Vegetarian Black Bean Chili with Roasted Corn and Anaheim Peppers

Vegetarian Black Bean Chili

Hello, dear readers! This is Tomás, the not-so-salty husband, filling in for our favorite culinaire as she powers through the eight weeks of Barbri in preparation for the ordeal that is the bar exam. Hopefully, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming very soon, but, in the mean time, SG was gracious enough to let me try my hand at this newfangled blogging thing that all the kids are talking about…

This recipe was born when a couple of buddies and I were stuck for over half an hour on a broken chairlift this past Saturday (a day, incidentally, with some of the finest powder I’ve ever seen in my two decades of skiing on the East Coast). By the time they hooked up a backup generator to get us down, our legs were so cold we couldn’t enjoy the gorgeous, gorgeous snow that we spent so long hovering above. Luckily, we had managed to get in four good hours before the lift broke, so we can’t really complain.

Anyway, back on the chairlift, we got to talking about all the wonderful things in the world that keep us warm–our spouses/significant others, bourbon, burgers, cheese fries–you get the picture. And it occurred to us that no one had volunteered to make chili for the big Super Bowl party the next day. Well, being the men of action that we are, we quickly moved to rectify the situation. My contribution was this vegetarian black bean chili, based on this recipe I found on Epicurious.

Grilled Anaheim peppersI’m a big fan of the black bean-and-corn combination in so many things (salsa, burritos, pizza), and, though I figured there’d be a few spice-averse Mid-Westerners at the party, I couldn’t bring myself to just do green bell peppers. The relatively mild Anaheims, then, provided just the right amount of heat–barely there, but not completely flat, either. Cocoa powder added a slight undertone of bitterness and richness that I really liked.

I should also note that the proprietress of this blog was not too fond of the amount of cumin and chili powder I used, but others didn’t mind it, so your mileage may vary.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound frozen corn
  • 4 Anaheim peppers, halved with seeds and stem removed
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 cups chopped onions
  • 8 garlic cloves, pressed
  • 4 teaspoons chili powder
  • 4 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 2 28-ounce cans of black beans
  • 3 14-ounce cans of diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • Salt

    • Preparation

    Preheat oven to 400F. Toss corn on a baking sheet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Roast in oven for 20 minutes, stirring once after 10 minutes.

    Caramelize peppers on a grill or skillet over medium-high heat for 15 minutes on each side (until slightly charred). Cut peppers into 1-inch chunks and set aside.

    Heat remaining olive oil in saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and saute for 10 minutes, until caramelized. Mix in garlic, spices, cocoa powder and Dijon mustard. Stir about 1 minute. Add beans, tomatoes, orange juice, corn, and peppers. Simmer over low-medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring often.

    Season with salt to taste. Serve with chopped fresh cilantro, hot sauce, and a dollop of plain yogurt or sour cream. Serves 6-8 hungry football fans.

    This entry was posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2009 at 11:49 am and is filed under Chili, Corn, beans, green pepper, recipes, tomatoes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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