Perfectly Seasoned

S3 E35 Vegetarian Chili

Greg Strahm, The Silver Chef

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0:00 | 10:04
SPEAKER_03

Hello and welcome to Perfectly Seasoned, the podcast about all things culinary. I'm your personal chef, Greg Strom, along with Home Cook Deanne Fredericson. And her husband, Matt Frederickson, and my husband, Tim Luke. And I'm Greg Strom. Today it's time for another recipe in our chili challenge, which is going quite well. Today it's a vegetarian chili. Stay tuned. So, how many chilies have we had now? We've had maybe six or seven.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, easily.

SPEAKER_03

So, and we have the rest of the year to go. It works out to be about every four weeks we have a chili challenge. Right.

SPEAKER_06

So I'm excited.

SPEAKER_03

This week we're doing a vegetarian chili, and we'll be talking about that after we go to anything on a stick. And today I decided to do a Reuben on a stick. Now that was a a bit of a challenge, I thought, but turns out to be pretty good, I think. What does everybody think?

SPEAKER_04

Oh my goodness. This is really good.

SPEAKER_03

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06

I actually really like the Brussels sprout.

SPEAKER_03

This was actually from Takes Two to Tapas. This is also another one that's very simple to do. You take a piece of uh corned beef and you cut it length, split it in half lengthwise. And then what you do is you put in the drained sauerkraut at one end and you roll it so it looks like a little cigar. And then you split the Brussels sprouts and you roast them with a little olive oil and salt and pepper until they're just nice and you know, you can stick a toothpick in them and they're kind of soft, but they're not mushy. They're still green. Yes. Yes. And then all you do is you put a piece of one half of the Brussels sprout on the first on the skewer, then you put the rolled corned beef, and then you put your cigar. Yeah. You put the other half of the Brussels sprout on the other end, and then you make a Thousand Island dressing. And I recommend making the Thousand Island. It's very easy, but it tastes so much better than a bottle. It really tastes like and you just drizzle that over the top of it, and it's really, really good.

SPEAKER_06

It is really good. I like it.

SPEAKER_03

Really good.

SPEAKER_06

I love sour corn beef. It's an easy winner corned beef or pastrami or whatever. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Well, my whole thing is since you know, this is usually Sally's segment, and I I just always count on Sally to come up with something interesting. And I thought, well, okay, Sally, she's they're they're not here this week. So we're I thought, well, I'm gonna step up. This is very step up. Yeah. This is really good. So is there anything you'd change about it? No. You don't think it needs bread?

SPEAKER_04

I don't think it's bread. No, I actually don't.

SPEAKER_02

No, you really don't notice that the the rye bread isn't there. Yeah. I agree. Maybe some Swiss cheese.

SPEAKER_06

Oh instead of I actually almost thought there was cheese in there. That's funny.

SPEAKER_05

No, but instead of the Brussels sprout at the end, maybe just a little bit of a space.

SPEAKER_03

No, you know what I'd do? Okay. I would I would do the same thing. I'd take a thin slice of Swiss, split it, so that it fits on the the piece of corned beef, then roll it. Yeah, roll it. Very thin Swiss. Yep. And the reason I ask about the bread is because one of the the last last week's segment we did BLT on a stick. And it turns out that the bread was got in the way.

SPEAKER_04

Huh. That there was a little much.

SPEAKER_03

I think it was uh don't you think it got in the way?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, unless you can do it like a pinwheel or something, bread on a stick is so hard. Yeah. So I like this with the Brussels sprout.

SPEAKER_05

And I do like the Swiss cheese idea.

SPEAKER_06

I think if you find that the Swiss doesn't roll well, you could always put it in between the meat and the Brussels sprout, like a little square of it.

SPEAKER_03

I like that. I'm gonna incorporate that into my into the recipe, which you can find on my website, thesilvershef.net, along with the photograph and the complete recipe. That being said, let's head to the chili. We're actually, for the first time, we're actually going to be doing a live taste test. So everybody.

SPEAKER_06

And it's my first vegetarian chili I've ever had. Spoons at the ready. Here we go. Always had meat in my chili.

SPEAKER_04

Wow. I I do like okay.

