Mexi Can't? Mexi Can!

There isn't a lot to do here. This is a typical early week. Monday: Mexican buffet at Dojo's. Tuesday: fish curry at the cafeteria. Wednesday: free.

In honor of Mexican buffet night - decidedly not raw and not vegan (but delicious cilantro fish and corn salad) - I made a raw chili tonight. I found the recipe online somewhere - it's everywhere, in various versions - but I think it might be traced back to Ani Phyo (my hero.) She has a version on her site at: www.aniphyo.com. I adjusted the recipes I found according to the bounty of the salad bar and our kitchen cabinets.

Mexican Raw Chili, Baghdad Style
For the chili:

3 cups tomato

1 cup bell pepper (red if possible)

1/2 cup mushrooms

1/3 cup onion

1/3 cup celery

1 T garlic

1/2 tsp black pepper

For the meat topping:
1 cup walnuts (thank you Sara's parents!)
1 T olive oil (thank you dear colleague who carried it all the way to Baghdad from his back yard)
1 tsp - 1 T Nama Shoyu (depending on how salty you want it)
1 heaping tsp curry powder

Chili: chop everything into smallish bits and mix in a bowl with your hands. Scoop a third into the blender and puree; return to bowl and mix. If you use red peppers, as most receipes call for, the chili should be red. Our peppers were mostly green, so it wasn't the loveliest after it came out of the blender. But it tastes amazing so we forgive it. You don't need any salt because the "meat" (we're thinking of calling it "save-the-moo-eat" from now on - what do you think?) is very salty.

Topping: I put the walnuts in a ziploc bag and smashed them with my measuring cup until they were ground beef consistency. You can also grind them up in a food processor. Throw them in a bowl and mix in the other ingredients. Spoon over the bowls of chili. Garnish with something green and fancy.

P.S Sara says she has heartburn right now from eating the chili so fast, but she doesn't regret it because it was so good.