CAA 5th Annual Vegan Chili Cook Off

vegan-chili-cook-off-poster-2014-231x300

Last night was CAA’s 5th Annual Vegan Chili Cook Off. This was my first chance to attend one of their chili cook offs, and I had a great time. I wanted to attend previous events, but the scheduling didn’t work out until this year.

CAA 5th Annual Vegan Chili Cook Off

There were easily over 100 people in attendance. There were ten contestants serving up their chili. The line quickly got very long, so I opted to start with the “People’s Chili” and cornbread since there was no line there at all. Yum! The cornbread was some of the best I’ve had in a long time. They also had free chips from Way Better Snacks and almond milk. The almond milk went nicely with the heat from the different chilies.

CAA 5th Annual Vegan Chili Cook Off

While I was waiting for the line to die down, I also had some vegan ice cream from Izzy’s. They had both chocolate and strawberry. They both looked delicious, and I couldn’t decide which to get. I got a scoop of each. Yum!

CAA 5th Annual Vegan Chili Cook Off

I finally got up to the chili line to grab my samples and begin my voting. A few had already run out, but the ones I did get to try were nice. Two of them really stood out for me. One was a beer-cheese chili with a pretzel. It was very savory and cheesy. The second I enjoyed was based heavily on sweet potatoes which tasted very similar to one of my own recipes. Tasty. #9 pictured above won first prize. The wheat grass on top was a nice visual, but I found the coconut flavor strange.

I had a great time eating tons of awesome food and chatting with new vegan friends. A great way to spend a cold, snowy Saturday night: eating hot chili with friends. Thanks CAA for hosting a great event.

 

 


The chili poster above is © Amy Stemper. The rest of images are © Chris Luhman.

6 comments:

  1. Wow an all vegan chili cook off. That is awesome. The beer/cheese chili sounds interesting.

    The Sheriff's office always has a chili cook off here as a CASA fundraiser but you're lucky to have a veg chili let alone vegan.

    What a treat to be able to sample them all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yea, it was pretty cool! Maybe you should host a vegan chili cookoff??

      Delete
  2. They had a chili cook off in our building back in December and the people's choice winner turned out to be a vegan chili. She didn't say anything about that until after the voting was done...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. wow nice. good move on her part. lots of folks get a weird mental block if you say the word vegan or vegetarian. I've found it is usually a better experience if people try the food, and then mention its status.

      Delete
  3. Would love to see the winning chili (and Richard M's co-worker!) at the 25th Anniversary Lone Star Veggie Chili Cook-off in November!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Austin sounds nicer than MN in November. good luck with your cook-off

      Delete