southern food, make it with lots of love!

Eggplant – depends on size and how many you want to feed

The Holy Trinity – onion, bell pepper, celery, chopped finely

Fresh parsley, chopped

Grated parmesan cheese

Chopped tomato (fresh summer tomatoes are alway best for everything!)

Worcestershire sauce (Lee and Perron’s as they say)

Cooking spray 

OPTIONAL:  Seasoned or unseasoned bread crumbs are good tossed with a bit of butter/margarine and the parmesan cheese, sprinkled on top for last 15 minutes to get all toasty

Take an eggplant, wash well and pierce skin with fork all over.  Cut the eggplant in half and spray with cooking spray.  Place both halves, cut side down on a cooking sheet sprayed with cooking spray and bake at 350 until tender.  Amount of time varies with size of the eggplant.

Remove from oven and carefully scoop out cooked eggplant and coarsely mash.  Add to this the Holy Trinity, parsley, peeled and chopped tomato(s), parmesan cheese, some shakes of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.  Let sit a few minutes and taste.  Adjust seasonings to taste.  Pile back into eggplant shells (or into a sprayed baking dish) and bake until warm and steamy.  Add some good shakes of parmesan cheese over top.

This is not one of those highly seasoned, luxurious recipes.  It is earthy, basic and excellent with a good French bread slathered with butter, a glass of Southern style sweet tea, and a slice of buttermilk pie (recipe coming soon!).

(HINT) I add foil to the baking dish so I can remove the casserole, allow to cool, and then wrapping well and freezing.  While eggplant, tomatoes, bell peppers are cheap; this is a good use of end of summer bounty.