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How to make the best vegetarian chili of your life
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Today I'm gonna show you how to make incredible vegetarian chili at home.
And along the way I'll share nine crucial techniques that'll take your chili
from average to amazing.
And later we're gonna visit a local chili expert to see how my version compares
to one of the most popular chili recipes on the internet
Here at Rainbow Plant Life
there's nothing we love more than taking a standard recipe and then coming up
with a deluxe version of it. We've done it with vegan brownies, hummus,
breakfast burritos, cornbread, just to name a few. So as usual,
I started devising this recipe by trying some of the most popular vegetarian
chili recipes on Google. And honestly, I found them kind of underwhelming,
mostly just like be soup with chili powder in it, they were watery,
they didn't have any complex deep flavor.
What we are going for instead is a rich, velvety bean chili,
the kind that I like to imagine cowboys would enjoy sitting around a campfire.
We're gonna start this recipe like all great chili recipes begin with actual
whole chili peppers. We're gonna use these to make our own chili powder.
It's gonna be 10 times better than the store bought stuff. We'll take our whole
dried chili peppers, gently tear them open and remove the seeds and membranes,
which are quite bitter.
And just briefly toast them in a hot pan for about a minute per side,
you don't wanna burn or scorch them, which can make them bitter.
I'm using a mix of ancho peppers, gujis and chili. They ar bowls.
The anchos and guajillos are sweet, fruity, and mild.
Not really what you expect with the chili pepper.
And the arbols are there for spicy heat,
so you can mix and match these peppers. Depending on your spice tolerance,
you could leave it here if you want a pure chili powder.
But for a bit more flavor, I like to add some spices. First,
cumin and coriander seeds, Since this pan is already hot,
they don't need long to get toasty. Just about a minute.
Once the peppers and spices have cooled down,
add them to a spice grinder and blitz them until they're finally ground. You
might need to do this in two batches, depending on the size of your grinder.
And finally, a few other spices commonly used in chili powder, Mexican oregano,
onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika,
and a touch of cinnamon smells so amazing. It's rich, it's warm,
it's fruity. And by taking the 10 minutes to make your own chili powder,
you're gonna be unlocking layers and layers of complex flavor.
You're getting a sweet fruitiness that you can't get in a store bought chili powder
and so you end up with just a much more interesting and more delicious chili.
Plus, this stuff will stay good in your pantry for six months,
so you can make a batch of chili whenever the craving strikes.
But if you can't find dried chili peppers,
I have tested this recipe with store bot on show chili powder,
and it's still really tasty. Everything is prepped. So let's get cooking. On our
chili. I'm sorry. Let's get cooking.
We'll get some olive oil going over medium high heat,
and once it's nice and hot at the diced onion end season with some salt,
a lot of recipes will tell you to cook the onions for like four to five minutes.
But to get the most flavor,
you're gonna let these onions cooked down for about 10 minutes until they're
really golden brown.
So a lot of vegetarian chili recipes will at this point,
also add carrots and celery,
sometimes a red bell pepper in addition to the onions.
It's kind of like they're trying to make soup, but chili is not soup.
Chili and soup are very different things. I love soup, but it's not chili,
so I will not be adding any of those things. If you did,
you would also crowd the pan and not give the onions an opportunity to brown,
cause you would lose out on some of that flavor.
If you try to put cel in my chili, I will fight you. Who are you talking to? Oh,
the chili. You? Anyone trying to mess with my chili?
Also, add some garlic, jalapenos, and tomato paste.
The grassy flavor of fresh jalapenos brings a bright heat in contrast to the
earthier sweeter heat from the dry chilies and the tomato paste brings a sweet,
tangy,
concentrated tomato flavor. These need two to three minutes and
be sure to stir frequently.
Now it's time to add in our homemade chili powder along with a few other spices,
cumin, Mexican oregano, and smoked paprika.
If you see a recipe that tells you to just plop in the spices into the liquid,
run away from that recipe.
