I’m not usually a huge fan of chili—I think that it may have something to do with chili’s role as the standard easy vegetarian option (read: I’ve eaten too much veggie chili in my lifetime…). Last spring, a friend of mine hosted a mini ‘Iron-Chef’ party. In short, everyone made a dish with a ‘secret ingredient’ and a winner of the best dish is declared. The secret ingredient was lime. I made a delicious kiwi-lime sorbet, but sadly did not win. Instead, an unusual veggie chili won. Not only did the chili have lime juice in it, but it also had mango chutney, peanut butter… and no chili powder. I’m not really sure that it constitutes a legit chili, but it does have beans, diced tomatoes, and jalapenos, so it certainly can pass. In any case, I got the recipe- a modified recipe from allrecipes.com that originally calls for cubed ham (!?!?). At the party, the cook subbed Boca crumbles, which seem more suitable than ham in chili anyways.
My version is even modified further, as I make my own homemade mango chutney, and leave out the brown sugar in the chili (the chutney has sugar, so it is still a spicy/sweet dish). This is another dish that both Mike and I can eat (and he even knows that it is faux meat in there…). The flavors are interesting and it keeps me satisfied for a while. Since I make the chutney it takes a bit more work than a standard chili that just involves chopping and tossing everything into one pot, but given that I’m on vacation this week, I could handle it.
Here are the recipe links (remember to sub Boca crumbles for ham):
· Mango Chutney (note that this makes just the right amount for the chili- about 9 oz. if you use 1 med-large mango). I also cut the brown sugar down to 2T from 3 in this recipe and omit the red pepper.
Enjoy!
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