I got my first hate mail last week. A woman googled for vegan green chile stew and went off on me for making exactly what she googled – one of my highest-googled recipes, actually: vegan green chile stew. She then went off on the state of New Mexico, a “hell hole”, as she called it, and that “white people should stay away from making minority food.”
Wow.
She was mostly upset that someone could make a stew without meat in it and call it a stew…. and so, yes, you can put meat in your stew, however I will continue to focus on health and nutrition, and will leave all of the animals alive and well. One thing I learned from her though, is that no one would put a shallot in a green chile stew – that oregano is the key ingredient, and I left it out of that recipe. So here’s what I offer for you today: make this recipe, add 2 tsp. of oregano, and/or, remove the shallot – your choice. So thank you, reader, for the advice. And I’m sorry I upset you with my recipe.
The last thing I want to do is upset someone to that level, and I’m a bit bummed that a recipe can stir up such hatred. It’s a recipe, for goodness sake…. we’re all entitled to make what we want. And you, dear readers, are entitled to look at my recipes, make them, or not – your choice. I hope I don’t upset you by offering my take on many of my favorite dishes.
The coolest part of her email is that it made me look back over my 2017 New Mexican Green Chile Stew recipe to see how bad it really is, and one thing I realized, is the theme of that post was me talking about the retreat that I had just taken at my beloved Prajna Yoga. And you know what? The very next day after getting that email, I happened to be going to yet another yoga retreat at Prajna Yoga – the first time I have studied with them, in person, in Santa Fe, in 5 years.
How serendipitous is that? So thank you, green chile stew reader, for getting me back on my blog, and making me realize yet again the beauty of all of the connections in this world…. it’s truly unbelievable, and it’s there for all of us if we choose to look for it.
And yes, New Mexico it is. My home away from home is quickly turning into my home…. more to come on that, but let’s just say this Texan is thrilled to be turning over a new leaf in the Land of Enchantment.
Love to all,
Jen