Easy Three-Bean Vegetarian Chili

Soups, stews, and chilis are my favorite things about fall--well, aside from sweaters and scarves anyway.  I love eating steaming bowls full of veggie goodness that warm you from the inside.  There are very few things that give me more pleasure.  With that in mind, I've decided to share my vegetarian chili recipe.  It's adapted from The New Moosewood Cookbook.  One thing that Mollie Katzen does right without fail is hot stuff like soups, stews, and chilis.  This one is a version of hers made even simpler by using canned beans and more flavorful by adding a few of my own touches, like using V-8 instead of plain old tomato juice.  Plus, the V-8 lets me ditch the celery because, to be honest, I'm not wild about the stuff.  I think it was all those forced grade-school snacks of celery and peanut butter.  Just thinking about it grosses me out.  This chili, though, is far from gross, especially if you serve it over whole wheat spaghetti and cover it in sharp cheddar cheese.  Yum!

Easy Three-Bean Vegetarian Chili

• 3 15-oz. cans of beans—1 each of kidney, black, & pinto
• 1 cup V-8 (more can be added in step 4)—feel free to use Spicy V-8, the organic stuff from Knudsen, or just plain tomato juice
• 1 cup uncooked bulger wheat
• 2 tbs. olive oil
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 6 to 8 large cloves garlic, minced (ok to use garlic from a jar, ½ tsp.=1 clove)
• 1 medium carrot (or more), diced
• 2 tsp. cumin
• 2 tsp. basil
• 2 tsp. chili powder (more to taste)
• 1 tsp. salt (more to taste)
• black and cayenne pepper, to taste
• 1 ½ bell pepper—use red, green, orange or, yellow in any combination
• 1 14½-oz. can diced tomatoes
• 3 tbs. tomato paste (½ a small can)
• grated cheese for the top—sharp cheddar is great

1. Heat the V-8 to boiling.  Add it to the bulgur in a small bowl, cover, and let stand for at least 15 minutes .  (You can do this step before you begin chopping the onions.)
2. In a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil.  Add onion, carrot, seasonings, and half of the garlic.  Sauté over medium heat for approximately 5 minutes, then add bell pepper, and sauté until the peppers are tender, about 5-7 minutes more.
3. While the veggies are sautéing, use a colander to rinse the beans thoroughly under running water.  Keep rinsing until the water coming out of the colander is clear and the beans have ceased bubbling.
4.  Once the peppers are tender (but not soft or mushy), add the tomatoes (au jus), tomato paste, bulger, and beans to the contents of the Dutch oven.  Gently stir until mixed.  (At this point, you can add more V-8 if you want to make the chili less thick.)
5. Simmer over very low heat, stirring occasionally for approximately 30 minutes longer.  After 15 minutes, add the remaining garlic.  Taste and adjust seasonings, then serve hot with grated cheese, if you like.  For a yummy change, serve the chili over spaghetti.  If this appeals to you, I suggest using whole wheat spaghetti, which is healthier and just as delicious.  Even if whole wheat spaghetti isn’t usually your thing, the chili will cover any difference in flavor.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Generally speaking, I'm more of a French toast girl than a pancake girl.  Perhaps it is because French toast and grilled cheese are the first things I learned to cook back when I was about 5 years old.  In any case, living with roommate over the past year, I've gotten into the habit of making pancakes on the weekend.  I've tried a few recipes and have come to the conclusion buttermilk is a must.  Plain old pancakes are just blah.  Also blah are mixes.  I haven't used one of them in years.  Besides, it doesn't make sense to spend money on a mix when homemade pancakes can be made with ingredients I keep in the house anyway and taste so much better.

The recipe I've come up with has the benefit of being small.  It probably makes 6 to 8 pancakes depending on the size.  The recipe makes enough food for my roommate and me with enough batter left over for me to have a second batch the next morning.  Also, because it is small, it doesn't take much in the way of ingredients, so even if you have only one egg in the fridge, you can make these.  This recipe isn't my best recipe, but it is good.  It's especially good if you add fruit.  I like to put the fruit right into the batter instead of just on top.  You can use fresh or frozen, but out of fear of having half-frozen berries in the middle of my cooked pancake, I defrost the frozen ones first.  When I'm in a hurry, I do this by putting the berries in a ziploc baggie and running warm water over them.  They don't have to be completely defrosted, just enough that the heat of the stove can do the rest.

Buttermilk Pancakes

• 1 cup cake flour (You can use all-purpose, but the pancakes are more tender with cake flour.)
• 1-2 tbsp sugar (I go with one, but I once used 2 by accident, and it was fine if you like them sweeter.)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp.baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 tbsp of melted butter or canola oil (I like to do 1 tbsp of each.)

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, but don't get too zealous or you'll end up with flour all over the place.  Add egg and buttermilk, and begin whisking together.  Once everything is wet and lumpy, add the butter/canola oil to smooth it out.  Mix until most of the lumps are gone.

2. Heat a skillet on medium for a few minutes until the pan is good and hot.  (By trial and error, I've come to know how hot this is, and it's probably best for you to figure it out yourself, too.)  Pour 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter into the skillet.  Let the pancake cook till bubbles begin to form and edges look dry.  Using a spatula, flip it over and cook until done. 

A final word to the wise: Do not turn up the heat so your pancakes will cook faster.  You'll end up with the outside cooked and the inside runny.  When I first started making pancakes in my teenage years, I often ended up with pancakes whose middles were uncooked.  Finally, my mom saw what I was doing, reached over, and turned down the stove.  I've never had that problem since.