Meatless Monday - Meaty Vegetarian Chili

It seems like everyone has a chili recipe and lots of people like chili.  That's why chili cook-offs are so popular.  It's easy to find good vegetarian chili recipes and well as good con carnie (with meat) recipes but it's hard to find a chili recipe that is free of beans and meat.  What?!! No beans?  You ask. Some people can't, don't or won't eat beans.  It's okay, this recipe is a great alternative and the meat eaters may never miss the meat.  If you do like having beans in your chili it's easy to add a can of your favorite beans.  It's not going to hurt this recipe at all.  The body of this chili comes from the meat substitute recipe I posted here.

Some people like really hot chili, some like more mild chili.  You can control the heat in various ways.  Most peppers hold most of their heat in the seeds, so seeding peppers helps reduce the heat.  Also different peppers have different heat, if you want to know which peppers are the hottest check out this scale.

Meaty Vegetarian Chili

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup olive oil 2 onions, chopped 2 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped 2 red hot peppers of choice (such as Jalapeño or habanero), seeded and chopped 1- 2 chili's, seeded and chopped, (optional) 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 cups Meat Substitute 4 (15.5 ounce) cans black beans, drained (optional)

2 (15 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 2 teaspoons ground cumin 6 tablespoons chili powder 2 tablespoons dried oregano 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar, white wine or beer. 1 tablespoon liquid hot pepper sauce, such as Tabasco™ Cilantro for garnish

DIRECTIONS:

	Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onions; cook and stir until they start to become soft. Add the peppers, garlic and Meat Substitute; cook and stir until vegetables are lightly browned and tender, about 10 minutes.
	Add the black beans now if you're going to use them.  Stir in the tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, oregano, vinegar and hot pepper sauce. Stir gently, and cover. Heat the chili until almost boiling then simmer for 20 minutes. I usually top this with some cheese and sour cream.  A few slices of avocado are nice too.  How do you like your chili.

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