Easy-To-Get-Your-5-A-Day Vegetarian Chilli

brew's Note:

Vegetarian food to me up till this point has been pretty bland (plain steamed veggies) or super unhealthy (fried anything). This chilli is very satisfying and filling, and has the benefit of being healthy and delicious! The colors are gorgeous in the pot also. Sub in your favorite vegetables or beans to suit your taste or the season, or indeed, add meat, though I can't see you would need any animals here. I use Chugwater Chilli Mix (a spice mix with chili powder, garlic, spices and masa harina - try it if you can it is FABULOUS) but have tried to recreate the seasonings here. I am not insane by suggesting 1 can crushed tomatoes and 1 can whole, I just like the texture of the whole tomatoes better. The crushed tend to be too runny for my taste. Use one or the other, if that is all you have. All measurements are approximate.

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 tablespoon olive oil (just to coat bottom of pan)
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 2 fat garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1 small zucchini, chopped
• 1 (12 ounce) can corn
• 2 tablespoons cumin
• 1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 pinch cinnamon
• salt
• pepper
• red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1 (15 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 (15 ounce) can whole tomatoes with juice
• 2 (14 ounce) cans red kidney beans

Directions:

1. Coat bottom of stockpot with oil.
2. Add onions, garlic, peppers, carrots, zucchini, and corn to the oil and stir to coat.
3. Sauté veggies till soft, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes on medium high.
4. Add spices to the veggies and stir to coat. Let cook for a minute.
5. Add both kinds of tomatoes and the beans to the pot. Fill one of the cans with water and add that to the pot.
6. Give it a good stir. Check the seasonings and adjust if needed.
7. Leave it alone for at least 30 minutes to cook; longer is better. If cooking longer, reduce heat to low and let it simmer the day away on the stove.
8. Tastes even better the next day! This could probably be adapted for crock pot cooking or OAMC also.
9. Serve with sour cream, cheese, bread, whatever you like.

Reviews

[Ambrosia 2009]

Although this was quite different to my usual veggie chilli recipe and tasted very different too, it was delicious and I shall be making it again. I too was a little sceptical of the grated carrot idea but it really worked well. I halved the recipe but otherwise followed it faithfully. I notice one other reviewer mentioned adding ground turkey 'for protein'. That's fine if it is a matter of taste, but the kidney beans are a perfectly good alternative protein so there is no need from a nutritional point of view.

[Okra]

Am always looking for tasty, meatless dishes and am delighted with this one. I used just 1 Tbls cumin and did not add the red pepper flakes or the cinnamon. Cooked on high in crockpot for about 5 hours. This is definitely a keeper!

[5 Mule Team]

I gave this 3 stars because as a recipe, it wasn't to my taste for chili, but after some quick fixes, it ended up enjoyable so it could be a good base recipe. I felt that there was too much tomato, not enough beans. I will admit that I cooked it in the slow cooker, so maybe that affected the taste. I chopped up all of the veggies (except the zucchini) and microwaved them in a big glass dish with the aromatics (per the way America's test kitchen does most of their recipes in their Slow Cooker Revolution book) before putting them into the slow cooker and the onions were still not done after 4 hours on high - and my cooker runs hot. We let it cook longer and then gave it a taste and it just wasn't what we were looking for, which was unfortunate because I had doubled the recipe since this had received good reviews. I added a can of baked beans and a can of refried beans, some oregano and parsley and that helped a lot. After the fixes we really enjoyed it and DH had a second bowl and he originally didn't want to eat any of it. So, I might make the recipe again, but probably omit the can of whole tomatoes and add more beans.