One-pan smoked bell pepper chili with smoked red bell peppers
For Columbus Day tomorrow, or for the upcoming Halloween and winter season, try some home-made chili with smoked red bell peppers. Here's how to smoke the peppers to add to the chili. You have a choice to make this an international style chili or stick with standard recipes for chili and smoked bell peppers.
Smoking the bell peppers:
Ingredients
Bell peppers:
2 cups hickory wood chips
4 medium red bell peppers
Cooking spray
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
1/8 teaspoon sea salt. Or if you don't use added salt, substitute 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper and 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric (powder).
Preparation
- Prepare grill.
- To prepare bell peppers, wrap wood chips in a double layer of foil; pierce foil packet several times. Add foil packet to grill rack; grill 10 minutes. Place bell peppers on a grill rack coated with cooking spray; cover and grill 15 minutes or until blackened, turning occasionally. Place in a glass jar or other glass container and not in a plastic bag. Cover. Let stand 15 minutes.
- Peel and cut into strips. Combine bell peppers, basil, 1/8 teaspoon salt or 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder instead of the salt if you don't add salt to your cooking. Add turmeric and black pepper. Note: For those who never add salt to their cooking, in savory foods, you can use 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder instead of the 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt. Season to taste.
Vegetarian Chili Recipe. For a more standard American or Tex-Mex-style vegan chili, also see the recipes at: The Best Vegetarian Chili in the World Recipe - Allrecipes.com and at the "Insanely Easy Vegetarian Chili" site.
Instead of a can of corn with the liquid from the can, you can boil about a pound of dried purple corn kernels for an hour to soften and use those purple corn kernels to make purplish liquid, if desired. Or stick with the standard can or yellow corn kernels that you don't have to boil until tender.
This chili recipe is rather international with Japanese-style mushrooms and Peruvian purple corn kernals (if desired instead of the yellow canned corn kernels.) You have the option of smoking your red and green bell peppers to give your chili a 'smoky' taste. Since you add no meat, eggs, fish, or milk, you can call this vegan chili.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup chopped onions
- 3/4 cup chopped or diced carrots or lotus root
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup chopped smoked green bell pepper
- 1 cup chopped smoked red bell pepper
- 3/4 cup chopped celery
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 1/2 cups chopped fresh maitake and shiitake mushrooms: half and half equal parts of mushrooms.
- 1 (28 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes with liquid, chopped
- 1 (19 ounce) can kidney beans or use your favorite red beans with liquid
- 1 (11 ounce) can whole kernel corn, undrained, or boil dried purple corn kernels for an hour until soft if you want a purple-colored liquid that's high in resveratrol instead of the usual canned corn with liquid.
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
Directions
- Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onions, carrots or diced lotus root, and garlic until tender. Stir in smoked green and red bell peppers, celery, and chili powder. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 6 minutes.This makes this international vegan chili have a new flavor since you can use Japanese-style lotus or plain carrots or both. Just dice them in small pieces.
- Stir in those healthy Japanese-style maitake and shiitake mushrooms, and cook 4 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, kidney or other red beans, and corn, either yellow or cooked purple corn kernels with liquid. Season with cumin, oregano, and basil. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to medium. Cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Now you have international chili with smoked peppers featuring Peruvian, Japanese or Tex-Mex style chili as you prefer.
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