Coming home from a weekend of guiltless face stuffing it was kind of hard for me to even think about food, let alone the thought of preparing it myself. It’s incredible how much crap I managed to put in my body during those few days– we are definitely due up for a vegan-detox. Uhm… Nevermind the donut holes and apple strudel we had for dessert last night! :x

I decided to crack open ol’ faithful (which is apparently available on Google Books!) and try something I hadn’t done before… Preferrably something easy. The original recipe for Booker T’s Southwest Tempeh Chili doesn’t look incredibly difficult, but I veered so far away from the recipe that I can’t really comment on it. I mostly used its flavors and spices as my base because– awful vegetarian confession here– I’m not too hot for tempeh. When it’s good it is so good, but when it isn’t good it’s just money down the hole. So I decided to replace and add ingredients fit to our tastes. The results were fabulous and it was as easy as opening cans and dumping them into the soup pot!

Ingredients
4 cups Vegetable broth
1 cup Yellow onion, chopped
1-2 stalks Celery, halved and chopped
1 Jalapeno, seeded and minced
2 Sweet Potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite-size pieces
1 can Stewed tomatoes, diced
1-2 cans Refried beans
1 can Black beans, drained
1 can Corn, drained
2 Tbsp Tomato paste
3 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp Lime juice
1 Tbsp Chili powder
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Garlic powder
1/4 cup Cilantro, chopped

2 medium Russet potatoes
6 oz. Plain soy yogurt
Lime juice

Directions
- Preheat oven to 375 F. Rinse Russet potatoes, stab with a knife and wrap in aluminum foil. Place in the center rack of the oven and bake until fluffy.

- While potatoes are baking, bring vegetable stock to a slow boil in a large pot. Add onion, celery, jalapeno and sweet potatoes. Cook for 20-30 minutes, or until potatoes are soft.

- Add stewed tomatoes and tomato paste and let cook for 5 minutes. Depending on how thick or thin you prefer your chili, add 1 or 2 cans of refried beans. I only added one in anticipation of the chili losing water in the refrigerator overnight. Stir occasionally, making sure the refried beans fully dissolve in the broth.

- Next, add soy sauce, lime juice, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder and cilantro. You may use fresh garlic if you’d like. I didn’t have any on hand, so I used a can of stewed tomatoes that had garlic in it. Quick fix! After stirring those ingredients into the pot, you may now add the black beans and corn.

- Let sit on the stove top without a lid over medium heat until baked potatoes are finished cooking. Meanwhile, in a small bowl prepare sour creme by combining soy yogurt with lime juice and cilantro to taste.

- Once everything’s finished cooking, serve chili on top of baked potatoes, with a dollop of sour creme. I confess to adding a few pads of butter and some salt to my potato fluff prior to dousing it with chili, then stirring it all together into one gnarly looking (but delicious tasting!) mess.

Enjoy! :)