It’s remarkable how much variety there can be just within the world of vegetarian chili. The last one I posted was dark and smoky, with chipotles, beer, and chocolate. This black bean chili is brighter and slightly sweet, but still has the requisite ass-kicking spiciness. And I love the way the butternut squash and the black beans play off each other – both color and flavor-wise.

I made this with seitan and loved it, but if you want a firmer texture, you can use a vegetarian beef product. I don’t often go for the soy-based fake meat stuff, but Lightlife’s Mexican-flavor “Smart Ground” works really well here. Or you can leave it out altogether – the beans and squash are the real stars of this chili.

The better the ingredients you use for this chili, the better it will be. Grind your own cumin seeds, use pure chile powders and track down Mexican oregano and you’ll achieve black bean chili supremacy. I used Rancho Gordo’s Midnight Black beans, and I’m sure that didn’t hurt, either. Of course, that’s not to say it won’t still be delicious with regular ol’ ground cumin, chili powder and oregano. It’s just a matter of how crazy you want to get (me, I’m on the crazy end of the chili scale.)

Black Bean Chili with Butternut Squash

1 pound black beans, soaked overnight (or use the quick soak method)
2 tablespoons organic canola oil or high-oleic safflower oil
2 medium-large yellow onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 poblano pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
4 jalapeno peppers, minced
8 ounces minced seitan, or a 12-ounce package of vegetarian ground beef (see note above)
3 tablespoons chili powder (I used 2 tablespoons of ancho and 1 New Mexican)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons oregano, preferably Mexican
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
3 cups chopped butternut squash (1/2-inch cubes)
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Put the black beans in a large pot and cover with cold water by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 45 minutes. Drain, reserving cooking liquid.

Heat the oil in another heavy-bottomed pot. Add the onions, garlic, poblanos, bell peppers and jalapenos and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the vegetarian beef or seitan along with all the spices, oregano, salt and pepper, and cook 2 minutes longer. Add the tomatoes, butternut squash and 4 cups of the reserved bean cooking liquid. Cook for 8 minutes, then add the black beans and cook until the squash is tender, about 20 minutes. Taste for salt and adjust as you’d like. (At this point, chili can be cooled then refrigerated until the next day – it will be even better then.) Stir in cilantro and serve.

Serves 6, with leftovers

Other recipes you might like: Smoky and Spicy Vegetarian Chili

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With both spinach and chickpeas, this curry is hyper-nutritious. You’ve got your fiber, your protein, your iron and your vitamins A and C. Chana saag is like health in a bowl! It’s perfect on its own with brown basmati rice, or as a part of a larger feast. For a recent Indian-themed dinner party I served it along with seitan tikka masala, baingan bhurta (smoky eggplant) and aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower curry.)

I recommend serving raita along with this dish, as it helps cut the intensity of the spinach a bit. You can make a nice simple one with yogurt (or soy yogurt), minced cucumber, fresh mint and cumin. This recipe would also be terrific with mustard greens in place of the spinach, although you’d have to cook the greens for a minute or two longer.

It’s funny to see how some people react when I tell them I like to cook Indian food. Their eyes get really big and they say something along the lines of “that must be so difficult, how did you learn?”  Well, I started by cooking from Suvir Suran’s Indian Home Cooking (which is available in my new Amazon store, right on this blog!)  It’s a great book that has approachable yet authentic recipes – and none of them call for ghee, so it’s heart-healthy. If you’re an Indian food novice, it’s a great cookbook to start with. But the truth is, once you go out and buy all the necessary spices, cooking Indian food is surprisingly simple.

Oh, and if you want the recipe for the aforementioned seitan tikka masala – which was incredible – just email me through the “contact” link above and I’ll send it along. Frankly, it just wasn’t pretty enough for the blog (or should I say my photo skills weren’t good enough to make it presentable.) In any case, the flavor more than makes up for its homely appearance. So do give me a shout if you’d like that recipe. If you’re in Brooklyn, you might even score an invitation to my next Indian feast!

Photo prop fun: I picked up the cool teardrop-shaped dish at Fishs Eddy. And if you’re wondering what the fence-like thing is in the background of the photo, it’s actually part of a sculpture created by my über-talented artist husband, Tim. See his work here.

