This weekend is the Lone Star Vegetarian Chili Cook-Off. If I can find a way to get from South Austin all the way to Round Rock I am totally going. Last year my friend Molly from Scratch and Sniff won second place and I can’t wait to see how she does this year.
At my house we eat chili more than just about anything else. And that’s right Texans, we eat it with beans.
We used to have chili mac or frito pie but as time passed we learned we could mix them together into one fantastic carb lovers dish and now we typically have chili mac frito pie. Especially good when it is topped with avocado, cilantro and onions.
I love the chili at Dog Almighty, I know they won the cook-off one year but I can’t imagine having their chili without the side of their glorious tots that I love so much.
I also love the frito pie at wheatsville, tempeh chili covered in nooch. 
and the Vegan Yacht really takes the whole frito pie concept to the next level by putting it in a grilled burrito with avocado. My god it is good.
I read in the Tex-Mex cookbook that chili was invented in the San Antonio missions and that the very unusual ingredient for the time was cumin. He also said that Mexicans were at first turned off by Tex Mex food that contained cumin because they knew something tasted inauthentic. The spice traveled with slaves from the Canary islands and became so popular in Tex Mex cooking, and later Mexican, that it is hard to imagine that at first it was scorned.
THE GIVEAWAY
Tasty Bite wants to giveaway a pack of vegan food to one lucky person. They have fantastic, healthy vegan heat and eat food packets that are perfect to bring to the office for lunch or eat on those lazy days. They have all kinds of new flavors too, like Malaysian Lodeh and Mushroom Takatak.
To enter, just comment on Lazy Smurf’s Guide and tell me where you got your recipe for chili that you use the most and/or in what form you enjoy chili. I wonder if anyone else out there eats frito mac chili pie? The winner will be drawn at random next Friday November 12th and Tasty Bite will ship you an assortment of vegan items but you must have a US address. And make sure when you fill out the comment form you put in your email so that I can contact you if you win!
Lazy Smurf's Guide 
Yummy chili eats. I like the first one with elbow macaroni! My Go-to chili recipe is my own with crumbled tempeh with more of a sweetness of BBQ and a some heat to it!! I need to make some again! Yum!! Thanks for the giveaway!
Chili mac frito pie is brilliant! I know what I’m doing with any chili leftovers I have this year.
My sister-in-law makes a really good bean chili and I like Dog Almighty’s, but I have to admit it feels really strange to have beans in my chili.
i hope you find the chili cook-off as well – i bet it’ll be one helluva deliciously good time! we also love all things chili, and our go-to chili recipe is our own: with spicy tvp, red & yellow & green peppers, and 3-4 kinds of beans. dan loves to spice it up with a habanero and some sriracha to insure we burn our faces off (the reason i let the same guy who consistenty orders thai hot spice up our chili escapes me at the moment). ah ha ha! growing up we used to serve our chili over rice, and my new favorite is smothering baked potaoes with it and the topping it all of with cheeze sauce, but i feel kinda dumb for never thinking to make chili mac or frito pie. i can’t believe i haven’t experienced either of those delicious phenomenons and i see another batch of chili being created in the near future for both the mac & frito yumminesses. frito pie inside a grilled burrito with avocado sounds like heaven. oh yes, and tots. oooooh, tots! w00t!
I love chili, but don’t have a go-to recipe because I love it to be different every time! Isa made a really good lentil and root veggie chili that I would like to try though. I usually do lots of beans, but I love putting rehydrated TVP in chili as well. My favorite form is in a bowl, scooping it up with some multigrain Tostitos! But boy do those tots look good.
If I’m making it the same night I go with a lager 3-bean chili from the reFresh cookbook. If I’m making it early I make a variation of the black bean chili in the Vegetarian Slow-Cooker book by Robin Robertson.
We love chili as well. Usually we just serve it with cornbread and then eat leftovers on top of baked potatoes. I’ve been wanting to try on top of baked sweet potatoes too, and now that I see all these creative ideas I may need to try them!
My chili recipe evolved out of using the chili kits. I’d start with them, and then add spices until it tasted better. One day I decided I didn’t need the kit, and just started throwing ingredients and spices in until it smelled/tasted right – so I guess it’s not really a recipe, so much as a vague guide 🙂
TOTS!
