Vegetarian Chili

It's Football Season!!!  Whohooo!!!  Nachos, Buffalo Wings, Chili, Dip, Chips, bar food gallore!
Patriot's opening night Monday Night Football was this week.

Now to be perfectly clear, since my husband will read this.. yes, I like football, I enjoy watching it.  However, I'm no stats guru.   I don't know all the rules, I don't know all the players.  I was in a fantasy football league once, that was fun.  I fall asleep by half-time.  But the concept of football, yeah I'm down with that.  Besides, I work in a department full of guys, I need something to talk about.
 
But this is a blog about food, so here we go.
Typical Menu, nachos, drowned in cheese, topped with taco meat, sliced jalepenos, gobs of sour cream and beer on the side.  In the mood for more spice, I'll toss a bag of frozen buffalo wings into the oven.  Hey, a working mom can't do it all.  Besides, I spend my time making the nachos, those are my favorite anyways.

But wait... people are coming over.  Someone's a vegetarian.   I can't make nachos without taco meat, that's just not right.  I'll skip the machos nachos. What to do... what to do?  Vegetarian chili, sounds good.  But how do you make chili without meat?  And what actually GOES INTO vegetarian chili?

So this is how I play it.  Ask around.  Who's got a good recipe?  No answers really.  Pulled up my favorite search engine, "vegetarian chili" -> the results are endless... how exciting.  I don't print a single one out.  Why?  Because it's chili, who needs a recipe for chili?  Just toss things into a pot and cook it!  But, I'm curious what others put in it.  So I take a little bit of this, and a little bit of that.  And voila!  Results below.

-    1 large yellow onion – chopped
-    Drizzle bottom of pot with olive oil to coat bottom, toss in onion, heavily salt/pepper
-    Saute over medium heat until onions are golden brown and there are crustys on the bottom of the pan.
-    Deglaze with liquid of choice.  I used water because I didn’t know my audience, but would have used perhaps a red wine or even a sherry

Jenn, stop.. what do you mean "deglaze" - well, pour the liquid in, use your WOODEN spoon to scrape the yummy crusty stuff off the bottom, that's not burning, that FLAVOR!  Professional cooks, I believe call this "fond" - well, if it's black and starting to smoke and smells bad, then it's burning.  But a good dark brown before that, that folks is yummy goodness.

-    (if you want to turn this into a meat lovers chili, add 1lb of ground beef or ground turkey at this point and sauté until no red left – deglaze pan when done)
-    1 large green bell pepper, 1 large red bell pepper, 4 stalks of celery – chopped, bite size pieces
-    Toss into pot and continue to sauté until there are crustys on the bottom of the pan
-    Deglaze with liquid of choice.
-    3 or 4 carrots, chopped to bit size pieces, toss into pan.
-    ½ to whole jalepeno pepper finely chopped (I take out the white veins, not so spicey that way, leave on if you want it spicier)
-    Continue to sauté until carrots are mildly soft.
-    Put in one 8oz can of tomato puree, deglaze pan if you got more crustys.
-    Put in one 16oz can of chopped tomoatoes
-    Fill ½ of the 8oz tomato can with water and put that in
-    Toss in one 8oz can of (rinsed) black eyed peas
-    Toss in one 8oz can of (rinsed) kidney beans
-    Toss in one 8oz can of (rinsed) cannellini beans
-    (optional) Toss in one 8oz can of (rinsed) black beans
-    Toss in a bunch of frozen corn
-    Chili Powder – to taste, I like just a little zing on the tongue when cooking for a crowd and this results in about 2T of powder, or the way I measure, cup your hand and fill the center.  Add more if you like it hot.
-    Turn heat up, bring to boil, turn heat to Med-Low simmer
-    Serve with shredded cheese of choice and a tab of sour cream in the middle
-    Serves 6-8 depending on your bowl size