On Thu, 03 Jun 2021 01:03:27 -0400, Michael Trew >
wrote:

>I made my typically chili con carne from my pre-war Better Homes/Gardens
>cook book, but I decided to nix half of the cost of the dish and make it
>without ground beef this time; vegetarian if you will. Substituted
>butter/olive oil for the fat and started off frying garlic/onions, then
>adding crushed tomatoes, green pepper and seasoning; finally lots of
>kidney/pinto/black beans.
>
>Honestly, I didn't feel that it was missing much of anything without the
>ground beef... it maybe halved the cost, which was a nice bonus. Other
>than adding a lot of beans, does anyone have useful tips on "vegetarian
>chili"?

You can cut down on the price of ground meat by grinding your own, and
you'll know who's in it... pork costs less than beef so grind a pork
shoulder. You can buy inexpensive beef roasts for grinding. I buy
shoulder pork chops when on sale and filet out the meat to grind or to
fry and braise the meaty bones in #10 cans of crushed tomatoes to make
fantastic tomato sauce for pasta.