Sunday, June 28, 2009

Soyrizo Chili Sauce Stuff

I had a ton of tomatoes from the farmer's market and am growing my own basil, so, I thought I'd make a pasta sauce. However, because I had a bunch of soyrizo left from a previous meal of egg/soyrizo tacos, it turned into a chili-esque mixture.

Ingredients:

couple tbs. olive oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
bunch of tomatoes, diced
garlic powder
several shakes chili powder
palmful of cumin
a bunch of fresh-cracked pepper
2 cups or so of water
1 hearty scoop of Better than Bouillion (vegan)
2 cans of beans (I used navy beans and black beans.)
palmful of fresh basil
1/4 cup or so ground flax

I sauteed the onion in the olive oil until there was slight browning. I added the tomato, garlic (I normally use fresh but only had powder), a ton of pepper, cumin (this is how it turned into chili instead of Italian sauce), and chili powder for a few seconds to get oils going. Then I dumped in water and the bouillion. I let this stew for at least 30 minutes on low heat to break up the tomato. I had added a little salt to help this process, but found it to be way too salty at the end, so I wouldn't add any salt. This is how I ended up adding an extra can of beans to help cut it some.

After it looked to be sauce consistency, I added the beans, soyrizo, and basil and let that warm through another 10 minutes or so.

I added the ground flax at the very end because I don't like to cook it too long.

This turned out to be pretty delicious even though I was combining two different ideas (Italian and Mexican). My only complaint was it was way too salty, which I'm guessing was the soyrizo and the fact that I added salt to it in the beginning.

I ended up using it the next day at work for our barbecue. I put it on a Smart Dog on a wheat bun and it was delish. My own version of a (vegan) chili dog. A squirt of mustard made it complete!

A couple of my coworkers even braved it with some corn chips (it made a great dip as well as topping or main dish). They usually turn their nose up at anything I make/bring because food with no meat is soooo weird!