Vegan chili

So I had all this leftover bean mix from a salad I made recently, and kept thinking "What to do, what to do with these".... chili, of course. :-)  Now, why y'all debate whether with or without beans is 'correct', I'm just gonna make me some vegan 4-bean chili with TVP.

So out came the slow cooker... and in went a large can of diced tomatoes, 2 cans of tomato sauce, 1 can of tomato paste, and vegetable broth. How much? Until it looks right. :-)

As for flavoring, in went chili powder, cumin, dried oregano, liquid smoke, garlic powder, ground red pepper flakes, black pepper, Louisiana hot sauce, and summer savory. How much of each? Until it tastes right. :-)

Meanwhile, I reconstituted 2 cups of textured vegetable protein with close to 2 cups of vegetable broth. The ratio is 7/8c. boiling liquid for each cup of TVP, so there's the math for ya. After about 10 min or so, it was all reconstituted so in it went.

I then went ahead and pressed about 5 cloves of garlic, and chopped about 1/2 a large onion. I sauteed these in a little canola oil on medium-high heat until the onions became transluscent. And in it all went.

Lastly, I rinsed and freshened up my 4-bean mix: kidney, pinto, black and garbanzos. I think I must have put around 3 or 4 cups-worth of bean mix. In it went...

And then it steeped.... and slow-cooked.... and simmered.... I checked flavor often, tweaked and added what I felt was needed. Cook to taste; it's an art form. Be creative.

Then finally, after about 5 hrs, it looked like this:

Looks like regular chili, doesn't it.

Finally, some Daiya cheddar shreds on top, nuked for about 30 sec. to melt the shreds, and it was time to dig in!

Flavorful, chockful of protein, and hey, not a spec of grease.