Teany's Top-Secret Chili Recipe

So alas, despite me having cooked quite a bit this weekend, I just realized that there's a pretty good chance there won't be any recipes being posted here all week. How suckalicious is that? But what can I do--none of them appear to be posted on-line... (I swear that this chili recipe used to be floating around somewhere on-line, but apparently not anymore.) That doesn't mean that I can't get your tastebuds lusting away though, so KEEP ON READING, FOLKS!

On Sunday I made a big huge batch of Teany's Top-Secret Chili Recipe from The Teany Book which, for those of you who don't know, was written by Kelly Tisdale and Moby, the co-creators of the Teany cafe in NYC which specializes in teas and veg*n foods. (Hence the chili being pictured above in one of my most favoritest of tea-cups--25 cents each at the fleamarket a few years back, and the insides are a lovely baby-blue.) I actually had the pleasure of eating there once on a trip to NYC with my closest friend, and it truly was a lovely experience, both in atmosphere and in food-foxiness. Now I hear rumors abounding about whether or not it's actually closed down, but from what I can gather, they've just seriously cut some hours there as of late.

But I ramble...

For those of you who don't own this little book, I recommend getting your hands on it (especially since you can do so for dirt cheap on the 'net). It's quite the lovely little thing, offering up tons of little yummbly recipes straight from the Teany Cafe as well as lots of info about teas and herbs and how to use them to make your life a more wonderful place to be living in. Not all the recipes are vegan (if I remember correctly), but it's co-written by Moby (for freak's sake), so you can expect lots of alternatives offered in the hopes of veganizing.

Anyways, back to the chili: it is a good one, a yumtastic one, and most definitely worth checking out. The tomato base is rich and dark, awash with the roastiness of both coffee and cocoa, and kicking like a kung-fu master with a ton of chili pepper and other hot spices. Swimming around in this tasty quagmire is also a lot of fricking good (and healthy) ingredients--seitan chunks, red and green peppers, white beans, kidney beans, and corn, to name the major swimmers. Oh, and cashews. Mother of god, we can't forget the Olympic gold-metal champion of them all! The cashews add a delightful crunch to an otherwise softer kind of chili recipe.

It's a fairly simple recipe--the most time-consuming aspect of it all is the chopping. And the chopping. And some more of the chopping. But it's well-worth your while, as it is rich and roasty and has seitan that will melt on your tongue like (vegan) butter. Or like sweet sweet goodness. Or like sex. Or like an ice-cube. Or like one of a hundred other kick-ass melty things. So check it the frick out.