SPEAKER_03

Talk amongst yourselves. What do you think?

SPEAKER_06

It's got a good level of spice, it's very smoky.

SPEAKER_03

Mm-hmm. Smoky paprika.

SPEAKER_06

Uh-huh. I can taste the paprika. Is there any ancho chili powder in here?

SPEAKER_03

Mm-mm. It's regular chili powder. I can't. It's regular regular chili powder.

SPEAKER_06

There's cumin.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

I don't even realize there's no meat in this because it is so hearty.

SPEAKER_06

I will say all the vegetables are cut appropriately, which I knew you would do. They're all cooked perfectly. There's nothing that's undercooked or overcooked. Yeah, everything's kind of perfect together.

SPEAKER_05

It's the firmness that I really like. And I think that's what gives you that meat that's garbanzo beans in there.

SPEAKER_06

And I love garbanzo beans.

SPEAKER_03

The sweet potato, I find, gives you the illusion that you are biting into a piece of meat.

SPEAKER_06

Right.

SPEAKER_03

Because it it it does. It just does that little bite. So I do like this. I I mean I like this change.

SPEAKER_05

And I like all the different, the, the, all, all of the spices. Yeah. That are in this. That that is it all comes together. It pulls together very nicely.

SPEAKER_06

I love the corn in there too. I just I love corn. I love vegetables, except for beets.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, there are beets in there.

SPEAKER_06

No, there's not. Look at her face. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03

No. Gotcha. So okay, well, this is a this is definitely an official entrance or entrance in the chili challenge. And the next chili channel challenge, I have somebody who wants to enter a venison chili. So we'll we'll have to try it too. Well, it's always been a challenge for Cynthia to come up with something to serve with chili, other than my favorite beer. But she always does. Always comes through with something. Always does. So let's see what she has to say. Hello again, Cynthia.

SPEAKER_00

Hello.

SPEAKER_03

Well, what do you have for us for our vegetarian chili this morning?

SPEAKER_00

Well, you know, why don't we review the ingredients? Tell me what's in it, and I'll come up with a couple pairings.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, okay. Well, let's see. Celery, carrots, sweet potato, zucchini, chili powder, oregano, and cumin. Curry powder and Guinness stout. And of course a tomato base. Ooh. So there's a lot. There's a lot going on.

SPEAKER_00

There is a lot going on. Okay. Well, I immediately kind of think honestly, a rose would be really nice.

SPEAKER_05

That's an interesting choice.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I think rose could be really, really good too. If you're looking for a red, maybe a zin findel. So that's gonna have the juicy red black fruit, a little bit of spice in the zin will like play really well with the chili flavors without overwhelming all the vegetable aspects in that. So I think that could be really delicious. Or a Syrah. The smokiness, the pepper notes will tie beautifully into that chili seasoning. Could be really, really nice pairing as well.

SPEAKER_03

It seems like they all have one thing in common. They're kind of fruity.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I think that plush red fruit really pulls out all the flavors of that chili. So, and to complement the ingredients about overpowering.

SPEAKER_03

Well, you you know what my favorite go-to drink is with chili. I don't know how many times I've said this, but it's beer. But it is.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, also great. Also great.

SPEAKER_05

Right. Yeah. Well, you have it in the ingredients here. You have the Guinness Dout that you put it there.

SPEAKER_00

Also true.

SPEAKER_03

That's true. So you are having it. Yes, okay. Okay. Okay. I relent. I'll have a I'll have to try this with a with a nice rose and see how we like it. Okay, Cynthia. Thanks so much. And until our next wine o'clock. My pleasure. Have a terrific weekend and pop a nice couple of corks in the meantime.

SPEAKER_00

You know I will.

SPEAKER_03

Okay. Bye now.

SPEAKER_00

Cheers.

SPEAKER_03

If you have any questions about today's recipe or if you'd like to be a guest home cook on Perfectly Seasoned, please email me at infoathesilversh.net. I want to thank my co-hosts and all of the people in the Peanut Gallery today. You can listen to Perfectly Season on my website, thesilverchef.net, or my Facebook page, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcast. This is Greg Strom. Thanks for joining us today. And remember, eat fresh, may the fork be with you, and may all your days be perfectly seasoned.