Daily Archives: October 29, 2010

Foreward: Earlier this week I posted about our trip to the Orchard in Back to Nature.  I mentioned that friend and blogger Nicole had a great recipe for vegan apple chili that she was going to try out with her share of our fresh-picked apples, and she offered to share it here.  So Happy Friday to you all and enjoy!

Here in Orange County, we don’t really get “seasons.”

We have this kind of year-round, Springsummer season which makes things like shopping and beach-going pretty convenient.  It will rain a bit the third week in January (on my birthday, it never fails) and sometimes August days can get downright sweltering.

Don’t get me wrong, this Midwestern girl doesn’t miss scraping ice off her windshield, but every 4 months-or-so it would be nice to have a festive change in the weather to break up the year.

Fed up with our lack of weather, fellow scuppie, Linsi, and I packed up our respective husbands and boyfriends and headed to the country in search of some fall culture.  We took a hayride, learned how to polish up apples we picked and even found ourselves a bit of blustery, cool-ish, fall-like weather.

To polish: rub on denim, like so

I brought back some Winesap apples which, sadly, turned out to be a little less ripe than I prefer.  I probably couldn’t make apple pie, but I could definitely make the “Manzana Chile Verde” from Vegan cookbook, Veganomicon.  Fresh peppers, check; tangy tomatillo sauce (from scratch) – hell, yeah!  Goes well with cornbread – perfect.

Full disclosure, I didn’t have exact the ingredient Isa Chanda calls for so I made some substitutions where appropriate.  Foodie purists may be totally appalled, but you should know it still turned out delicious.  My advice for inexperienced cooks like me: this recipe is very easy but it requires you to measure, chop and prepare everything in advance.  So be patient, chop your peppers beforehand and you’ll end up with chili perfect for the change in season (real, or imagined).

So, here we go:

Manzana Chili Verde

1 lb baby Yukon golds, cut into 1/2″ pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced small
3 jalapeños, seeded and sliced thinly
2 poblano peppers, seeded and chopped into 1″ pieces
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1 cup dry white wine
1 lb tomatillos, papery skin removed, washed, chopped into 1/2″ to 3/4″ pieces
2 Granny Smith apples, cored, quartered, and sliced thinly
2 cup vegetable broth
1 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro
1/4 cup shopped scallions
1 15-oz can small white beans, drained and rinsed
Juice of 1 lime
Avocado slices for garnish

Cooking this makes me feel so Food Network

Place the chopped potatoes in a small saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Let boil, covered, for a little less than 20 minutes, until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork. Drain and set aside.
Meanwhile, heat a large pot over medium-high heat. Saute the onion, jalapeños, and poblanos in oil for about 10 minutes, until everything is softened and the onions are slightly browned.
Add the garlic, cumin, oregano, and salt. Saute for 1 more minute, until the garlic is fragrant. Add the white wine and tomatillos, raise the heat a bit to let the wine reduce and the tomatillos release their juices, about 5 minutes.
Add the apples, vegetable broth, scallions, and 1/2 cup of the cilantro. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 20 minutes.
Use an immersion blender to partially puree everything, or transfer half the chili to a food processor and puree, then return to the pot (I used a food processor and it worked fine).
Taste for tartness: if bitter, add a teaspoon or two of sugar to level things out. Add the cooked potatoes and the beans, simmer for a few more minutes, until everything is heated through.
Add the remaining cilantro and the lime juice. Ladle into bowls, garnish with the avocado and scallions, and serve.

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Although she’s proud to be a scuppie, Nicole Longstreath may have less “copious amounts of disposable income” than the Urban Dictionary definition may suggest.  In addition to a day job, she runs the activist photography website, A View From The Edge, and blogs about social issues on her blog, In The Loupe.