Charred Poblano and Tofu Chili with Black Beans and Lime
Poblanos blistered under the broiler and chopped into a chili of crumbled tofu browned in cumin and chipotle, with a measured cup of black beans, crushed tomatoes, and lime stirred in at the end.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Charring the poblanos is the step that makes this chili taste like it took an afternoon, and it costs about ten minutes with the broiler on. The skins blister and blacken, the flesh underneath steams itself soft, and what you scrape off the tray is smoky, mild, and much sweeter than a pepper straight from the produce drawer. I have made this with the peppers simply diced into the pot and it is a perfectly decent lunch, but it is not the same dish. If you have a gas burner, holding them over the flame with tongs is even faster.
Tofu earns its place here by behaving nothing like tofu. Pressed and then torn by hand into ragged pieces rather than cut into cubes, it browns in the pot with the spices and picks up crisp, rusty edges that hold up through the simmer. The uneven shapes are the point, since a neat dice looks like tofu and a rough crumble reads as something else entirely. Brown it in the dry-ish pot before any liquid goes in, give it a few minutes of stillness, and it will come out chewy and deeply seasoned rather than soft.
The beans are measured on purpose. A cup across four bowls gives you the creaminess and the mineral, almost sweet flavor that black beans bring, without turning the pot into a bean stew where everything tastes the same. What you get instead is a chili with three separate things going on in every spoonful: crisp-edged tofu, soft beans, and slippery pieces of charred pepper. It reheats beautifully, it freezes properly, and a fresh squeeze of lime over the reheated bowl brings it right back to where it started.
Ingredients
- 25 oz extra-firm tofu, drained, pressed 15 minutes, and crumbled into rough pieces
- 3 poblano peppers, blistered under the broiler, peeled, seeded, and chopped
- 1 1/4 cups black beans, drained and rinsed, from a 15-oz can
- 1 cup crushed tomatoes
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced small
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 2 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp chipotle powder
- 1 tsp dried oregano, crumbled between your fingers
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 2 tbsp lime juice, from 1 lime
- 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Char the poblanos: Heat the broiler and set the peppers on a foil-lined tray a few inches beneath it. Broil for 8 to 10 minutes, turning them with tongs as each side blackens and puffs. Move them to a bowl, cover it with a plate for 5 minutes so they steam, then slip off the skins, pull out the seeds, and chop the flesh roughly.
- Press and crumble the tofu: While the peppers work, wrap the drained tofu in a clean towel and set a heavy pan on top for 15 minutes. Then break the block apart with your hands into rough pieces between the size of a pea and a hazelnut. Uneven is what you want here, since the ragged edges are the parts that brown.
- Brown the tofu hard: Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a heavy pot over medium-high. Add the tofu with the salt, spread it flat, and leave it alone for 4 minutes. Stir once, then leave it another 4, until much of it is golden and the pieces sound like they are sizzling rather than steaming. Scrape it into a bowl and set it aside.
- Build the base: Lower the heat to medium, add the remaining 1 tbsp oil and the onion, and cook for 6 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the garlic, cumin, smoked paprika, chipotle powder, and oregano and stir hard for 45 seconds, until the pot smells hot and the spices have darkened slightly against the bottom.
- Simmer and finish: Add the crushed tomatoes, broth, black beans, and chopped poblanos, scraping the bottom of the pot clean. Bring it to a simmer, return the tofu, and cook uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has thickened enough to coat a spoon. Take it off the heat, stir in the lime juice, and scatter the cilantro over the top.
Variations
- Green chili: Skip the tomatoes, double the poblanos, and add a cup of tomatillos blistered alongside the peppers for a bright, tart green version.
- With squash: Add a cup of diced butternut squash with the broth and simmer five minutes longer for a sweeter pot that suits a cold evening.
- Cocoa and cinnamon: Stir a teaspoon of cocoa powder and a pinch of cinnamon in with the spices for a darker chili with more depth underneath the smoke.
- Tempeh crumbles: Use crumbled tempeh in place of the tofu, browned the same way, for a firmer, nuttier texture that holds even more of its shape.
- Loaded bowls: Top each bowl with diced avocado, sliced radish, and extra lime for crunch and coolness against the heat of the pot.
