We Should Cocoa - the Savoury Round-Up

I knew this was going to be a bit of a tough We Should Cocoa challenge and indeed it proved to be so. There was much shaking of heads and dark mutterings going on in the blogoshpere. It started off with only a few hardened souls brave enough to attempt it. After stating in the rules that only one entry per person per month was allowed, I was so worried at the lack of entries coming in, that I broke the rule - just this once, you understand. Having allowed multiple entries, I was suddenly inundated right at the very end - hey ho!

So having laid down the gauntlet for something savoury and vegetarian, the WSC storm troopers came up with any number of imaginative and delicious sounding offering - 25 entries in total! There has been a lot of talk recently about cheese and chocolate pairing and as many of the bloggers who have tried it attest below, it seems to work remarkably well. What I'm wondering most is which one I'm going to make first. In fact I'm almost tempted to set myself the challenge of making each and everyone of these.

Don't forget to pop along to the Chocolate Teapot tomorrow to find out what is in store for us all next month.

Thankfully Homemade by Fleur was excited by the prospect of using chocolate in a savoury dish. She commenced proceedings with bean, pumpkin and chestnut chilli. I love chilli at the best of times, but this adaptation of Fleur's using Willie's 100% chocolate sounds gorgeous.

Hungry Hinny adapted a recipe using cocoa nibs to make chocolate and pecan crusted goat's cheese. Although somewhat dubious to begin with, she enjoyed the challenge and was pleased with the result - hooray!

This was the first time Kate of Turquoise Lemons has entered WSC and what a challenge to start with. These cocoa, rye, pumpkin cheddar scones sound intriguing and with my love of rye flour I shall have to try them out. Thank you Kate.

I love dips so was really excited to see this red bean chocolate hummus from Javelin Warrior's Cookin w/Luv. Served with pita chips, apple slices and radishes, it sounds like my sort of lunch.

These wonderfully elegant savoury goat cheese and chocolate canapés come from Suelle of Mainly Baking. I bet these would go down a storm at any party - am I invited?

A first entry from Jo of Comfort Bites brings us chocoholic's onion and goat's cheese tart. Crazy, she might have thought it, but it looks like a winner to me.

Chocolate, goat's cheese and beetroot must be a winning combination, for it also features at Lavender and Lovage with Karen's hot chevre and beetroot salad with chocolate and vanilla balsamic drizzle - this time complete with beetroot hearts. Is this a new trend emerging perchance?

As long as you don't look at this too closely, you might be able to convince yourself it's Quorn mince. It's certainly what Janice of Farmersgirl Kitchen meant to use in this chocolate chilli con carne.

Having missed out on trying Mole when Laura of How to cook Good Food visited Mexico she decide to make her own with this roasted butternut squash and black bean mole.

For Pancake Day, first timer Kit of Lost In Austen made these amazingly beautiful cocoa crepes with carrots and cumin coconut cream - wow!

Normally I use lentils in my shepherd's pie, but this time I thought I'd try Quorn mince. Quorn is not my favourite thing, but the chocolate worked superbly in this chocolate shepherd's pie.

Another scrummy dip. This time from Phil of As Strong As Soup who always comes up with something interesting. This time he brings us this vibrant pepper dip with almonds and chocolate.

Baking Addict Ros really struggled with this challenge, but she was not to be defeated and came up with these very tasty looking chocolate and cheese twists.

I knew Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe would have no problem with this challenge. She's already produced a number of chocolate savoury veggie dishes. This time she came up with something uber original - green apple and white chocolate salad.

Dom of Belleau Kitchen was desperate for meat, so he very cleverly came up with something he could eat and that I too could partake of. I give you his chocolate roast pork belly with a caramelised cocoa and onion gravy and he's right, I want some.

Gill from Tales of Pigling Bland really threw herself into this challenge AND as I was worried about the sparsity of entrants this month, I said I would take whatever she came up with and she came up with a lot! First off:  vegetable cocoa nib nibbles.

Tales of Pigling Bland followed on with these mouth watering Paul A Young's chocolate water biscuits for cheese.

You can see Gill has been havng lots of creative fun in the kitchen finishing with  this vegetable tart with cocoa puff pastry - what a girl!

The entry from Chele of the Chocolate Teapot was a dish of pure nostalgia for me. I grew up on veggie "spag bol" made with lentils - only my mother NEVER made hers with chocolate!

Refried beans is another of my favourites - I think you can probably tell by now that I have my finger on the pulses. So these black bean enchiladas with chipotle & cocoa sauce from Yummy Choo Eats is right up my street.

Assuming you can get hold of Gyoza wrappers, these spicy chocolate Gyoza crisps from Helen of Fuss Free Flavours sound a really simple to prepare nibble to wow your dinner party chums with.

Feeling ill, Tart to Heart, nevertheless managed to pull, or should I say prod, this amazing bittersweet chocolate, sea salt and rosemary focaccia into existence. I've made chilli, chocolate and lime bread before, but this sounds even better.

I suspect Hannah of Corner Cottage Bakery will forever remember her mushroom & stilton tatin with a chocolate and port sauce. Half way through preparing this, she was rushed to A&E having sliced the tip of her finger off! Despite this, or maybe because of it, she reckoned this dish was a success. It certainly looks like one to me.

Chocolate pasta anyone? What an inspired idea. Ren of Fabulicious Food has made this fabulicious penne cocoa pasta with a creamy mushroom sauce - a simple supper fit to be served at the most sophisticated of dinner parties.

This round-up started with chilli and to round-it off nicely, it's finishing with chilli. Carl Legge's vegetarian chilli with chocolate is made with the unusual addition of burghul wheat for a different texture. He served his with yellow corn bread.