A vegetarian Mexican recipe with tons of flavour – a vegetarian bean chili!
Ingredients inspire dishes. My sudden love for Mexican cuisine is totally inspired by the tins of Chipotle Chillies in Adobo sauce that Nupur (One Hot Stove) was so sweet enough to gift me when she was visiting us in Mumbai last year, among many other gifts including a handmade Eggplant cap for Atri 🙂
Having never cooked Mexican food before, they were just lying at the back of my kitchen shelf for many many months. The day I opened the can and took a teeny taste of the contents, I was sold on this. One tin goes a long way and the large chillies soaked in adobo sauce are bursting with heat and smoky flavours, giving any Mexican recipe an authentic touch.
This Chili dish is something you can serve as a stew to eat with soft tortillas, top slices of bread or make it thinner and have it as a hearty soup on a cold evening. Whichever way, this is guaranteed to be a sureshot crowd pleaser and the spicy flavours will easily agree with the Indian palate.
Vegetarian Chili with black eyed peas
serves 6
Vegetarian chili made with black eyed peas and a Mexican Pizza
Ingredients
Method
- Finely chop the garlic, onion, mushrooms and capsicums.
- Fill a large pot with 2 L water. Score the tomatoes with a cross at the smooth end. Allow to come to a boil and drop the tomatoes. Once this comes to a simmer, turn off flame and cover for 2 minutes.
- Fish out the tomatoes and place them in tap/cold water, until cool enough to handle. Peel off skins and chop to a medium dice, seeds included.
- Heat the oil in a large wok. Saute the garlic for 30 seconds, before adding the onions, capsicums and mushrooms. On a medium flame, let these cook for 7-10 minutes with a pinch of salt added towards the end.
- Once the vegetables are nearly done, add the chopped blanched tomatoes, cooked black eyed peas, chopped chipotle / chillies and spice powders along with a tsp (or as per taste) of salt. Add 1/2-1 cup of water, cover with a lid and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
- Check for spiciness and salt, adjust the taste according to your preference and remove into a serving bowl. This chilli should be quite dried out if using as a pizza topping or else the base will get soggy. If serving with tortillas or rice, you can leave some amount of liquid in the chili.
- You can use black beans, kidney beans or any other beans instead of black eyed peas.
- For Pizza: Preheat oven to 200C. Spread the chilli over the base. Top with grated cheese and bake for 5-7 minutes, till cheese melts.
Aww I never missed chipotle in my life so much as I do right now. Chilly made with any kind of bean is a winner in my books! This is awesome,When I make Mexican inspired pizza…I make this salad with black, sweet corn and red cabbage with sour cream lime cilantro dressing and dollop it at the center of the pizza. People go gaga over it, if only they knew its so eaasy;)
Wonderful recipe. I am glad that you have created an Italian Mexican Fusion. I am sure it would have tasted awesome.
Everything looks oh so good! Let me know if anyone is visiting you from the US and I’ll send loads of chilies in adobo your way 🙂
Curious to know where did you find avocados in Hyd? (a lurker every now and then, came over from ur twitter page)Were they any good, or too hard. Would you recommend?
lovely and innovative one… http://akilaskitchen.blogspot.com Regards,Akila.
Kulsum-thanks for coming over to my blog and sharing your ideas – that salad does sound delicious – did you mean ‘black beans’ – a word has gotten left out. Don;t you get chipotle where you live right now?Srimathi – it tasted so full of flavour and spicy-we had fun eating this.Nupur-thank you SO much for introducing me to this one and I will let you know :)AA mom – welcome over to my blog – you find avocados in most places – heritage fresh / Q mart / Hypercity-inorbit mallThanks Akila
dear nandita, this sounds an interesting blend of ingredients and i will surely keep the chipotle chilies in mind, will check out if i can get here.FOODELICIOUS
Love this cuisine, love the flavors and you have created a mouthwatering buffet!
Hey, looks like someone is ‘subtly’ reposting your stuff as their own? Did you know this existed? http://samaiyal-kuripugal.blogspot.com/2011/02/vegetarian-chili-made-with-black-eyed.html