In January I decided to try 30 days of a vegan diet. It was amazing, I learned more about flavour combinations than I could have imagined. I have always been a lover of vegetables, but I always thought they were secondary to the main feature MEAT, how wrong I was. Not only is meat secondary in flavour to vegetables but the textures, colours, and aromas don’t even come close to competing. Not to mention the huge health benefits. I have started to eat meat again but it’s very little compared to the 2 times a day I have enjoyed almost my whole life.
Last weekend during what is hopefully the last dead freeze here in Toronto I made a huge pot of lovely Chilli. Huge thanks to Raise the Root on Queen St. Their beautiful veggies made this dish look amazing! I would love to hear feedback on the recipe and any suggestions you may have.
The heat came from dried smoked chipotle peppers, next time I would like to use fresh but I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to heat.
Ingredients:
large tin of canned tomato
large red pepper, large green pepper
yellow cooking onion
bunch of cilantro
whole cumin seeds
Bulgur wheat
small new red potatoes
Tin of red beans, and tin of cannellini beans (or any beans you like)
salt pepper olive oil
Directions:
1) roast peppers in oven on high heat – I wanted mine to char a bit
2) After the peppers I tossed the potatoes in oil then on the cookie sheet and broiled them until crispy then set aside
3) I ripped the peppers in large pieces added the chopped up onion and sautéed with the cumin seeds and chilli spices.
4) once the flavours were mixed together I added the tomatoes and stems of the cilantro.
5) I added the drained rinsed beans to the mixture.
6) then the beautiful bulgur wheat, potatoes and into the oven it went for 30min @325.
I loved the heat and textures, I will make it again. I hope you love the colourful pictures and give this loose recipe a shoot.