The Best Vegetarian Chili – Thick and Hearty and Healthy!

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This Vegetarian Chili turned out much better than I thought it would. I absolutely adore Chili con Carne, and I make a great batch of it– if I do say so, myself. There are some surprise ingredients that give a “meatier” flavor to this vegetarian chili. It was fun making my own chili powder, and really not that difficult. I particularly liked the bulgur that is added at the end. It gives the chili a terrific texture. My son never caught on to the fact that this was a meatless chili. I think it’s worthy for Super Bowl– especially for those who are vegetarian.

For as long as I can remember, I always make a big pot of my Chile Con Carne recipe for Super Bowl Sunday.  I’ve been making this for so long, that I don’t need a recipe. It’s hearty, and not too spicy. With a pile of warm flour tortillas, my men ladle bowls of this to watch the game.

I’m also a fan of vegetarian dishes, but so far most vegetarian chili recipes I’ve seen, or tried, are most like a bean and vegetable stew.  America’s Test Kitchen agrees, and so they decided to create a vegetarian recipe that has plenty of beans, and a good meaty flavor– obviously, without using meat. My husband and I watched their television episode, and we both commented that this would be a good version to try– for our health’s sake, and for variety.

To accomplish making a hearty vegetarian chili, ATK uses a few unlikely ingredients for this chili recipe.

The first one, is 1/2 ounce of dried shiitaki mushrooms.  Per ATK, “These nucleotide-rich dried mushrooms have a synergistic effect when combined with glutamates, cranking up savory umami flavor even more.  Interesting…

Another ingredient– walnuts. Per ATK: “Ground toasted walnuts add richness and body as well as tons of flavor-boosting glutamates.”

This chili took a bit of time to make– like about three hours.  So, this is one recipe I would reserve as a weekend, or day off, kind of project.  I will say that this recipe delivered very impressive and delicious  results!  In fact, the chili had so much flavor, and had the texture of meat, that this could easily fool carnivores, who are opposed to eating vegetarian fare… believing that this would be bland.  Nope. This was far from a bland recipe.  I’ll show you.

Unlike Texas style chili, we start with beans.  You can use kidney beans, black beans or pinto beans– or a combination.  My personal favorite are pinto beans, so that’s what I used.  ATK does a one-hour soak, by bringing the beans to a boil in salted water.  Cover and let stand for one hour.

I love my pressure cooker, I cooked my beans for 12 minutes, and did a natural release. Either way works perfectly.

 

…and there is the chili powder mix!   As for the walnuts, I ground those finely in my food processor.

There are a few more ingredients, and steps to go (there will be a printable recipe card at the end of this post).

For the “sauce” I used diced tomatoes (reserving the juice), tomato paste, jalapeño(s), garlic, and soy sauce and pulsed the ingredients in my food processor.

NOTE:  Let’s talk about the jalapeños, shall we?  The recipe calls for two jalapeños.  I used one.   Choose wisely– If you like fire-hot chili, use two.  If you like spicy, use one. If you like flavorful, with just a slight bit of spice (like I do), only use 1/2.   

So, now most of the components are ready to go, and the cooking part begins.

In a Dutch oven, oil is heated over medium-high heat until shimmering.
Add onions and 1 1/4 teaspoons salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until onions begin to brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Lower heat to medium and add ground chile mixture and cumin; cook, stirring constantly, until
fragrant, about 1 minute. Add rinsed beans and water and bring to boil. Cover pot, transfer to oven, and cook for 45 minutes.

So, now, comes another “surprise” ingredient– and it’s a grain that I don’t often use, but we do like a lot.

Bulgur!  (Per ATK: Small grains of tender, chewy wheat add a hearty textural element.) The tomato base is added to the beans, ground walnuts, reserved tomato juice, and then the bulgur is stirred in.  The pot is covered, and returned to the oven for two hours.

See what I mean?  This takes a bit of time and patience.

See how thick and luscious this chili is?  Umami! Flavor!  This does not look like a vegetable stew!

Here’s how America’s Test Kitchen describes how they achieved a really thick chili:

To capitalize on the ability of the fat in the chili to create body in
the sauce, we gave the chili a vigorous stir and a 20-minute rest after
we took it out of the oven. Stirring helped to release starch from the
beans and the bulgur. The starch then clustered around the fat droplets
in the chili, preventing them from coalescing and helping to create a
thick, velvety emulsion that never left a slick of oil on top of the
chili, no matter how many times we reheated it.

