Great Bowls of Fire

Vegan Black Bean and Sweet Potato

"I always like to have something sweet in any tomato-based soup to balance the acidity of the tomatoes," says Stacey Pickering, who co-owns the vegan catering and personal chef service Lakeside Daisy with partner Christine Halpin. Sweet potatoes do the trick in her vegan chili recipe.

Lakeside Daisy's Vegan Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili
Servings: 4-6

1 cup dry black beans (or 2 cans)
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1 large sweet potato, diced
2 medium tomatoes (2 cups, or 1 1/2 cans), blanched and diced
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large carrot, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
2 cups stock or water
1 small red pepper, diced
1 cup sweet corn
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
1/4 tablespoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon powdered chipotle (or to taste)
Pinch cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped, plus whole leaves for garnish
1 lime, juiced (or to taste)
1 teaspoon plus 1 tablespoon sea salt
Black pepper, to taste
Avocado slices (optional)

Soak black beans six to 12 hours. Drain, rinse, cover with water and bring to a boil, then simmer until tender (about 45 minutes to an hour). Add 1 teaspoon sea salt in last 15 minutes of cooking. While beans simmer, heat sunflower oil in pot. Add onion and saute until translucent. Stir in garlic, carrots, celery, cumin, coriander, chipotle, cinnamon and salt until evenly coated in oil and spices. Add 1/2 tablespoon water, then cover pot to let vegetables sweat for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and simmer 10-15 minutes. Add sweet potatoes, remaining stock or water and sea salt; bring to boil and simmer 5 minutes. Add black beans with 1 cup of their cooking liquid, red pepper and corn. Simmer 10 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender. Turn off heat. Stir in thyme, cilantro, black pepper and lime juice. Ladle into bowls. Garnish with cilantro leaves and avocado slices. Add some extra creaminess with a dollop of locally made Red Lotus Vegan Sour Cream.

Smoky Short Rib

Tim Van Arsdale won this past year's 20th annual Great Medina County Chili Cookoff and took home $500 for his nonprofit, Cups Cafe, with this meaty recipe cooked up with a volunteer. "We sat down and had a few beers and just scratched it out on the fly," he says. Inventive sides such as habanero jam and whipped cilantro sour cream sealed the victory.

Great Medina County Chili Cookoff winner Tim Van Arsdale's Smoky Short Rib Chili

4 pounds boneless beef short ribs (trimmed and cut into 1 1/2- to 2-inch cubes)
Dry rub: 2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon chipotle chile powder
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
Chile base: 8 slices bacon, diced
4 cup onion, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon beef base
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
2 jalapeno peppers, stem, seeds and ribs removed then minced
1 tablespoon instant coffee
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon hot sauce
2 14-ounce cans of diced tomato
1 14-ounce can black beans
1 14-ounce can kidney beans
1 14-ounce can pinto beans
1 14-ounce can navy beans
Bacon corn dodgers, cilantro whipped sour cream and habenero jam, for garnish

Combine the dry rub ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Add the beef to the dry rub and toss to cover evenly. Smoke the beef cubes in a smoker or over wood chips in foil pouch on a gas grill over indirect heat for about 1 hour. Cook bacon in a heavy-bottomed 8-quart pot or Dutch oven until crisp. Remove bacon pieces, but leave bacon grease in the pan. Add onions and cook until caramelized. Add remaining ingredients, including smoked beef, to the pot and simmer, covered, until beef is tender or for about two hours. Serve in bowls rimmed with additional dry rub and topped with bacon.

Chicken Chili Verde

Though Souper Market has a great regular beef chili with lots of beans and three types of meat, chef and owner Matt Moore wanted to make something for diners who prefer chicken. So he and sous chef Matthew Jozsa created a Southwest version with tomatillos and two types of beans. "We added a little twist and put some jerk seasoning in it," says Moore. "It's a huge hit."

Souper Market's Chicken Chili Verde
Yields about 1 gallon

2-4 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 cup minced garlic
2 large jalapeno peppers, minced
1 1/2 pounds ground chicken
1 quart chicken stock
1 15-ounce can cannellini beans
1 15-ounce can spicy chili beans
1 15-ounce can kidney beans
About 10 Anaheim peppers
12 to 15 tomatillos, or two 28-ounce cans
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
2-4 tablespoons ancho chili powder
2 tablespoons regular chili powder
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup Sriracha sauce
1/4 cup green Tabasco sauce
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in an 8-quart pot until hot. Add ground chicken and brown, then add all the vegetables, stirring until lightly tender. Add vinegar to deglaze the pot, then add stock and remaining ingredients. Stir well and simmer approximately 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary. To smooth out, stir in about half a cup of sour cream. Serve with another dollop of sour cream or your favorite cheese on top.

Pork and GreenChorizo

It makes sense that Michael Nowak, executive chef and owner of the Black Pig, would use pork shoulder in his chili. But he goes a step further by adding green chorizo sausage ground with jalapenos and fresh herbs from Lakewood's La Plaza supermarket. "It has all the flavor that you'd expect out of chorizo [with] such a fresh taste," says Nowak.

The Black Pig's Pork and Green Chorizo Chili
Serves 10-12

1 pound pork shoulder, diced
1 1/2 pounds green chorizo sausage, removed from casing
1 medium to large onion, small diced
3 poblano chilies small diced
1 serano chili, stem removed
1 jalapeno pepper, stem removed
4-5 large tomatillos, quartered
5 large cloves garlic, whole
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 24-ounce Tecate beer, or other Mexican beer Cooking oil
1 medium can white hominy, rinsed
1 medium can small white beans, rinsed

Place a large stainless steel or enameled cast iron pan on stove and heat until quite hot. Add enough cooking oil to cover the bottom of pan. When hot again, add pork shoulder, salt and cumin, and begin sauteing. When pork seems cooked on all sides, add chorizo and stir continuously to break up sausage while it cooks. After 4 or 5 minutes, or until all sausage is rendered, add onion and poblano chilies. Cook for an additional 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add serano, jalapeno, garlic, and tomatillos to blender or food processor and cover with beer. Blend, starting on low speed and increasing speed, until you have a smooth liquid, about a minute. When vegetables in chili pot are softened, add beer liquid and stir. Bring to a simmer and begin reducing, stirring often, until liquid has reduced by half. Add hominy and beans and continue to cook until liquid has reduced a bit, another 10 minutes or so. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Serve with a little cojita cheese, crema and cilantro.

Over the Top

Whether it's shredded cheese, tortilla chips, sour cream or crackers (the list goes on and on), how you top your chili is all about individual taste. For Bonbon Pastry and Cafe chef and owner Courtney Bonning, chili demands onion rings. "You're eating chili, and it's lovely, it's warm, and you have just a little bit of chew, but you don't really get a lot of crunch to it," she explains. "I know that's totally weird, but that's totally what I do."

Ground Control

Bring some game to your chili, whether you use pork, beef or chicken, by looking for animals that have been fed a balanced vegetarian diet and have been allowed to grow naturally sans hormones and antibiotics. "A well-fed animal will have very flavorful fat," says Melissa Khoury, owner of local artisan cured-meat company Saucisson. "[It] gives the meat a chance to become what it's supposed to be." From there, which cut to choose is simply a matter of preference. "Ground meat cooks better," she says. "It adds more flavor, is tender and cooks faster."