Tofu Chili

Today, I saw blue sky. And blue sky – especially at the end of January – is one of my favorite things. Another one of my favorite things is chili. I’ve never met a chili I didn’t like (and I’ve met a lot).

Since I’m at university right now, I’m living with a few other people. One of my roommates is a vegetarian and I like to accommodate her diet into my cooking as much as possible, since I like to share food almost as much as I like to make it 🙂

To celebrate the blue sky and use up some things in my fridge, I decided to make a vegetarian chili for dinner.

Not pictured: cilantro, garlic, spices & Cholula

I began by filling up a saucepan with 2 cups of water and dumping in 3/4 cup of quinoa before setting it on the stove to boil. Since quinoa takes the longest to cook (about 10 minutes), I made sure to start it first so my meal would all be ready at the same time.

I decided to use quinoa instead of rice because quinoa is high in protein and this chili was going to be vegetarian, but you can substitute it for rice or even nix both if you prefer.

Next, I splashed olive oil into a second pan, chopped up the onion and garlic, and sautéed them.

My cutting boards are so red! Ah, they burn my eyes sometimes.

While they softened, I prepared the tofu. I used firm tofu, but extra firm would be just fine as well. I pressed the block between two paper towels to absorb the excess moisture.

Then I crumbed it up on top of the onions and garlic with my hands.

After a quick stir, I added the spices.

I never measure out spices, preferring to season to taste. A rule of thumb I like to follow is to add twice as many ‘flavor spices’ (ex: cumin, turmeric, ginger, Old Bay, black pepper, herbs, etc.) as you think you need, and half as many ‘heat spices’ (ex: cayenne, chili powder, red pepper flakes, etc.). This way, you don’t accidentally add too much of a heat spice and make your food too hot to enjoy, but also ensure that you have enough of the flavor spices to taste them.

To the chili, I added cayenne, cumin, chili powder, cinnamon (only a shake of this), and black pepper.

I also added a few splashes of Cholula, because I love it. Cholula makes an appearance on almost all my food, particularly at breakfast!

After a quick stir, I dumped in the can of tomatos (juice too) and half a can each of the beans. I let it simmer for a bit to reduce down.

Right before serving, I stirred in a dollop of greek yogurt and some cilantro leaves. I like my cilantro in big pieces, but if you prefer a stronger flavor and/or smaller bits, feel free to roughly chop it first.