Chili!

I know I haven't updated for ages!  However, I am currently 9 days from my due date and my last day of work was this past Friday, so I am officially on maternity leave now!  I hope to spend a lot more time over the next year on this blog experimenting with new meals, but people tell me I might be a bit busy :)

In the meantime, I bring you...chili!  This was my original recipe from when I ate meat, very few adjustments were required to make it vegetarian/vegan, so if you want to make it with meat, just brown your ground animal (sorry, couldn't resist) in the pot after the onions and peppers have become translucent and omit the beef and chicken flavoured stock cubes.

4 medium-sized red onions
3 bell peppers of whichever colour
2 cloves minced garlic
2+ cups rehydrated TVP (texturized vegetable protein)
3-4 cubes of veggie beef & chicken stock, for flavour
2 large cans plain tomato sauce
2 cans kidney beans
sriracha or minced chilis, to taste
salt and pepper to taste
splash or two of red wine (optional)
splash or two of balsamic vinegar (yummy)
pinch of cumin (optional)

Chop the onions into small bits, fry in olive oil with the minced garlic in the bottom of a really big pot.  When the onions get soft, throw in the diced peppers.  Add the rehydrated TVP (okay if it's a bit wet - sometimes I add in too much hot water when rehydrating it, so I just drain it in a strainer until it looks/feels like ground meat) - add the cubes of stock - I just crumble them right into the pot.  Cook for a good 10 minutes on medium until all the ingredients are well mixed and the TVP starts to stick to the bottom of the pot.  Add in the tomato sauce and kidney beans and cook for another 15 minutes or so, making sure to scrape up the bottom of the pot.  Check the texture of the chili - hold back tomato sauce or add more veggies/TVP at this point to get the consistency/thickness you want.  At this point, add your remaining seasonings and then cook for a minimum half an hour to get the flavours all blended really well.   Serve as is (with sour cream, cheese, green onions, fritos) or over basmati rice and enjoy!

I haven't made this with ground round, but think it would be quite good!