“Chili today, hot tamale” has long been one of my fam’s favorite phrases. While yesterday brought chilly temperatures and piping bowls of chili, today brought neither warmer temps nor hot tamales (stay tuned for these HungryTexans annual holiday tamales coming soon!). Today did bring reheated lunch and dinner chili and I dare say this funky spin on chili improved with age. Important to note, this is not this HungryTexan’s normal chili recipe — that I can whip up blind folded, but this was inspired by a real recipe (Cook’s Illustrated, of course) and required a wee bit more focus. It also requires a lot more time, so I might recommend you file this as a weekend recipe or a weeknight you’ll be glued to your TV (ahem…election night).

los ingredientes:

2 cans of black beans

2 cans of white beans

4 racquetball-sized onions

12 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup walnuts

2 ounces dried shiitake mushrooms

1 can diced tomatos (reserve that juice!)

3 tbl tomato paste

3 tbl soy sauce

2 jalapeños

1/4 cup chili powder

3 tbl oregano

cumin

veggie oil

1 cup barley

3 cups water

I recommend these three prep steps first:

1. Combine mushrooms & walnuts in food processor until you’ve got a coarse walnut/mushroom meal
2. Combine tomatoes (sans juice), tomato paste, soy sauce, coarsely chopped jalapeños, & garlic in your food processor
3. Chop all your onions

With these steps under your belt, you’ll be ready to start simmering. Heat the oil (about a 1/4 inch high in your pot) and then dump in your onions, let those get soft and start browning, and be sure to salt them while they’re sizzlin’. Next, dump in your beans, add your chili powder, cumin, oregano. StirStirStir. Add your tomato mixture. StirStirStir. Pour in your walnut/mushroom mixture. StirStirStir. Add 1 cup barley & 3 cups water. Cover and let this bubbling pot ride the heat wave until your bulgar’s tender.

Serve piping hot and serve with your favorite dairy (I recommend that other HungryTexan’s sauced up sour cream!)