I love chili so much. Pretty sure I’m going to make some next week.
I don’t think I’ve ever made the same chili recipe twice! I read so many amazing blogs and they’re always posting new recipes to try, that it would be sacreligious not to make them! 🙂
Wow, wonderful pictures!
I like to make chili in the crockpot and eat it later with cornbread. My favorite recipe so far as always been an improvised version.
Chili! Molly recently sent me some chili fixins and a recipe that I have yet to try. My standard one is something I got from the PPK years ago but I tend to throw a lot of random stuff in when I make chili. More beans! More TVP! Why not?
Also, thank you for posting tots.
Ooooh chili! I wish it weren’t so hot where I live. So many MoFo-ers are making these awesome fall foods that I don’t even want to think about in 90 degree weather! Ah well. My go-to chili is based on my mom’s recipe. Lots of beans, but she also uses meat. And corn. There has to be corn. I’ve had success subbing boca crumbles, tvp, and tempeh for the ground beef, but what I use usually depends on my mood. If I’m feeling really fancy, I make the chili mole from VWAV.
Wow, pretty pretty pictures. My favorite chili recipe is from the old Silver Palate New Basics cookbook. I haven’t deviated much from it yet, but I have all kinds of cool beans from Rancho Gordo that might make it even better!
AWESOME give-away. I love me some chili.
Your pictures are always beautiful, but that first one makes me hungry, too. Very, very hungry!
I have a easy “Pantry” chili recipe I made. I love it as frito pies or frito burritos or straight up with cornbread. This weather is perfect for chili. 🙂
I love spicy chili with a variety of beans poured over a baked potato. I think I love my dad’s the best it’s consistent, mom’s is usually too experimental for me. Dad’s has the right kind of beans with onion, garlic and celery. I really enjoy celery in chili although I has no idea what if anything it actually brings to the dish.
Mmmmmmmmmm…can’t wait to get back to Austin. I devoured the frito pie at The Vegan Yacht last week, but I LOVE your chili mac frito pie idea–I’m all over that carboliciousness!
My vegan chili recipe is my own invention, and it evolves every time I make it. I used to make it with TVP, but next time, I think I’ll make it with seitan instead. Yummmmm.
xoxo,
LJ
Actually, I meant tempeh. Time to step away from the computer…LOL.
My favorite chili recipe is one my husband found for me on the internet, and he can’t remember where he got it. I’ve been using it forever and I have NO idea who gets credit for it!
My favorite chili recipe I’ve only ever tasted, it’s a cajun chili with crushed fritos on top, and my beau’s father made it one time! It was SO good, spicy, crunchy, yummmm!
My favorite chili is the one from Dreena Burton’s Vive le Vegan. it has 4 tablespoons of cumin–YUM! I can’t imagine Mexican food separate from cumin.
All those look so good! I too, make a different one everytime it seems, but I’m going to take the suggestions of some of the commentors here too.
I love eating 3-bean chilli with cornbread. I kind of just sort of come up with my own chilli creations and haven’t found a particular recipe I like most as of yet.
i love chili with cornbread, and my chili better have lots of beans in it and be spicy!
Wow, I’ve never had chili mac or frito pie, but now I’m inspired to change that. And my favorite chili recipe is from my father, who makes it ALL. THE. TIME.
drool. those pictures are fantastic
I prefer my chili as spicy as possible, maybe with some fritos thrown in (or a la frito pie), and a side of corn bread.
BUT the thing that trumps the above, my most favourite chili is the kind made by someone else. I don’t really care what’s in it, as long as it’s vegan. It tastes 100times better if someone makes it for me 🙂
My favorite chili recipe is from A Beautiful Bowl of Soup by Paulette Mitchell. We like to eat it with tortilla chips and corn bread. I make some modifications to it – taking some things out and putting some things in, but I like the base of the recipe.
I don’t make chili often, but when I do there has to be tortilla chips for dipping. Absolutely necessary!
That Dog Almighty chili next to those tots is the best picture I’ve seen all day!
I usually start with Fantastic Foods chili dry mix and add lots of tomato juice, dark beer, kidney beans, smoked tofu, roasted corn, carrots…I don’t have a set recipe and it never turns out the same way twice. But I do put elbow mac in the bottom of the bowl and nutritional yeast or Parma! on top.
