Hot [Crock] Pot Chili

In my pantry today:

• 3 poblano peppers
• 4 jalapeno peppers
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 56oz/7c/3.5lb petite diced tomato
• 1 c corn
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp taco seasoning
• 1 tsp red hot chili powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp asafoetida

This ended up being the finest batch of chili I have made to date — and it’s completely vegan. I say that because not only should it surprise you, but because it does so for me as well. It’s a tribute, really, to how little meat needs to do with flavor.

Start out with your onion and garlic pieces with oil in the crock pot on H. Walk away and halve your peppers, taking care to leave seeds out or in depending on your spice palate. Put them open-side down on a baking sheet and put them closely under the broiler until their skins begin to char, then remove them from the oven, remove the skins from their shoulders, and dice. Throw those into the crock pot with the garlic and onion, stir and leave on H for a few more minutes. Following enough of a break to begin some dishes or some such nonsense, add canned tomatoes with liquid and cooked beans, reduce crock pot to L and let simmer for several hours. Stir in all your seasonings a little while before dinner — it tasted so flavorful before I did any of that that I nearly didn’t add a single thing; the taco seasoning will get it from “a little too liquidy,” though, into proper chili territory. Despite — or maybe because of? — the lack of meat, this chili deserves 5 spoons.