Chickpea and Spinach Curry (chana saag)

1 pound baby spinach
1 or 2 small hot green chiles (such as serranos), minced
3 tablespoons organic canola or high-oleic safflower oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon black mustard seeds
3 green cardamom seeds
1 pinch asafoetida powder
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1-inch piece ginger, minced or grated
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1½ cups canned crushed tomatoes, or 3 ripe tomatoes, roughly pureed
1 teaspoon lemon juice
4 teaspoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 15 ounce cans chickpeas, rinsed
2 teaspoons garam masala

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add the baby spinach and cook until tender, about 1 to 2 minutes. Drain well and squeeze out excess liquid. Place in a food processor along with the green chile, and process until smooth, adding a bit of water only as necessary to create a puree.

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large deep skillet or dutch oven. Add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, cardamom and asafoetida and cook for 2 minutes. Add the onions, ginger and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until onions start to brown around the edges, about 4-5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, lemon juice, coriander, cumin powder, turmeric and cayenne. Reduce the heat and simmer for 6-7 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the spinach puree, salt and chickpeas. Partially cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes, adding a bit of water if mixture seems too thick. Add garam masala and additional salt if needed, and serve.

If you like this recipe – or just think your spicy food-lovin’ cousin might like it – please tweet it, like it or share it!

Corn and Amaranth Cakes. Photo: Fine Cooking (Feb. 2011)

I’m always reading about interesting grains like teff and amaranth. Sometimes I even buy them. But they seem to just sit in the fridge because I’m not quite sure what to use them for. Even grains I’m more familiar with, like millet, tend to be underutilized in my kitchen. Well, that’s going to change, because I rounded up some amazing-sounding recipes featuring off-the-beaten-path grains. I hope they inspire you to move beyond brown rice in the coming weeks, too.

In addition to teff, amaranth and millet recipes, I’m including an intriguing recipe for Purple Barley Risotto with Cauliflower created by one of my cooking heroes, Martha Rose Shulman. But Martha, where in the world can I buy purple barley? I’ll have to check at Whole Foods. Meanwhile, if you have luck finding it, please report back!

Recipes to expand your whole grain repertoire:

Corn and Amaranth Griddle Cakes with Spicy Black Beans adapted by The Bitten Word from a fab article in Fine Cooking. (Recommend substituting a heart-healthier oil for the butter.)

Turkish Millet with Garden Fresh Greens from Veg Kitchen

Purple Barley Risotto with Cauliflower from Martha Rose Schulman’s Recipes for Health column

Teff Date-Nut Coffee Quick Bread from Kitchen Therapy

Spiced Almond Amaranth Pudding from The Spiced Plate

Check it out – Lorna Sass’ great cookbook, Whole Grains, Every Day Every Way is on sale, and you can get it right here at my shiny new Amazon store.

If you’re a mushroom lover, you’re in for a treat with this rustic pasta dish that features both dried and fresh mushrooms. “Earthy” doesn’t begin to describe the smell of the mushrooms as they cook down. “Woodsy” and “mossy” are probably the best words – if I closed my eyes, my kitchen turned into a deep, dark forest. The smell had us swooning!

I’m happy to see that cultivated Hen of the Woods (maitake) mushrooms are becoming more readily available. They had them in little packages at one of my health food haunts (Mother Earth in Kingston, NY). Finding them at your local farmer’s market is even better. And if you can’t track them down, oyster or even shiitake mushrooms would be fine substitutes.

Now, let me address the controversial subject of peas. My tasters were divided on whether they should be included in this dish. One person felt strongly that the peas took away from her nearly-religious mushroom experience. Another liked the dash of color and the contrasting flavor. So you’re going to have to decide which camp you fall into. Peas or no peas, I think you’ll be glad to chow down on this deeply-flavored pasta.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Wild Mushroom Sauce

1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
3 cups boiling water
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 medium shallots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
10 ounces button or cremini mushrooms, sliced
14 ounces oyster or hen of the woods mushrooms, trimmed and torn into pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2/3 cup dry white wine
1 cup frozen peas (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
Freshly ground pepper
1 pound whole wheat penne rigate

Place the dried mushrooms in a measuring cup and cover with 2 1/2 cups boiling water. Let stand for 25-30 minutes. Scoop out the mushrooms with a slotted spoon, then rinse and coarsely chop. Strain the soaking liquid using cheesecloth (or if you don’t have any, just pour out the soaking liquid but leave the bottom part of the liquid which contains the grit.)  Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the soaking liquid.

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add the shallots and cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds longer. Add the fresh mushrooms and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring. Add the flour and cook for a minute or two. Add the porcinis and wine, and cook until the wine is nearly evaporated. Add the mushroom liquid, bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add the peas (if using) for the last two minutes of cooking time. Stir in the parsley and lemon zest, and season with pepper to taste.

