Steve's Vegitarian Tofu Chili

Sauce

• 12 ounce beer (amber or dark ale preferred)
• 1 14-18 oz can of tomato sauce
• Veggie broth to thin if needed
• One 28 ounce canned whole, crushed or diced tomatoes, with liquid.

Spices

• 3 tablespoons of chili powder (good chili powder makes all the difference in the world)
• Salt and pepper to taste (less is more, none may be best)
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
• Bay leaf
• optional: 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (if you like it hot, I prefer to leave this out)

Content

• 14 to 20 ounces (like a pound) of firm tofu cut into small cubes, like 1/4 inch sized.
• One cup of fresh sliced mushrooms (canned or reconstituted dried if you must)
• One green or red or red bell pepper
• Two 14-18 ounce cans of beans. one of kidney beans, one (cooks choice) drained and rinsed (for your partner's sake).
• One yellow onion diced

Misc

• 3 or so tbsp Olive oil
• 3 cloves, or a generous tablespoon, of minced garlic (more is more)

Procedure:
In about a five quart pot, like a dutch oven, pour your sauce ingredients, except the broth, and let them start heating up. Add your spices your dutch oven (or other pot) and let it come to a simmer. Meanwhile prepare your content items by slicing, mincing, dicing and doing all the needed cutting. In a frying pan, over high heat, saute your tofu in the olive oil and the garlic for about three minutes. Then, add it to your dutch oven (or other pot) where your sauce is simmering. Repeat this procedure with your onion, you may want to reduce the heat, and saute in more olive oil until onion is just translucent and add it to your sauce. Repeat this procedure with your pepper, you may want to reduce the heat, and saute in more olive oil until pepper just gets some black marks and is softer. Again, add it to your sauce. Now add in your beans. If it's too thick add veggie broth to thin to desired consistency. Simmer for an hour, with occasional stirring, scraping the bottom and turning things over.