Guest Post: Beans and Beer for Brian

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If there’s one thing I know about my good buddy Brian, it’s that he loves to eat and he loves beer.  So I guess that means I know two things about Brian.  Regardless, while making my much loved in San Diego vegetarian chili, I thought I would tweak the recipe to keep it in the gluten free theme of Deanna’s blog and post it for Brian and D to try out in Boulder “I’m colder than San Diego”, Colorado.

The heart of this recipe is beans, lots of beans.  Insert fart joke here.  Being vegetarian, Maria aka “My Lady” and I are always looking for ways to keep what we eat interesting and chili happens to be one of my favorite foods.  We’ve also utilized Trader Joe’s brand “Soy-rizo” which is a gluten free, vegetarian version of chorizo, a spicy sausage blend typically found in a number of southwestern recipes.  All in all if you’re looking for a new vegetarian recipe and you like beer, chili and spice, give this tap dance a try.

Gluten free vegetarian chili with gf beer

Gluten Free, Vegetarian Beer Chili:

This recipe serves six, if you’re looking to make a smaller batch obviously just use half for three, one third for 2, but I make the whole thing and keep the rest as leftovers.

Ingredients:

2 12oz bottles of Redbridge gluten free beer (or gluten free beer of choice)

2 cans of organic red kidney beans

1 can of organic white kidney beans

1 can of organic pinto beans

2 cans organic black beans

1 can of organic yellow corn

1 package Trader Joe’s Soy-Rizo (I know this one is gluten free)

12 oz. organic tomato paste – Make sure it’s gluten free, I’ve seen both

1 medium sized bell pepper

1 medium sized red onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp cayenne pepper

1 tbsp cayenne pepper hot sauce (or hot sauce of choice)

1 tsp sweet paprika

Salt/Pepper to taste

Heat a large cooking pan on med/high with the olive oil in it.  After peeling and cutting up the onions and pressing the garlic, add these to the pan.  Let these cook for a minute or so then add the Soy-Rizo and season with 1 tbsp chili powder. While these cook together, clean and slice the bell pepper adding it to the pan as soon as you’re done.  Let this sweet medley of veggie goodness cook together on med/high for another few minutes then add everything in the cooking pan to your large chili pot.  It’s always a good idea to use a double handled pot the size of a crock pot for this chili recipe as its better to go too big than run out of room. 

Pour the first beer in the pot and set the heat on the stove to low/medium (3 on a 10 scale temp knob).  Let this simmer while you open all your cans of beans and tomato paste.  In the amount of time it takes you to do this the beer will start to cook into the Soy-Rizo and veggies.  Next, add everything else to the chili pot.  I’ll usually go beans, corn, tomato paste, second bottle of beer and then all the seasonings and spices but there is no real rhyme or reason to the order.  If you like it super hot, add more cayenne and hot sauce than I have listed, but be careful as cayenne has got a big kick once it’s cooked into everything. 

I’ll typically cook everything together in the pot for an hour or so stirring it every so often and tasting it once or twice after it’s cooked for a while to see if it needs more spice.  This method gives you a better idea of how hot it is going to be after everything has had a chance to marinate together.  Serve in bowls with a nice cold gluten free beer or glass of red wine.

This recipe is great on a cold or hot day, but be careful the next day.  You don’t want to be the stinky guy next to the water cooler when you’re telling all your friends about the amazing chili recipe you tried the night before…

Enjoy,

Patrick

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