Spicy Chili with Wheat Berries and TVP

(pictured: spicy wheat berry and tvp chili topped with Daiya and tofu sour cream)

After reading the abstract today about soy reducing inflammation I decided to make a big pot of chili today with texture vegetable protein (tvp) as well as wheat berries. I typically only use wheat berries for their meaty chew but the tvp adds a nice texture to the chili.

One of the best things about chili is that it cooks almost by itself. I really love these low involvement dinners. The chili was cooking while I was cleaning and exercising. This would be a perfect meal to put in the crockpot if you aren’t going to be home.

The herbs and spices in this chili make it very flavorful. Adding cocoa powder to my chili is something I learned from my friend Louis. It does not impart a chocolate taste but instead adds a nice depth of flavor to the chili. The chipotle in adobo adds a little heat, but not anything that is too spicy. If you like heat you can safely add a third pepper without this being too hot. I added a little Worcestershire to the chili to give it a more “meat-like” flavor. Here is what I made tonight.

Spicy Chili with Wheat Berries and TVP
Makes 8 servings of approximately 2 cups each

Ingredients:

1 pound of dried beans, rinsed and picked through
water to cook beans
4 bay leaves
2 tablespoons onion flakes
½ tablespoon garlic powder
14 ounces tomato sauce
14 ounces tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon cumin seed
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon oregano, dry
1 teaspoon fennel seed
½ tablespoon cocoa powder
1 cup wheat berries, uncooked
1 cup soya granules (Fearn brand)
1 yellow onion, finely diced
3 carrots, finely diced
6 cloves garlic, minced (allow to stand for 10 minutes before adding so allicin can develop)
2 chipotle in adobo, minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire

Optional Ingredients for garnish:

tofu sour cream
avocado
fresh cilantro
scallions
vegan cheddar cheese
tortilla chips

Directions:

You can either soak the beans overnight or do a quick soak. Covering the beans with plenty of water and bringing it to a boil then turning off the heat, covering the pan, and allowing the beans to sit undisturbed for an hour is how you quick soak dried beans. Add the onion flakes, garlic powder and bay leaves. Don’t add salt at this point of it will make the bean skin tough. Either way (presoaked or quick soaked) now cook the beans with plenty of water until they are tender.

Once the beans are tender add the remaining ingredients and cook until the wheat berries and soya granules are tender. You may need to add water if the wheat berries and soya granules absorb much of the water.

Nutritional Information (without optional ingredients):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 238.01
Calories From Fat (6%) - 14.88

Total Fat - 1.77g
Saturated Fat - 0.29g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 513.05mg
Potassium - 1135.68mg
Total Carbohydrates - 43.61g
Fiber - 10.06g
Sugar - 6.64g
Protein - 16.68g

Comments:

According to the hubby this chili has “a nice deep, rich flavor and a good texture”. Simmering this chili for a couple of hours concentrated the flavors. By using both wheat berries and textured vegetables protein the overall texture was very “meaty”.

Each serving of this chili contains more than 6,000IU of vitamin A, 120mg of calcium, 120mcg of folate, 290mg of phosphorus, 120mg of magnesium, and 20mcg of selenium. Decent nutritional stats for a 240-calorie recipe I would say.

Tonight we had this chili with low fat tofu sour cream, Daiya cheese, and scallions and lettuce wraps. I hope to be back in a little while with the Mexican influenced salad dressing from this evening.