You need to saute the chili powder and the spices in a bit of oil briefly,
just like 30 seconds or so.
It's gonna tame some of the natural bitterness and also give you a lot more
flavor from those spices. At this point,
there's a lot of brown bits at the bottom of the pot, so it's time tole the pan.
And a lot of chili recipes use beer for this,
but I find beer is too bitter for my taste and I never drink it,
so I never have it on hand.
But you know what works great in this recipe that I always have on hand,
red wine, I'm not sure the cowboys make their chili this way.
Maybe the French cowboys do, but it's really delicious here. Alexa,
how do you say cowboy in french?
Cowboy in French is cowboi.
<Laugh> Cowboi. Cowboy chili does not include red wine, but my version does.
As the wine cooks off,
it's gonna enhance a lot of the flavors and add to the richness of this chili.
We'll add in our vegetable broth now,
and if there's still any brown bits that the wine didn't get,
go ahead and scrape those up. And then we'll also add in the beans.
We're gonna use two cans of pinto beans and one can of navy beans.
Kidney beans are a little more traditional and chili,
but I don't really like them, so I'm using pinto beans instead.
And navy beans are really small,
so they're gonna actually kind of disintegrate into the chili,
which will naturally thicken it.
If you're looking to more closely replicate the taste and texture of meat,
you can add a vegan ground meat to this.
We tested this recipe with impossible burger meat and it was great. Personally,
I prefer the be only chili,
but you can find instructions on how to modify it in the blog post.
Also adding a couple bay leaves and two chipotle peppers in adobo sauce with a
little extra adobo sauce for some smoky heat. But if you have baby enough,
as we like to say, you might wanna scale back on those.
Traditional meat-based chilies are naturally rich in umami.
So with a beam based chili,
we have to work in a few extra ingredients to really amp up the savory flavors.
First, we're gonna use whole peel tomatoes can.
Tomatoes are a great plant-based source of umami,
and if you use the whole peeled tomatoes and crush them yourself,
instead of buying pre-diced or pre crushed tomatoes,
you're gonna get a lot more pure tomato flavor.
And this might sound unconventional kind of is,
but we're gonna add some soy sauce as well. It adds a savory depth of flavor
that salt alone can't bring. And if you remember from earlier,
we cooked down some tomato paste in the beginning,
which also unleashes a lot of umami. And finally,
some cocoa powder and maple syrup. Don't worry,
you can't taste those in the final product,
but the cocoa powder adds a depth of flavor and accentuates the richness of the
chili peppers and the maple syrup helps to balance the bitterness and the
natural spiciness of the chili peppers, and of course, some salt and pepper.
Okay, we've got everything we need, so we're gonna bring the chili up to a boil,
then bring it back down to a gentle simmer.
And this needs to simmer at the lowest heat for an hour and a half or even two
hours if you want, and stir about every 10 minutes.
The slow simmering helps to develop all the flavors in the chili and contributes
to that really rich velvety texture,
which is what we're going for. Just make sure it's at a gentle simmer because if
you cook it too rapidly, the beans will break down a lot. This next ingredient,
masa harina or Mexican corn flour is gonna thicken the chili even more.
Add this voluptuous body and bring a subtle corn flavor. It is optional though,
so if you don't have it, don't worry. Look at this texture.
It is so rich and velvety, it smells really good.
And this stage is really important because we have to taste the chili in order
to balance the flavors. Chili peppers are naturally a little bitter.
You've got all these different types of heat from the chili peppers.
So if we need a few final tricks to mellow all of that out,
first we'll add some acidic ingredients. Lime juice and red wine vinegar,
I like using both because they each bring something a little different to the
table. And sour flavors in general are going to help balance naturally bitter
flavors, and it's also going to awaken the chili and just make it taste a little brighter
Another thing that's gonna brighten and freshen up this chili is some chopped
cilantro. At this point,
you also wanna taste the chili to see if it needs any more sweetness to balance
the bitterness and spiciness. If so, go ahead and add a little more maple syrup.