Serves 4-6

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When my friend Tracy returns to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, she often comes back talking about pasties. These hand pies are usually filled with ground beef, onions, carrots, potatoes and rutabaga – you’ve gotta have the rutabaga – and are sometimes served with gravy (though there is an ongoing battle between the gravy and no-gravy contingents.)

To make a heart-healthy pasty, I substituted seitan for the beef, added some additional seasonings for an umami factor, and used a vegan whole wheat pastry dough. Voila– vegan pasties!  Because I was taking them over to Tracy’s for dinner, I knew she’d want gravy, so I whipped up some using some amazing barley miso as a basis. They might not eat pasties like these in Cornwall, or even in Michigan, but here in Brooklyn, they rocked the house.

Expect me to go a little crazy with hand pies in the next few months, because this recipe has opened the floodgates. I’m already planning a butternut squash and kale variety, and perhaps a curried lentil one.  Suggestions are welcome….

Vegetarian Cornish Pasties

Filling:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium rutabaga, diced (about 1 ½ cups)
1 large or 2 small carrots, diced
1 large Yukon gold potato, peeled and diced
1 8-ounce package seitan, rinsed, drained and minced
2/3 cup frozen peas
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1-2 teaspoons miso (I used South River Miso’s Three-Year Barley Miso)
2 teaspoons nutritional yeast (optional but recommended)
2 teaspoons tamari
½ cup water
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a large pot or skillet over medium heat, then add all of the vegetables and sauté for 6-7 minutes. If using the nutritional yeast, add during the last two minutes of sauteing time.

Add the peas, thyme, miso, tamari, water salt and pepper. Cover and cook on medium-low heat for 10 minutes longer, or until all of the vegetables are tender. Stir in the seitan. Taste for salt and adjust if you see fit.

Dough:

3 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup organic canola or high-oleic safflower oil
1 ½ teaspoons salt
6 tablespoons water
6 tablespoons soy milk

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Drizzle oil on top, then work in with your fingers until the mixture is crumbly.  Add water and soy milk and mix with a fork. Divide the dough into 12 balls.

Roll out each ball on a floured surface (use all-purpose flour for this), to a diameter of just over 6 inches.  Invert a 6-inch bowl over the dough and use it to create a perfect circle, cutting around the bowl with a knife. (Reserve the excess dough for repairing tears if necessary.) Use a metal spatula to loosen and lift the dough, and place it on a lightly oiled baking sheet.

Assembly:

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Scoop about 1/3 cup of filling onto one side of the circle. Dampen the outer edges with water, then fold the dough over the filling. Use a fork to crimp the edge. Repeat with the other balls of dough. Cut several slits in the top of each pasty.

Bake for 30 minutes. Serve with gravy, if desired.

Serves 6

Bonus recipe:

Miso Guinness Gravy (adapted from The Second Seasonal Political Palate)

1/3 c. canola or high-oleic safflower oil
1 small onion, minced
3 mushrooms, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup Guinness beer
1 ½ cups water
½ teaspoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 bay leaf
3 tablespoons low-sodium tamari or soy sauce
2 tablespoons red or brown miso (see above for my recommendation)
¼  teaspoon black pepper

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Sauté the onion, mushrooms and garlic for about 5 minutes. Lower the heat slightly, add the flour and yeast, and cook for about 8 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the remaining ingredients, whisking well. Simmer for about 15 minutes, adding water or stock if the gravy becomes too thick.

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These were inspired by the oatmeal muffin recipe on the cool vegan blog It Ain’t Meat, Babe. I added the blueberries, used whole wheat pastry flour instead of white, and a little less oil. I didn’t have any ground flax meal on hand today, so I used an egg. But the vegan version is great, too (I’ve provided that option in the recipe).

Muffins are one place where I think whole wheat pastry flour produces a much more satisfying result. Now when I taste muffins made with white flour, they just taste bland to me. At first glance, people assume these are bran muffins because of their deep color. But the texture is much lighter and moister than bran muffins, with a pronounced oatiness. And I love that they aren’t overly sweet – muffins needn’t always taste like dessert!

Blueberry-Oat Muffins  (with vegan option)

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup soy or almond milk mixed with 1 teaspoon white vinegar
1/3 cup organic canola oil
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 egg, or 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds whisked vigorously with 3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour (note: use only 1 1/8 cups if using flax instead of egg)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh blueberries

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a muffin pan with organic canola spray (Spectrum now makes a nice baking spray with flour), or use paper liners.

Combine oats and soy milk and let stand for 15-20 minutes. Whisk in the oil, brown sugar, canola, maple syrup, egg/flax and vanilla.

In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients, then stir into the wet. Fold in the blueberries.

Fill muffin cups about ¾ full and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing.