Veggie Chili

This is a recipe in development. I've made it for years without a recipe, but now I'd like to start perfecting it. This last time was the first I've used dried beans, but because we know that it takes more energy and fossil fuels to ship canned beans, my husband and I are learning how. In order to capture what we ACTUALLY did in order to perfect the recipe, I'm including the days between initially boiling them and cooking the chili... this was necessity, and I'll edit the recipe when I make it next. This is a spicy, vegetarian chili that freezes VERY well. I like to serve it with cornbread or spoonbread and some cheese.

• Ready In: 72 hrs
• Serves: 15

Ingredients

• 6  cups dried black beans
• 4  dried ancho chiles
• 4  dried chipotle chiles
• 4  drops liquid smoke
• 2  medium yellow onions
•  one head of garlic, roasted in olive oil
• 1  red cabbage, coarsely shredded chopped
• 2  medium zucchini, peeled and diced in big chunks
• 3  cups cremini mushrooms, chopped in big chunks
• 3  carrots, chopped (large ones)
• 1 (4 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 (28 ounce) can tomato puree
• 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
•  chili powder
• 1  sp salt
•  red pepper flakes

Directions

1. First make the beans. We cook ours in a wok.
2. Rinse them and then soak in 12 cups of water overnight.
3. The next day, bring them to boil for three hours, let cool again.
4. On the THIRD day, bring beans to boil, add peppers and liquid smoke. Lower the heat to medium low, add peppers and liquid smoke, stirring every 10 minutes Cook for two hours. (This process could be better done in a crock pot.).
5. During all of THAT you can roast the garlic,.
6. chop the onions in large chunks and saute them in a big (5 gal) stock pot.
7. When the onions are carmelized, add the cabbage.
8. Sauted the cabbage until it wilts, shrinks and is carmelized as well. This is the most important step. The cabbage adds body to this chili, but it is unrecognizable when it's all done. Take your time with the cabbage.
9. When the cabbage is well cooked, add the other ingredients and the spices.
10. I cook this on low for an hour or more.(Again, I think a crock pot could be helpful, but this batch is more enormous than any crock pot I've ever seen.