You can also introduce balance through the topping as you put on your chili,
and you should definitely add toppings to your chili. So a vegan sour cream,
for instance, or avocado,
it's gonna add a nice cooling effect to contrast with all the spice.
And pickled onions, for instance, are going to brighten and lighten the dish.
This is not so much a topping,
but if you wanna bake a batch of my cornbread while the chili cooks,
they make an epic comparing
That is really good. But honestly,
it's gonna taste even better tomorrow if you can wait, because when chili rests,
all the chili powder and the spices,
they all have a chance to mellow out and meld with all the other flavors.
So you end up with a chili that has more harmonious and also deeper flavors.
And really excellent chili is an exercise in patients making your own chili
powder to get the best flavor, slow simmering,
so you get that amazing texture letting out rest overnight in the fridge.
So make a big batch on a Sunday afternoon or anytime you've got some extra time,
and enjoy it throughout the week or freeze it in single surf portion so you can
quickly defrost it whenever you want.
And now we're gonna go see my friend Fletcher, who is the most knowledgeable,
chilly expert I know to see how my version stacks up against the competition.
Fletcher.
You grew up in Texas eating a lot of chili.
Do you consider yourself a chili expert?
I think chili expert would be going a little bit beyond my chili experience,
but I would say I'm very heavily interested in chili.
Okay. Just so you know,
I told everyone at the beginning of the video that you are <laugh> San Diego's
number one chili expert. So can you just say that you're a chili.
Expert? Yeah, a thousand percent right.
We've got our local Chile expert. So can you tell us what makes a good chili?
I think it all starts with the type of chilies that you're using,
and that would vary.
And I mean there are so many different varieties of peppers that you can use and
it really changes the flavor profile of what you're really.
Cooking.
Is there any sort of Texas cowboy hat or cowboys jersey or anything super
Texas sea that you can wear to establish yourself as a Texas chili.
Expert?
I have plenty of different acc crema that might enhance the experience of the
viewer, so we'll have to go look for.
That. All right,
so I'm gonna go grab our chilies and then we'll start our taste test.
That.
Sounds great. We've got our two different chilies here.
I'd like you to try both. Then we'll chat about what you think.
And we've got some vegan sour cream and pickled onions.
If you'd like to jazz up.
Your chili, I think jazzing up your chili is always very important.
Did you make these pickled onions yourself? Yeah.
It's so easy.
I love that.
Okay.
Let's start with this first one over here. What were your.
Thoughts? It's not very appealing visually. On top of that,
it really doesn't carry the flavor profile of an actual chili.
And what makes it not appealing, aside from the,
It's like a little messy from the microwave. Other than that,
what makes it not appealing?
The different chunks are a little too big.
It makes the beans look like they're sort of not
integrated with the rest of the chili. When you take a bite of it,
you don't always get the same bite.
Chili really should have this ubiquitous feel of always being the same flavor
with every bite.
What a great descriptor. I told you he was San Diego's most ex foremost.
I try that again.
<Laugh>.
What a great line. I told you he was San Diego's foremost chili expert.
Totally true. Thoughts on the second chili.
You're trying to figure out how to get that total package in every bite.
And so when you have the different types of pepper within there,
when you have the different flavors that really round out every bite,
this chili in particular gives all of that,
gives you a little bit of fire and just rounds out the way that every bite
should taste. I thought the texture tasted,
or it was very similar to any other chili that I've ever had,
whether it be meat based or vegan based.
I felt that this chili just really encapsulated what a chili really should be.
And so it was just flat out better.
Yes, yes, yes. I won.
I won. All right. You guys heard it.
Fletcher San Diego is a foremost chili expert. Thanks. My chili is amazing.
Thanks Fletcher. You can get the recipe on my blog.
I hope you guys will love it as much as we do,
and I'll see you in the next video. Bye.
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