veggie yum

My vegetarian chili
I like mine hot. I think I toned it down for this recipe, I don't remember. Either way, it's awesome.

* 2 tablespoons (2 turns around the pan) olive or vegetable oil
* 1 medium yellow skinned onion, chopped
* 1/2 red bell pepper, 1/2 yellow bell pepper (for color, you can use all red), seeded and chopped
* 1 large green pepper, seeded and chopped
* 2 chipotle peppers, smashed in pestle or with a spoon or chopped and 2 tsp adobo sauce (or more)
* 5 cloves garlic, pressed
* 1 1/2 c dos equis beer
* 1 cube vegetable bullion, crushed
* 2-12 oz cans diced tomatoes
* 1-12 oz can crushed tomatoes
* 1 (14-ounce) can black beans
* 1 (14-ounce) can kidney beans
* 1 tablespoon smoked hot paprika (if you can find it. it's sold at central market, CHEAP, and GOOD)
* 1 tablespoon ground cumin
* 2 tablespoons chili powder
* 1 few grinds fresh ground black pepper
* 1 teaspoon coarse salt
* 1 can vegetarian refried beans

Over medium-high heat, add oil to a deep pot and combine onion, peppers, and garlic. Saute for 3 to 5 minutes to soften vegetables. Add bullion to the beer, and add to pan. Add tomatoes, black beans, red kidney beans, and stirring to combine. Add the refried beans, but smash them in, you want them to break up nicely. Cook for like 3 minutes, Add chilis, adobo stuff, cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Simmer medium for 10 more minutes, COVERED, but with a cracked lid (to reduce, but this stuff SPLASHES), stirring like ever 2-3 min or the bottom will burn. Serve over rice or with chips.
OM NOM NOM NOM...


Tofu Scramble pockets
I had some made my Amy's and they were AWESOME. I tried to recreate it and theyTOO turned out good. I promise, this is way less work than it looks like. These freeze really well. Heat them up in the office and ahve everyone's nose stuck in your cubicle (until you tell them it's tofu, and then they scatter!)..

1 block light firm tofu
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp soysauce or tamari
black pepper
red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
olive oil
1/2 green pepper, diced
2 green onions, diced
1 handfull shittake mushrooms, de-stemmed, and chopped
1/2 red pepper, diced
pinch golden tumeric
pinch smoked or sweet paprika

for the dough
2 c unbleached all purpose flour, plus some
pinch salt
pinch smoked or sweet paprika
1/2 c warm water
1/2 c olive or sunflower oil

Make the dough.
You want it to have "just enough" flour, and it will have the consistency of an earlobe. Mix all dry ingredients together, add liquid ingredients, then gauge if you need more flour once it is all mixed. This is an oily dough, easy to manipulate with hands, and very elastic. if you add too much flour it won't stick together! If you aren't going to use it right away, keep it at room temp, putting it in the fridge makes it way less maliable.

Make the filling.
Drain tofu, and squeeze any extra moisture out by squeezing it between paper towels. Heat 1 tbsp or 2 of olive oil in a NONstick skillet to med/med-high. Crumble the tofu really well into the pan, and break it up a little more with a wooden spoon or spatula. Cook for about 5 min (this is to remove extra moisture from the tofu), then stir. Add a pinch of tumeric and paprika for color, and stir really well. Cook for another 4 or so min, so that you brown the tofu a little, stirring every min. Add onion, mushrooms, garlic, pepper, and peppers. Stir well and cook for another 4 or so min, turning occasionally, till onions begin to soften. Add red pepper flakes, honey, and soy sauce, and cook for another min or two (so that all liquid is absorbed), stirring constantly. Taste, and adjust seasoning if needed, but it should be a smidge salty because the dough should absorb some of the salt.

Assemble
Heat oven to 350 while you assemble this stuff.Get a greased cookie sheet or pan lined with nonstick aluminum foil. Divide the dough up into about 5 or 6 pieces (they should be slightly smaller than your fist). Either flatten by hand or roll each out and arrange on sheet. Fill with dough and fold over, kind of like an empenada. Brush with egg or butter or oil or something, and bake till golden... which i will find out how long that is in a bit.