You can garnish this with any or all of the following– grated cheese, chopped onion, chopped avocado, chopped tomatoes.  I kept it simple and garnished it with reduced-fat sour cream and fresh cilantro.

TASTING NOTES:  As promised, this chili reheated really well, and was thick and hearty. Making my own chili powder was worth the extra 15 minutes, or so.  The chili had a smoky flavor of cumin, with just the right balance of chili.  With my own Chili recipe, I’m really fond of a tangy tomato flavor.  This recipe doesn’t really bring out a “tomato-ey” flavor. Instead, there’s plenty of spice (depending on how much jalapeño you use).  The texture definitely mimics that of a chili with ground beef.   Carnivores wouldn’t begin to guess that there are ground walnuts nor bulgur. In fact, if you don’t say a word, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they never catch on that there isn’t any meat in this.

The next time I make this, I will use only half of a jalapeño and I will reduce the recipe in half. This makes a LOT!

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3 from 1 vote

The Best Vegetarian Chili – Thick and Hearty and Healthy!

I absolutely adore Chili con Carne, and I make a great batch of it– if I do say so, myself. So, I was a bit skeptical when I saw an episode of America's Test Kitchen proclaiming that this is "The Best" Vegetarian Chili. As I began to read the ingredients, I started to open up my mind that this quite possibly could be. So, is it? I'd say that this recipe turned out to be even better than I thought. There are some surprise ingredients that give a "meatier" flavor to this vegetarian chili. It was fun making my own chili powder, and really not that difficult. I particularly liked the bulgur that is added at the end. It gives the chili a terrific texture. My son never caught on to the fact that this was a meatless chili. I think it's worthy for Super Bowl– especially for those who are vegetarian.

Author: Debby – www.AFeastfortheEyes.net

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Ingredients

• Salt
• 1 pound 2 1/2-cups dried beans, picked over and rinsed (I used pinto beans)
• 2 dried ancho chiles
• 2 dried New Mexican chiles
• 1/2 ounce dried shiitake mushrooms chopped coarse
• 4 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/2 cup walnuts toasted
• 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained with juice reserved
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 to 2 jalapeño chiles stemmed and coarsely chopped (I used 1)
• 6 garlic cloves minced
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 pounds onions chopped fine
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 7 cups water
• 2/3 cup medium-grind bulgur
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped

Instructions

• Bring 4 quarts water, 3 tablespoons salt, and beans to boil in large Dutch oven over high heat. Remove pot from heat, cover, and let stand for 1 hour. Drain beans and rinse well. Wipe out pot.
• Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300°F.
• Arrange anchos and New Mexican chiles on rimmed baking sheet and toast until fragrant and puffed, about 8 minutes. Transfer to plate and let cool, about 5 minutes.
• Stem and seed anchos and New Mexican chiles. Working in batches, grind toasted chiles, mushrooms, and oregano in spice grinder or with mortar and pestle until finely ground. Note: I used my Vitamix blender and got great results!
• Process walnuts in food processor until finely ground, about 30 seconds. Transfer to bowl.
• Process drained tomatoes, tomato paste, jalapeño(s)*, garlic, and soy sauce in food processor until tomatoes are finely chopped, about 45 seconds, scraping down bowl as needed.
• Note: *I used one whole jalapeno and the chili was borderline super spicy. If you prefer a milder chili (as I do), I recommend using only 1/2 a jalapeno.
• Heat oil in now-empty Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add onions and 1 1/4 teaspoons salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until onions begin to brown, 8 to 10 minutes.
• Lower heat to medium and add ground chile mixture and cumin; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
• Add rinsed beans and water and bring to boil. Cover pot, transfer to oven, and cook for 45 minutes.
• Remove pot from oven. Stir in bulgur, ground walnuts, tomato mixture, and reserved tomato juice. Cover pot and return to oven. Cook until beans are fully tender, about 2 hours.
• Remove pot from oven, stir chili well, and let stand, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Stir in cilantro and serve. (Chili can be made up to 3 days in advance.)

Notes

Recipe Source: America’s Test Kitchen

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