telophase: (Default)
telophase ([personal profile] telophase) wrote2019-10-22 12:21 pm
Entry tags:

Ideas for vegan-izing our black bean chili?

[personal profile] myrialux and I have been cooking this black bean chili recipe from Cook's Country for years.*

There's an annual chili lunch at my work, and we brought this last year. There are also enough vegetarians and vegans that I've thought about vegan-izing it. To add umami, there's soy sauce and tomato paste. Switch out the usual tomatoes for Mutti brand tomatoes,** add ground-up porcini mushrooms for more umami, veg stock instead of chicken stock.

I won't add chipotles in adobo, because we have, like, 5 different types of chili powders in our pantry and I'll be using them, and I don't want to blow out palates with either too much heat (there will be spicier chilis present; I don't need to produce a really spicy one) or with chipotle/jalapeno flavor when I've got Bull Canyon and Tularosa peppers. But I still need to add a smokiness that would normally come from bacon and ham. Liquid smoke is too harsh. I've seen a vegan recipe that uses espresso powder. Hm.

Dark chocolate or cocoa powder, provided it's a vegan variety (no milk, no sugar filtered with bone char) might add an acceptable darkness, and mole flavors are traditional. Hmmm. Smoked paprika might go too far in the paprika direction. Smoked salt runs the risk of over-salting, given soy sauce and veg broth, even if we're using the low-sodium varieties.

edit: Replacing some of the veg broth with a smoked stout or porter might also work. Or grinding up lapsang souchang tea leaves. HMMM.

* Note, that like all proper Texans, chili does not have beans in. This is not "chili." This is "black bean chili." See the difference? Like I always say, there's a perfectly good term for chili with beans in, and that's "chili with beans in." ;)

** Mutti is a brand we've recently found that doesn't use calcium chloride to keep the tomatoes' shape in the can. The tomatoes dissolve much more readily, and the Mutti brand tastes like tomatoes, not like a vaguely tomato-flavored substance.


Post a comment in response:

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
(will be screened if not validated)
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting