the vegetarian life?

I saw a training video today, featuring a speech by the WF CEO, John Mackey.  I didn't have time to watch the whole thing, but he was essentially advocating a diet with whole foods, and little or no animal protein, processed foods, or sugar.  He defines processed foods as the obvious (cheese doodles and candy bars) along with the less obvious -- cheeses, milk, vegetable oils, meat, butter, and eggs.  Not sure I see how eggs are "processed" but I do know that life is healthier with less of all of those things.  I'm not ready to give up meat, or eggs, or butter for that matter, but I am ready to look for ways to incorporate more veggies into my diet, along with less fat, and animal protein.

To me, that means thinking of meat as more of a condiment than a main dish, and going easy on the cheese and butter.  The cheese is a particularly tough one for me, as is the butter.  And let's not even discuss bacon -- a food group of it's own for my taste buds, though I don't really eat that much of it.  A once a week treat for me.

At any rate, the video got me thinking of dishes that are interesting to me as vegetarian meals.  Which lead me to chili.  A chili rich with vegetables, beans, and warm spices hardly needs meat to be satisfying to my palate.  And there is no better way to cook beans than the pressure cooker.  It can do in 20 minutes what takes all day to do on the stove.  I used Adzuki beans, which are small red beans, cooked for 10 minutes in the pressure cooker.  While they cooked, I roasted a variety of peppers, some garlic, zucchini, leek, and onion.

the veggies require very little prep -- peppers can be

roasted whole, and the onions quartered, but the 

leeks really need to be cleaned

roasting the veggies draws out the oil,

and creates a silky texture

Once the beans are partially cooked, the chopped veggies can be added.

the veggies require only a rough chop

The veggies, a couple of tablespoons of chili powder, a couple of teaspoons of ground cumin, and a couple of teaspoons of oregano and salt go into the beans, along with a 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes, and the mixture is pressure-cooked for another ten minutes.  The result?  A rich, thick chili with loads of flavor, no added oil, and a great variety of vegetables.  But I do love a little cheddar cheese with my chili, so I grated on a bit.  I adore good cheese.  The secret, of course, is to buy well-aged, strongly flavored cheddar.  Then, a little goes a long way.

would anyone even notice that the meat is missing from this sort of dish?