Quinoa Adobo Chile

The family and I recently attended the 2014 American Adventurist Mountain Rendezvous.  This is a fantastic event, and one half of their semi-annual series that gets together over a hundred Overlanding-oriented families and their rigs. 

Photo courtesy of Brent Haywood Photography

Many recent events have featured a Dutch Oven competition, and I wanted to participate this year.  As with many potluck events that we attend as a family, my goal was  to cook something vegetarian-friendly so my wife would be assured a meal.  We never like to impose her choices on anyone else and it's frankly ridiculous to assume.  In addition to being vegetarian, this recipe is also (accidentally) gluten free and could be full-vegan by either omitting the chocolate or using semi-sweet or other milk-less chocolate.  I had a lot of positive comments on this dish, and at least a half dozen requests for the recipe, so I consider it a great success. 

Pre-heating the oven. Photo by Kimberley Newmark

The other great success of my weekend was getting to use my freshly-built firepot tripod.  This shameless DIY clone of the excellent Roadii Firegrill (prohibitively expensive in the USA since they're built in the UK), was desperately needed due to local drought-induced fire restrictions.  It is wonderfully convenient to be able to set up my lightweight fire system anywhere that's safe and not have to bend or stoop to manage the coals or the dutch oven.  I've also got an adjustable grill-grate on cables for when I want to use it for grilling. 

Notes: 
The quinoa is already a complete protein, but adding the soy meat gives nice texture, flavor, and makes it extra filling. Substituting turkey or other ground meat will add nice flavors as well! This recipe is designed for a 14″(8qt) dutch oven and produces a nice thick chili.  Obviously it can also be prepared at home over direct heat or baked in a 350° oven.  I can't take full credit for the recipe, as I adapted it from one I found at camp-cook.com, but here's my version "as prepared":

Quinoa Adobo Chili

Directions: 

Ingredients: 
1 cup quinoa (easiest to prepare in advance, per below)
2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
1.5 tablespoon cumin 
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
2 cans of black beans (recommend unrinsed unless sodium intake is a factor)
12oz (1 package) Lightlife Smart Ground Mexican Style soy filling (alt: 3/4lb of ground Turkey or TVP)
3+ tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive oil 
1 onion, diced 
1 cup corn (For best flavor, roast your own or use Trader Joe's Roasted/frozen corn)
6 cloves garlic, minced 
1 quart of canned diced tomatoes
1-2 cups water 
2 red, yellow, or orange bell peppers, diced large
1 large or 2 small zucchini, diced large
2-4 chipotle peppers and as much adobo sauce as you can drain from a small can (4 peppers makes for good heat without being overwhelming)
¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate, chips or broken into chunks (I used Belgian 75% cacao, omit or use 100%/milkless chocolate for vegan )
1 bunch of cilantro 
2 limes
salt and pepper to taste 

Photo by Kimberley Newmark

Prior to departure:

1. Rinse the quinoa in a strainer until clear water is running through it.
2. Toast the quinoa for about 3 minutes in a cast iron skillet.
3. When toasted, add 2 cups of the vegetable broth to the skillet, cover, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. The quinoa is done when it starts to split open. Resist urge to season at this point, you're just prepping an ingredient.
4. Cool and bag or vacuum pack the quinoa for the trip
5. Measure and combine cinnamon, cumin, chile powder, and paprika into a tightly sealed container or ziplock bag
6. If sodium intake is a factor, you can rinse black beans and bag them now, however I prefer to include the starchy liquid from the can to help thicken the chili and add flavor. It's also way more convenient to just bring the cans. Likely no added salt will be needed if you use the liquid.
7. You can optionally dice and bag your veggies now as well, but I am recently forbidden from transporting cut onions in our camper's fridge, so I elected to prep the veg on-site.

Simmering away over the coals. Photo by Kimberley Newmark

In camp:

1. Pre-heat the 14″ dutch oven with a solid circle of ~28 briquettes on the bottom.
2. Chop the Onion and mince garlic.
3. Dice peppers and zucchini, if not done at home.
4. When Dutch oven is hot, add the olive oil & onions. Saute the onions until they start to change color then add the garlic and veggie "meat". Just brown the soy meat for texture, but cook until no-longer pink if using real meat (about 2 min).
5. Add chipotles and adobo sauce and the dry spices. Stir mixture for about 3 minutes.
6. Add the tomatoes and their liquid, black beans, bell peppers, quinoa, zucchini, and ~1 cup of water. Mix well.
7. Move 1/2 the briquettes to the lid of the Dutch oven to form a ring. Reform the bottom briquettes into one ring.
8. Let mixture simmer for about 15 min then mix in the chocolate.
9. Check thickness of chili: If mixture is too tight, add water and let it simmer covered for another 5 min. If too loose, remove the lid and let simmer uncovered 5-10 minutes to thicken.
10. Garnish with fresh cilantro and a slice of lime. (Can't emphasize this enough - the late addition of acid really brightens up all the veggies!)

Enjoy!

Photo by Kimberley Newmark