Off to Torridon this weekend, my turn to cook for 4. two of them are vegetarians so I fancy having a go at a veggie chilli.
2q’s Does quorn mince a good chilli make?
Secondly; any good recipies for a smokey medium chilli.

Thanks

Chilli contest joke
Texas chilli contest

never tried quorn but did used to use a brown/red lentil mix (2:1) in place of meat which worked fine.

We use bulgar wheat as a texture ingredient. It absorbs all the good flavours and also provides a decent amount of roughage!

Use vegetables rather than quorn, sweet potato, carrots, courgettes, mushrooms etc.
Onion, Garlic, chopped fresh rosemary & thyme with a chilli or 6 to taste
Fry that off add some veg and flavour with cumin (fresh ground if poss) and paprika use more smoked for flavour than sweet. get it all going and add tomatoes & stock with bay leaves and a cinnamon stick. Add more spices to taste as you go. Add kidney beans and something like a 4 bean mix for the last 10/15 mins and serve with fresh coriander leaves.

If you can get hold of any big fat smoked chillis they go in whole for great flavour with the tomaotes.

Don’t use quorn use chopped up mushrooms & veg as above, also put lentils in.

Dress up the dish (or cool it down) with a dollop of nat yoghurt on top, serve with nacho chips.

Make it as hot as you can tolerate/ freezes really well.

what mike said. use beans for the protein-y content rather than quorn or suchlike. and lots of fresh veggies. chunks of sweet potato will break down and thicken the texture of it all nicely.

Another one for no quorn or meat sustitutes.
This is a cracker though:
http://www.gransnet.com/recipes/dish/5504-Black-bean-and-aubergine-chilli-recipe
We’ve fed this to meat eaters many times and they have loved it.
Edit: We tweak this by using a little less chilli than it says and using smoked paprika. And don’t forget the dark chocolate.

Cocoa powder is always a good addition. Gives it that brown appearance and another layer of flavour. Works really well with chilli heat.

I use quorn but I wouldn’t chance it with folk I didn’t know (lots of folk just aren’t keen on quorn, whether veggie or omni). If you’re needing a “stock” then Kallo cubes are excellent. Marmite with red wine (tip from a vegan once) can be a handy liquid addition as well.

Trees Can’t Dance smoky chipotle sauce id good for that “this needs something but I’m not sure what” moment when tasting.

I have tried dark chocolate and had a little success with that. My favourite combination of beans is kidney, black beans, tin of Heinz best, borlotti and chickpeas. Those little chopped jalapenos in a jar are handy, as are (sorry), chopped gherkins.

Does quorn mince a good chilli make?

Yes, but if you do what everyone does and treat it like meat (ie, boiling it for two hours) it’ll turn to slurry.

What I do these days is make a veggie / beanie curry, then fifteen minutes before it’s due I fry off some Quorn mince in a separate frying pan of five minutes, maybe with some diced onions and a dash of soy sauce, then pitch it into the mix and simmer for another five mins.

I really should type up my recipe at some point.

Make as per normal chilli, but use soya protein meat subsitute. Place in a cool dustbin.

Quorn mince is horrible IMO. It’s incredibly greasy and has a strange bitter aftertaste. The best stuff is the supermarket own brand veggy mince however this has been pulled from the shelves of all the major supermarkets after a salmonella outbreak at the factory which makes the soya chunks. The best alternative is dried TVP chunks from health food stores but it has to be cooked quite slowly otherwise it’ll taste pretty rubbish.

Recipe:

750g of dried TVP/soya chunks (pre-soaked, but not too much, you don’t want it to be too watery).
1 large or 2 medium sized onions
Thickly chopped mushrooms (about the same amount as the onion)
5 cloves garlic
4 red jalapenos, 2 chipotles (dried smoked jalapenos, most supermarkets have them now)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tin tomatoes
1 veggie stock cube
1/2 bottle Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (you can drink the other half 🙂 )

The method is simple. Fry the onions, garlic, mushrooms and chiles until tender, then add in the soya chunks/mince, cumin, veg stock, and beer. Allow to simmer for a bit until it reduces, then gradually add the tomatoes. The trick is to cook it as dry as possible over an hour or so, so it does’t turn into soup. Garnish at the end with freshly chopped coriander. You can also add freshly chopped tomatoes or tomato puree to give it more of a tomato taste as preferred.

Best eaten in burritos with salsa, guacamole, rice, refried beans and cheese IMO.

I like the look of both Mike’s and Robin’s recipies, Mike do you have a slightly more easy to follow version of that,rather than “hoy it in and burn it for a hour.” 🙂

Right, start by grinding up three vegetarians into mince sized pieces ….

As mentioned above, liquid smoke is handy stuff (go easy though, it doesn’t need much) and a good glug of red wine helps. Between the smoked paprika, some red wine and the chocolate in the one we do, offset against the chilli you get an amazingly big, complex flavour. Lovely.
Standard red kidney beans will do in a pinch but black beans have a better texture.

Forget the quorn and just go for a 3 bean chilli similar to this
We’re all BBQd out after the weekend so having if tonight.

It’s adapted from a gordon ramsey meat one. As a meat eater I’m always suspicious of veggies who want to pretend to eat meat-a-like stuff and there is no way I would be caught buying it, so veg all the way!! Simple rules are to taste it as you go.