TVP chilli "con carni"

[Jezabelle]

Am having a dozen friends over for bonfire night. I want to a big chilli for the grown ups. Thing is, there's one vegitarian coming. I want to make my life as easy (and cheap!) as possible, so was considering doing the veggie option for all! A veggie friend cooked me a lasangne using TVP, (soya protein mince) and it was really nice, I would have thought it was meat had he not said.

He says he's made chilli with TVP too but adds lots of stock cubes. I'm a bit warey of using too many stock cubes as I don't want it to taste too artificial, but I understand it needs lots of added flavour. The vegetarian does eat fish, so I could use worcestershire sauce. Any suggestions or recipes gratefully received.

I am not going to advertise the fact that it's not real meat until everyone's tried it. I know some people will be a bit about it, particularly the men folk! Is this a risky move?! What d'you reckon?

My mass catering strategy on a Bonfire Night usually involves baked tatties with a selection of fillings (including chilli), one or more of which will be veggie. Any use?

Not sure I've got the oven space for potatoes and sausages for the kids, (doing hot dogs for them). But it's worth considering. It would solve a problem!

m&s do a really, really nice pre-flavoured soya mince in their chilled section now.

will be a bit pricey if you want to do it for everyone, but it's really very nice.

alternatively you could just do a veg and bean chilli instead?

This has mince in, but the flavour really comes from everything else. I've made it without mince (I put sweet potato chunks in) and it's been loved by veggies and carnivores alike. At least double the spices, though. And I tend to steer clear of the balsamic vinegar and normally add a square or two of very dark chocolate instead.

when you say 'TVP' do you mean Quorn?

i use this a lot for carnivore DS (i'm veggie) and as long as you use plenty of herbs and good tomatoes in it he loves it as much as a 'meaty' meal

I make a quorn chilli very often and it is really tasty. I make a meat version for DH and DD. Same recipe, but just change the mince to quorn for me.

Brown mince in some oil (garlic oil works well, otherwise just olive oil)
Add some veggies (Ocado/Waitrose frozen grilled veg good, else through in copped onion, aubergine, courgette, peppers)
Add 1 tsp each of ground cumin, ground coriander and ground cinnamon
Add 3 or 4 crushed cardamon pods
Add a big squeeze or two of sweet chilli sauce
Add tub of passatta
Cook for 20-30 minutes on low heat.
Add chopped chillis to heat it up if you wish.

Works very well, freezes well and like all chilli it tastes even better on a reheating.

tvp is textured vegetable protein (soya mince basically)

Meat mince is richer in flavour. DH can definitely tell the difference. he doesn't dislike the quorn but would always chose the meat version over quorn as he prefers the richness and the texture.

The Realeat frozen veggie mince is pretty nice (now Linda McCartney branded) - much better than the dry TVP chunks that you have to rehydrate (they are very chewey). I got some Morrisons own brand frozen veggie mince last time and that was very nice too. Makes a mean bolognese or chilli - I have fed carnivores with it many times and always get compliments