I read abt the chili cookoff in VegNews. Wish I didn’t live in Tennessee! Hope it was fun and lots of good eats.
I actually found mine on Food Network. It’s a Rachel Ray recipe (Veg-Head Three-Bean Chili) and it’s surprisingly good — we skip the cheese, sour cream, etc., of course, but do love to add avocado as a topping. Adding refried beans to the chili really adds a delicious texture/element. I also love topping it with diced no-heat pickled jalapenos.
My favorite chili to make is a slow cooker version that I put together at night. Typically there are 2 types of beans (my favorites are black and garbanzo), tomato sauce, fire-roasted diced tomatos, quinoa, pickled jalepenos, cinnamon, chili powder, cheyenne, basil, oregano and crushed red pepper. I love chili in any form! In a bowl, on my eggs, over potatoes, noodles, rice, etc. My new faavorite topping for chili is Holy Land’s jalepeno hummus.
I like to make multi-bean chili – starting with dried beans. And, we particularly like it when there is enough for a homemade tamale pie the next day.
My chili comes from a recipe I threw together, and have tweaked over the years. It’s bean-heavy, with lots of veggies, olives, onion/garlic, adobo, and sometimes a bit of vegan chorizo. I serve it over Spanish or white rice w/cumin seeds.
This is my favorite chili recipe:
(link) http://kuntrageous.blogspot.com/2010/10/vegan-butternut-squash-and-black-bean.html
Vegan Butternut Squash and Black Bean Chili Recipe
I threw the following into a crock pot and let it go:
2 lb of butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed (1/2 to 1 inch cubes)
1 yellow onion, diced
1 purple or yellow bell pepper
1 shallot, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 28 oz can of organic tomatoes (do not drain)
4 T tomato paste
1 1/2 c frozen corn kernels
1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce
3 cans of organic black beans, rinsed (about five cups total)
2 cups of Imagine No-Chicken Stock OR 1 c stock, one beer
1 c water
Spices, this is the mixture I use; the amounts and spices are based on what comes in the Two Alarm Chili Kit, which is what my mom always used when I was growing up. If you don’t often cook with all the spices below; you really can’t go wrong with this kit; just ignore the part where it says what else goes in the chili.
3 T chili powder
1 T + 1 t cumin
2 t smoked paprika
2 t cocoa powder, make sure there are no lumps!
1 t salt (+/- to taste)
1 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder
1 t mexican oregano (if you do not have the mexican variety; i would omit this)
3/4 t chipotle chili powder; but if you don’t like spicy food, start with 1/8 t and increase the amount after a half hour of simmering; flavors amplify the longer something cooks
I left this in the crock pot for hours; if you make it on the stove top; you won’t have to cook this for more than an hour; if the mixture is too thick for you; add more liquid, like a beer-which is what I typically do instead of using all water as a liquid. If the mixture is too thin for your taste; mix 3 T masa (corn flour) with 1/4 c warm water, combine well, then add to the chili and simmer for 15 more minutes.
If you make this on the stove; you’re obviously going to want to saute your onion, pepper, shallot and garlic in about a tablespoon of olive oil; then toast your spices before adding the rest of your ingredeints. Thicken with masa at the end.
I like my chili loaded with jalapenos, and then some more jalapenos. I’m a Texas veg chili gal too. Except I’m in Houston and it ain’t easy to find a good veg chili anywhere beyond my kitchen. My recipe starts with the prettiest peppers in the market and whatever beans sound tasty. Lately I’ve been putting baked sweet potato and serranos in my recipe. I think a few mushrooms also add a nice heartiness to it. And beer of course. Yum!
I like it nice n easy. Crumbled soy, beans, chopped stewed tomatoes, onions and garlic simmered for about an hour with chili seasoning packet (medium) from “Tear of Joy” in Austin, TX.
Depending on my mood I top with green or white onions, pickled peppers and or carrots.
Yee hawww
My absolute favorite chili recipe is Tami’s from “American Vegan Kitchen.” Lots of seitan, chipotles, and even some cocoa! I usually eat it with a big slice of the V’Con skillet cornbread (jalapeño version).
Yeah, Chili! I went to the NASA chili cook off last year…sorry I missed this one!