I know what youre thinking.

Pumpkin plus mushroom plus chili equals ew. Right?

Wrong.

This combination may seem unusual, but the flavors in it are not. I wouldnt eat a bad chili, much less post it on my blog. I have won chili cook-offs before, so you can at least expect I know what good chili is.

And I am not a vegan. I do like chili with meat. But good chili doesnt demand meat. And when the thought of making a chili with mushrooms and pumpkin crossed my mind, I thought nothing of it. I had bought a pound of white mushrooms at the market for a great price, and was looking for ways to use it up. Plus, I happen to have pumpkins sitting around right now that I bought from the farm market to have from pumpkin flavored everything.

So besides pies, and pumpkin butter, and pumpkin hot chocolate, and pumpkin lattes, the pumpkin chili also falls under everything.

The pumpkin I use is a pumpkin puree, which you can make from scratch yourself with fresh pumpkins roasted and pureed, or you can use canned, or frozen, or even use winter squash puree such as that from acorn squash or butternut as well. Dont use the kind of canned pumpkin that is called pie mix, and has things like sugar and pumpkin pie spice already mixed in.

The flavor of the pumpkin is not that pronounced, really, as it mingles with the flavors of the chilies in the chili powder. If you didnt know there was pumpkin in this beforehand, you might not suspect it at all. But it does add some body to the chili where I might usually add masa harina to thicken, and it also adds nutrition in the way of beta kerotene, so it is quite healthy.

I do hope you give this a try, as the flavor is really going to surprise you. If you have kids that you want to get to eat more veggies, this might just be the ticket. As well as putting more veggies into your diet as well. All with little to no effort. And believe me, when you taste the first bite, you are going to think I never imagined vegan mushroom pumpkin chili could hold its own among chili con carne!

Vegan pumpkin mushroom chili

Read more here:
Vegan pumpkin mushroom chili

KHQ.com -

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, is currently holding a contest to find the sexiest vegans over 50 in the country. PETA has narrowed the selection of healthy eaters down to seven male finalist and seven female finalists, with local woman Atania Gilmore making the final cut.

According to PETA's website, the contestant's enthusiasm and overall physical activeness will be taken into account when choosing a winner in addition to the total number of votes they receive, You can vote for Atania at the PETA Prime website. Today is the last day to vote, so let's show our support.

PETA started the contest to promote a healthy lifestyle and eating choices, but winners of the contest get more than a spiffy title. They also win a trip to a Guatemalan eco-resort, and a spiffy Los Angeles photo shoot.

The winners will be announced October 22. We'll keep you posted if Spokane's own takes the title.

See the rest here:
Spokane woman in the running for 'sexiest vegan' title

Beans and Barley for the win. Again. Published Oct. 19, 2014 at 10:05 a.m.

For the eighth straight year, October is Dining Month on OnMilwaukee.com, presented by Locavore, the newest restaurant at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino. All month, we're stuffed with restaurant reviews, delectable features, chef profiles and unique articles on everything food, as well as the winners of our "Best of Dining 2014."

For more than three decades, Beans & Barley, 1901 E. North Ave., has served consistently good vegetarian soups, salads, sandwiches and entrees. It helped blaze a trail of vegetarian dining options, and continues to be a major East Side draw and, once again, the favorite of OnMilwaukee.com readers.

From its signature burritos which include a dairy-free option to sandwiches like the tempeh reuben and year-round bowls of chili, there are plenty of vegetarian choices. The menu includes full breakfasts, too.

Long-term Milwaukeeans might remember the original structure on the site was destroyed by fire in 1993, or even the old Murray Avenue location. But the current Beans & Barley building has been around for two decades long enough to make it an East Side landmark.

For our editors' pick we selected Wolf Peach for its delectable and impressive menu as well as a great atmosphere and view.

OnMilwaukee.com editors' choice: Wolf Peach

Runners-up:2. Casablanca 3. Wolf Peach 4. Comet 5. Cafe Manna

Disclaimer: Please note that Facebook comments are posted through Facebook and cannot be approved, edited or declined by OnMilwaukee.com. The opinions expressed in Facebook comments do not necessarily reflect those of OnMilwaukee.com or its staff.

Published Saturday, Oct. 18

More here:
Milwaukee's best vegetarian, 2014

When's the last time you cooked with sorrel leaves or nigella seeds? What about a marrow squash or verjuice? (Don't even know what a verjuice is? Neither did we it's a special sauce made from semi-ripe wine grapes.)

All these ingredients might sound exotic and complicated, but chef Yotam Ottolenghi is here to convince you that you don't have to be a professional chef to use them. In his new book Plenty More Ottolenghi demonstrates how some off-the-beaten path ingredients can turn your quotidian vegetable side dish into a thing of majesty.

Ottolenghi joins NPR's Rachel Martin to explain the difference between supermarket hummus and Middle Eastern hummus and why he doesn't like to call his cookbooks "vegetarian."

On calling his books vegetable-based, not vegetarian

Plenty and Plenty More are both vegetable-based books. I don't like to call them vegetarian because vegetarian, for me, rings of all sorts of things that I think these books are not.

... The difficulty with vegetarianism, I find, is that it's very exclusive. It means like, I never look at meat or fish in my life. I grew up in Jerusalem in the Middle East, and in various parts of the Middle East and Asia, the diet is very plant-based and doesn't include lots of meat in it. Meat is more special you add a little bit of it or you don't use it at all. That attitude, I think, is a very healthy attitude to eating. It's not about denying yourself of something completely. It's about celebrating the wonderful world of vegetables.

On the many different ways to eat vegetables

I'm trying to concentrate on the cooking techniques of vegetables. I think people's imaginations, when it comes to vegetables, focus often on one or two cooking techniques. More often than not it's boiling. You know, you simmer your vegetables and then maybe you dress them, and that's about it. ... Roasting is the next stop. But there's lots of other things you can do.

You can eat them raw, like cabbages and turnips and cauliflowers. You can eat them raw in slaws, you can fry them, you can chargrill them, which gives them that wonderful smoky aroma. You can steam them, you can braise them which is cooking with a little bit of liquid but not a lot. So, there's tons of ways of cooking vegetables and each cooking technique has particular results.

Yotam Ottolenghi is an Israeli chef and London restaurateur. His other cookbooks include Jerusalem, Plenty and Ottolenghi. Pal Hansen/Courtesy of Ten Speed Press hide caption

Read the rest here:
Chef Ottolenghi Makes The Case For 'Plenty More' Vegetables