The last time we made chili, it turned out really well. We used ground turkey, a variety of beans and spices and created a depth of flavor by using soy sauce and a lot of mushrooms. Actually, though, the turkey didn’t lend much except for texture. So what could we do that would give us some texture that could keep our chili vegetarian (and thus lower in calories.) We decided to use a pound and a half of mushrooms, some chopped small like ground beef and some in larger pieces. The small chopped mushrooms I really browned hard so they would have texture. We also included canned tomatoes and three different canned beans as well as onions, peppers, garlic, tomato paste, cilantro and spices. However, the chili came out tasting way too bright and acidic. I had already used soy sauce for a low note and the salt level was fine. So I didn’t want to put in more soy sauce. We tried a large teaspoon of ground instant coffee. That helped. But the only thing that cut the acidic taste was oil. Much to my disappointment we had to use two teaspoons of oil to get the flavor balance correct. I don’t think we will try this again.

Vegetarian chili