Smokin’ Raw Chili Chill Chaser
I just finished eating this raw chili for lunch for the second day in a row. The first day I ate it at room temperature and all the spices and chile peppers gave me all the heat I needed. But today, after coming in from a very snowy day, I heated it up for an hour in the dehydrator. After it had spent the night in the fridge it needed the chill taken off as much as I did! This is not verboten. That’s what the dehydrator is for: making sure those enzymes stay intact and you still get to have something warm when it strikes your fancy. In the winter, it strikes mine alot.
It also makes for a meal thats super easy to pass off onto the children without much interrogation. “Is it raw?”, they’ll ask. And I’ll just say, “check it out; it’s warm.” I put the bowls down, they eat it and no one is the wiser. Sometimes getting your family to eat healthy is a little matter of healthy deception. This is also not verboten. Once they eat it and they like it, you can tell them it was raw and everyone will be suitably incredulous. My parents used to do this kind of thing with me and my sister all the time. Whenever they thought we might not eat a particular dish, they’d say it was made with familiar things we liked to get us to eat it. Only afterwards would they tell us we’d just eaten ants or something. We went all over the world like that.
Certainly, the one thing missing from this chili is – you guessed it – beans! But, if you plan in advance, you can sprout some mung beans and throw them into the ‘pot’ as well. I didn’t plan in advance at all. So isn’t it nice to know that you can whip something up, quick and easy and still have a great, hardy meal that’ll stand up to any blustery day? As far as I’m concerned, anything more is just gravy.
RAW VEGAN RECIPE: Smokin’ Raw Chili Chill Chase
FOR THE RAW CHILI SAUCE:
2 cups sun-dried tomatoes (dry, not in oil)
2 cups chopped tomatoes
3/4 Tablespoon chili powder
1 Tablespoon hot paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon raw turbinado sugar
2 tablespoons coconut aminos
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
dash of cayenne pepper
pinch salt
Soak sun-dried tomatoes in warm water for an hour till they plump up and rehydrate. Chop roughly.
Combine all ingredients in a Vitamix or high-speed blender and process till smooth, tamping down a few times throughout processing to make sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
FOR THE RAW CHILI:
corn kernels cut from 3 medium corn cobs
1/2 cup poblano pepper
1/2 cup bell pepper ( red, orange or yellow)
1/4 cup celery, diced small
1/2 cup zuchinni, diced small
1/4 cup carrot, diced small
1/2 cup red onion, diced small
1/4 cup cilantro, minced
Combine all ingredients and mix together well.
RAW CHILI TOPPING:
3.4 cup cremini mushrooms, diced
4 scallions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 avocado, diced
Combine vinegar, and garlic. Whisk in olive oil. Pour over mushrooms and scallions and toss to coat well. This can be made ahead and let sit as you make the rest of the resipe.
TO ASSEMBLE RAW CHILI:
Cobine sauce with the raw chili, folding to coat vegetables thoroughly. Top with a scattering of marinated mushrooms and avocado.
Note: You may choose to warm this dish up a little in the dehydrator, If so, do not warm with toppings. Put these on after chili is warmed.
SERVES 2-4
