Raw Chili with Mushrooms and Wild Garlic

This chili with mushrooms and a sauce seasoned with wild garlic is a raw recipe that is in no way inferior to the original recipe when it comes to taste.

Number of tomatoes: The original recipe for 2 servings calls for a total of 1 kilogram of fresh tomatoes. Since our average weight for tomatoes means that the recipe here lists more than 1 kilogram (i.e., 1230 g), you can use one less tomato than our recipe calls for.

Salt content: Both sun-dried tomatoes, which are often salted, and soy sauce add to the salt content of this recipe. If you would like to use less sauce but still want to have the Tamari sauce flavor, then look for sun-dried tomatoes that don’t contain any added sauce.

Differences to traditional chili: In contrast to traditional chili versions such as “Chili con carne,” this is a vegan raw food dish. It doesn’t contain any beans, which do go well with this spicy chili sauce, as beans can’t be prepared raw in larger quantities.

Mace: Ground mace is obtained by drying and grinding the lacy reddish covering or aril of the nutmeg seed. Mace has a somewhat more delicate taste than the nutmeg seed it covers and was mistakenly identified as the nutmeg tree’s blossoms when it was imported to Europe. It is primarily used in Indian and Chinese cuisine, but is also a common ingredient in certain pasta dishes in Italian restaurants in Europe.

We don’t consider soy sauce to be raw. Soybeans are generally heated during the production process since green beans of all types contain the glycoprotein phasin, which is toxic for humans. Phasin inhibits the absorption of nutrients in the intestine, causes hemagglutination (clumping of the red blood cells), and in larger amounts can destroy the intestinal villi. Heating processes (e.g., cooking and roasting) destroy phasin and make soybeans and soybean products such as tofu, miso, and tempeh edible for humans. As a result, even unpasteurized soy products are not actually raw, but are instead cooked products that have been “revived” through the process of fermentation.

Since the amount used is relatively small and the ingreident can be left out, we have decided to continue to classify this recipe as "Raw". However, we feel it is our obligation to inform raw foodists that an ingredient is not raw, especially when it appears in a raw cookbook.

Let the flavors meld: Let the chili rest for a while so that the flavors can meld and fully develop. This works great if you want to have it as a to-go meal for the next day.

Use the chili sauce: This chili sauce also goes well with many other dishes and can be stored in the refrigerator for several days without any reduction in flavor.

Spiciness: You can adjust the amount of chili powder to meet your individual needs. Fresh chili peppers are also a nice option.

More wild garlic flavor: Using fresh wild garlic is a good way to increase the wild garlic flavor in this dish. In Switzerland, the season for fresh wild garlic is from March to May. Fresh wild garlic loses some of its flavor when it is heated, but this is not an issue with this raw food dish. Alternatively, you can increase the amount of dried wild garlic.

Vegan chili with beans: As with Chile sin carne, you can also add beans or tofu to this dish. However, the recipe will then no longer be raw. Since uncooked beans contain certain glycoproteins and can only be eaten in limited quantities raw, larger amounts need to be precooked before using. The recipe will no longer be suited for raw foodists, but it will definitely be vegan.