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Vegan Chile recipe

  • Dried Chicken of the woods mushrooms ~1 oz
  • Dried chiles, to taste, I use 2 large ancho chiles
  • 1 small sweet potatoe or apple
  • 1 medium red potatoe
  • 1 cup dried black beans
  • 1 cup dried navy beans or great northern beans
  • 1 medium sweet red onion
  • 2 tbsp #1 fine red Bulgar wheat (optional)
Ingredients for Vegan Chile laid out on counter
Several of the ingredients need to soak overnight in water

Start this recipe the evening before you will cook it by soaking 1, the two types of beans, 2, the dried chiken of the woods mushrooms and 3, the dried chiles in water overnight. Use enough water to cover the ingreedients after they are reconstituted.

  • after 8 to 12 hours the chicken of the woods is nice and spongy! Setup the coarse grate and grind the “meat” as shown below, reserving liquid remaining
"meat" grinder loaded with chicken of the woods mushrooms
Grind the mushrooms into ground “meat”

Next heat some oil in a large skillet, cast iron over real fire is what I prefer to use. Add the ground “meat” along with both taters and onion, all diced in small cubes, and fry untill fragrant over medium heat. Add the reserved liquid along with spices to taste, use the same spice selection that you would use for a meat based chile, salt, chile powder, cummin, corriander, and I like to add some ground sumac. Simmer this mixture until the onions are translucent, the taters are just starting to soften and the liquid is mostly absorbed. While the mixture is simmering, get the large crock pot going, add the soaked beans, but not their water, fresh water is prefered, about 4 cups is a good starting point, this chile will absorb more water than your used too, so dont be afraid of it apearing very thin at the early stages. Use plenty of salt, again the mushrooms will absorb more than you think. Puree the reconstituted chiles, and add them along with your “meat” mixture to the crock, stir and set crock to cook as slow as you can, but with a min cook time of 6 hours.

Beautiful vegan chile
Beautiful Vegan Chile