Vegetarian (almost vegan) Chile Verde

For several years now it's been my joy and pleasure to make Chile Verde for my daughter when we visit her.  I make a big pot, and we have it for dinner one night and then she freezes the rest to enjoy when we leave.

She's embraced a mostly vegan lifestyle the past year, with one exception, she still loves cheese, and when we visited her a few weeks ago, I made her some Chile Verde, but this time, I made it mostly vegan.  And I have to mention here, she used to accuse me of trying to poison her when I used to serve her vegetables and now, WOW, she eats a lot of them.  I'm so proud of how adventuresome, food wise that is, she's become.

And you know this Verde, was really good.  I even surprised myself at how tasty it was.   So I thought I'd share it here with you.

In fact, it was so good, I made some for myself the other day, partly so I could photograph it, and blog about it, but mostly, because I liked the taste, but this time I added some white beans, I wanted to up the protein count a bit.

I did face a couple of challenges cooking it in her kitchen, because she does not cook.

I mean it, she literally does not cook.

She's lucky enough to live in an area that has good vegan and vegetarian restaurants within minutes of her house.  She'll heat up a vegetarian pizza or make smoothies, but apart from that, no cooking, nada.

No problem, I got this.

Well, until it came time to thicken the Verde.  It needed a little bit of body.  Ordinarily I would just make a roux and stir it in, let it thicken a smidge and go from there.  But DD (darling daughter) didn't have any flour or cornstarch and I hadn't thought to buy any.  So...

I got inventive.  I took a flour tortilla, tore it up into pieces and added it to the verde as it was simmering.  Let it simmer for about 1/2 hour, then fished out the softened flour tortillas, added some of the chiles and tomatillos and a little butter and put them in the blender.  Whizzed them together and added it back into the sauce, let it simmer a bit, and VOILA, it thickened.
And as I said, it tasted really good.
I patted myself on the back a little.
This is the basic recipe I used, but as I said, I added some Cannelli beans and a little onion.  For my taste of course.  
The basic mixture- I added some frozen tomatillo's I had in the fridge and chopped them up a little after they thawed. 

 Simmered it for 30 minutes and added the beans.  I also used my immersion blender and took out a cup of the verde and blended it together and added it back into the stew. 

My luscious bowl of vegetarian Chile Verde.  Such a good meal. 

Serve it with some flour tortilla's and a little (or lot of) cheese and you've got a great meal.
Best part, I've got some more for lunch today. 
Vegan/vegetarian daughter approved. 

Yield: 4 servingsAuthor: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking

Vegetarian (almost vegan) Chile Verde

prep time: 10 minscook time: 1 hourtotal time: 1 hours and 10 mins

This is a surprisingly good Chile Verde even without meat. And can be made totally vegan (omit the butter) as well as gluten free if desired.

ingredients:

1 large can Green Chiles (27 oz. size), drained

6 fresh tomatillo's or one can tomatillos (if using canned, just drain the tomatillo's)

3 jalapeno's, seeded and chopped or a small can of Green Salsa (8 oz.)

1/2 to 1 cup water or vegetable stock (plus more if needed)

1 can Cannellini beans- drained and rinsed

1/2 cup onion,  chopped

1 tablespoon butter or EVOO- for sauteeing the onion

 Roux:
1 tablespoon melted butter and 1 tablespoon flour, mixed together *
 Topping:
1/2 cup chopped onions for topping
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese or cojita cheese for topping

instructions:

Saute the onion in the 1 tbsp butter or oil until just softened.  Dump the onions into a 2 quart size pot.  Deglaze the pan with 1/2 cup of water and add to the onions.   Open the can of green chiles, drain.   Do a rough chop of the chiles and tomatillo's.  Add them to the pot with the onions and let simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the beans and simmer an additional 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Take out one cup of the stew and use an immersion blender and blend it together, just a little and add it back to the stew.  This does help to thicken it a little as well.    

Just before serving, thicken with the roux, let it come to a boil and cook for one minute. 

Serve with fresh hot flour tortillas and cheese and a sprinkle of chopped raw onions.
* to make it gluten free, thicken with a teaspoon of cornstarch and 2 teaspoons water mixed into a slurry and stirred in.
You can also make this totally vegan by omitting the butter.

Created using The Recipes Generator