Food Reviews: Good To-Go Smoked Three Bean Chili

I've been really, really excited about trying Good To-Go Meals, following them on twitter, keeping an eye on their webpage and keeping my ear to the ground for any and all new product reviews. It's such a promising brand because their products are all: 1) vegetarian or vegan, 2) painstakingly and truly handmade from the ground up, 3) the brainchild of  Jennifer Scism, whose professional culinary history is very impressive, and 4) clearly a labor of love.

I don't consider myself picky, but I am a little choosy when it comes to vegetarian chili. Chili is, after all, a terribly competitive and contentious dish, rife with impassioned and unsubstantiated personal opinion. As such, there are several schools of thought when it comes to vegetarian chili (just as there are schools of thought for oatmeal cookies, brownies, etc.) and Good To Go's definitely falls in the Hippie Chili category, more of a vegetable and bean stew than a true chili. In the Hippie Chili category you'll find quinoa chili, bulgur chili, sweet potato and corn chili, and so on.




Good To-Go's Smoked Three Bean Chili tastes primarily of canned tomatoes and the predictably overwhelming character of smoked paprika. Good To-Go's chili is definitely Not Bad, and for its category, it's probably even Good, but it is nowhere near great and I'm going to come right out and say it, mine is worlds better. Of course, my chili is benefiting from an absolute wallop of infused butter, so one could justifiably argue that any comparison is unfair.

But seriously, if hippie chili is your thing, Good To Go is a solid choice. There are aspects I appreciate (healthy, high fiber, low calorie, juicy corn), and even if it's not going to win any chili awards I will probably buy it again if I don't have time to make my own. In the future, I will definitely bring some olive oil or butter to amp up the calories per serving and richness, and I will probably let it sit longer than the recommended 20 minutes, since 25 in a cozy was insufficient to rehydrate the cannelloni beans. If you do buy a bag, dear god, do yourself a favor and bring some salt. This stuff is bland as sin (likely to accommodate the sodium sensitive) and only starts to taste like food once you've added a good half teaspoon.

Kern River, Golden Trout Wilderness

Good To-Go Smoked Three Bean Chili

Flavor, Nina: 6.5/10

Flavor, Dennis: 6/10

Ease at camp: 10/10

Price: $11.50 for 2 small servings (we were hungry after)
Would buy again: Nina maybe, Dennis no

Best for: light dinner for 2, big (albeit fairly low calorie) dinner for 1

Praise: wholesome, multi-textural, low sodium for those who care, vegan, juicy corn bits

Criticism: one dimensional canned tomato flavor, smoked paprika is a shortcut/poorly conceived way to introduce smoked flavor, insanely bland until salt is added, a little expensive for what it is, they're clearly trying to make it texturally interesting by including free-floating whole beans and corn but this strategy backfires since the large beans take so much longer to rehydrate and are therefore still hard/starchy after 20 minutes; low fat/calorie- needs fat badly.

To exit on a positive note, here's my favorite photo from the weekend. This bridge leads to the quiet side of the mind.

Trout Meadow, Golden Trout Wilderness