This chili with mushrooms and a sauce seasoned with wild garlic is a raw recipe that is in no way inferior to the original recipe when it comes to taste.
Prep for the chili sauce
Soak the sun-dried tomatoes for about 15 minutes.
You will use these tomatoes in later steps to prepare the chili sauce.
For the chili and vegetable mixture
Cut the fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, bell peppers, and olives into fine cubes. Finely chop the shallot.
Cut the corn off the cob using a knife (a fillet knife works best). To do this, place the corncob in a bowl and slice down along the cob.
Place everything in a saucepan or bowl. Combine the vegetables with the herbs and mix well. Set to the side.
For the chili sauce
Let the soaked sun-dried tomatoes drain, then rinse off, and add to the blender along with the rest of the ingredients. Blend well at high speed to purée the sauce.
If you want a stronger wild garlic flavor, you can either increase the amount of the dried powder or use fresh wild garlic. If you choose the latter, it is best to use ten times the amount called for in dried form as fresh wild garlic contains a lot of water.
We use a low-salt variety soy sauce called genen shoyu whereas the original recipe calls for the gluten-free soy sauce tamari.
Add the sauce to the vegetables, mix everything well, and serve the raw chili.
Detailed Nutritional Information per Person for this Recipe
The majority of the nutritional information comes from the USDA (US Department of Agriculture). This means that the information for natural products is often incomplete or only given within broader categories, whereas in most cases products made from these have more complete information displayed.
If we take flaxseed, for example, the important essential amino acid ALA (omega-3) is only included in an overarching category whereas for flaxseed oil ALA is listed specifically. In time, we will be able to change this, but it will require a lot of work. An “i” appears behind ingredients that have been adjusted and an explanation appears when you hover over this symbol.
For Erb Muesli, the original calculations resulted in 48 % of the daily requirement of ALA — but with the correction, we see that the muesli actually covers >100 % of the necessary recommendation for the omega-3 fatty acid ALA. Our goal is to eventually be able to compare the nutritional value of our recipes with those that are used in conventional western lifestyles.
This chili with mushrooms and a sauce seasoned with wild garlic is a raw recipe that is in no way inferior to the original recipe when it comes to taste.
Number of tomatoes: The original recipe for 2 servings calls for a total of 1 kilogram of fresh tomatoes. Since our average weight for tomatoes means that the recipe here lists more than 1 kilogram (i.e., 1230 g), you can use one less tomato than our recipe calls for.
Salt content: Both sun-dried tomatoes, which are often salted, and soy sauce add to the salt content of this recipe. If you would like to use less sauce but still want to have the Tamari sauce flavor, then look for sun-dried tomatoes that don’t contain any added sauce.
Differences to traditional chili: In contrast to traditional chili versions such as “Chili con carne,” this is a vegan raw food dish. It doesn’t contain any beans, which do go well with this spicy chili sauce, as beans can’t be prepared raw in larger quantities.
Mace: Ground mace is obtained by drying and grinding the lacy reddish covering or aril of the nutmeg seed. Mace has a somewhat more delicate taste than the nutmeg seed it covers and was mistakenly identified as the nutmeg tree’s blossoms when it was imported to Europe. It is primarily used in Indian and Chinese cuisine, but is also a common ingredient in certain pasta dishes in Italian restaurants in Europe.
We don’t consider soy sauce to be raw. Soybeans are generally heated during the production process since green beans of all types contain the glycoprotein phasin, which is toxic for humans. Phasin inhibits the absorption of nutrients in the intestine, causes hemagglutination (clumping of the red blood cells), and in larger amounts can destroy the intestinal villi. Heating processes (e.g., cooking and roasting) destroy phasin and make soybeans and soybean products such as tofu, miso, and tempeh edible for humans. As a result, even unpasteurized soy products are not actually raw, but are instead cooked products that have been “revived” through the process of fermentation.
Since the amount used is relatively small and the ingreident can be left out, we have decided to continue to classify this recipe as "Raw". However, we feel it is our obligation to inform raw foodists that an ingredient is not raw, especially when it appears in a raw cookbook.
Tips
Let the flavors meld: Let the chili rest for a while so that the flavors can meld and fully develop. This works great if you want to have it as a to-go meal for the next day.
Use the chili sauce: This chili sauce also goes well with many other dishes and can be stored in the refrigerator for several days without any reduction in flavor.
Alternate preparation
Spiciness: You can adjust the amount of chili powder to meet your individual needs. Fresh chili peppers are also a nice option.
More wild garlic flavor: Using fresh wild garlic is a good way to increase the wild garlic flavor in this dish. In Switzerland, the season for fresh wild garlic is from March to May. Fresh wild garlic loses some of its flavor when it is heated, but this is not an issue with this raw food dish. Alternatively, you can increase the amount of dried wild garlic.
Vegan chili with beans: As with Chile sin carne, you can also add beans or tofu to this dish. However, the recipe will then no longer be raw. Since uncooked beans contain certain glycoproteins and can only be eaten in limited quantities raw, larger amounts need to be precooked before using. The recipe will no longer be suited for raw foodists, but it will definitely be vegan.