Storage & Leftovers
This keeps five days in a sealed container in the refrigerator and it is genuinely better on the second day, once the chipotle and cumin have worked their way into the beans and the tofu. Keep the cilantro and a couple of lime wedges separate so each bowl gets something fresh on top.
Reheat it in a saucepan over medium heat with a splash of water or broth, since it thickens considerably as it sits. Five minutes with an occasional stir is enough. It also reheats well in the microwave, covered, at full power for two minutes with a stir at the halfway mark.
It freezes for up to three months and comes back almost unchanged, which is unusual and is mostly down to the tofu, which firms up in the freezer rather than falling apart. Freeze it flat in portions, thaw overnight in the refrigerator, and finish the reheated pot with fresh lime and cilantro.
Notes & Tips
- Let the peppers steam: Five minutes under a plate after they come off the broiler loosens the skins so they slide off in sheets. Peeled straight from the tray, they fight you and you lose half the flesh.
- Tear the tofu, do not cube it: Ragged edges catch the oil and the spice and turn crisp. Neat cubes brown on flat faces only and stay soft everywhere else.
- Brown before you add liquid: Once the tomatoes go in, nothing else in the pot will brown. Everything you want from the crust has to happen in those first eight minutes.
- Bloom the spices in oil: Forty five seconds in hot fat with the onion is what turns ground cumin from dusty to warm and round. Stirred into liquid, it never quite loses its edge.
- Simmer uncovered: The lid traps steam and leaves the chili thin. Fifteen minutes with the pot open lets it reduce until it coats a spoon.
- Finish with lime, always: Acid off the heat is what makes a smoky pot taste finished rather than heavy. If a bowl tastes flat, it almost always wants lime rather than salt.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- The tofu, the beans, and the charred peppers each pull in a different direction, which is what keeps this pot interesting. The tofu carries the protein and the browned, chewy texture, a measured cup of black beans brings soluble fiber and creaminess, and the poblanos and tomatoes supply the volume, the color, and the acidity.
- Tofu pressed and torn by hand browns like something entirely different, and it delivers a serious amount of protein along with calcium from the salts used to set the curd, which is what lets a bowl of chili with no meat in it still eat like a full lunch.
- Black beans are dense with soluble fiber and folate, and their skins carry the same dark pigments found in berries. Kept to a cup across the pot, they give the chili its creamy pockets while the tofu does the heavy lifting.
- Poblanos hold a good deal of vitamin C for a pepper this mild, and charring them concentrates their sugars, which is where the faint sweetness underneath all the smoke comes from.
- Cumin, smoked paprika, chipotle, and oregano are the four things that make this taste like it simmered all afternoon, and the lime stirred in off the heat is what keeps a dark, smoky pot from sitting heavily on the palate.
- As you eat, look for the three textures in each spoonful, the crisp-edged tofu, the soft beans, and the slippery pepper, and let the lime and the smoke settle before the next one so a bowl this warm gets the attention it deserves.
Frequently Asked Questions
How hot is this?
Mild to medium. Poblanos carry very little heat once they are charred, and a teaspoon of chipotle powder across four servings reads as smoky more than sharp. If you want real heat, add a minced serrano with the garlic. If you are cooking for someone heat-shy, halve the chipotle and let the smoked paprika carry it.
Can I skip charring and just dice the peppers?
You can, and it saves ten minutes. Add them with the onion and give them eight minutes to soften. The chili will be greener and brighter and will lose the smoky, faintly sweet quality that charring builds, so add an extra half teaspoon of smoked paprika to make up some of the difference.
Why not use more beans?
Because the character of the pot changes. A cup gives you soft, creamy pockets against the browned tofu, while three cups turns it into a bean chili where every spoonful is the same. If you want it heartier, add a cup of diced zucchini or mushrooms in the last ten minutes instead.
My tofu crumbles fell apart in the simmer. What happened?
Either the block was not pressed long enough or it was not browned hard enough before the liquid went in. That first crust is what holds the pieces together. Fifteen minutes under a weight and eight minutes of mostly undisturbed browning gets you crumbles that survive a fifteen-minute simmer intact.