I have a lot of vegetables in my crisper drawer. Like…a lot. A whole lot. Because…I get a CSA bin loaded up each Friday and sometimes I get through them, and other times…I don’t. Well, last week with all the birthday insanity…I barely got through them. It wasn’t without trying. I just…had so much going on and a few dinners had to be really quick and simple and…not cooked from my fresh and delicious vegetables. Hey…I did make an amazing salad though with a whole lot of them.
But, I digress.
With a trip coming up next week, I am determined to use up much of what is now in my crisper drawer. I also had a new gluten-free and dairy-free recipe for cornbread that I really, really, really wanted to get working on…so…I thought…
CHILI!!
Now, I have a TON of recipes for vegetarian chili…but I wanted one that I could use simply what I had in my kitchen. And, it just so happened to exist in my Happy Herbivore Light & Lean cookbook. Only thing I needed was…beans! Simple enough, I was grocery shopping today anyway. So…clocking in at 153 calories and 1 gram of fat, I give you…
Recipe: The Happy Herbivore’s Garden Chili
Servings: 2-3 (but I made 6 servings out of it)
Time: Prep 15 minutes; Cook 25 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 cups vegetable broth, divided
- 1 onion, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
- 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes (undrained) (I used fire-roasted low sodium diced tomatoes)
- 1 cup sliced mushrooms
- 2 celery stalks, sliced
- 2 carrots, peeled and diced
- 1/4 cup tomato paste2 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 tablespoon Vegan Worcestershire Sauce (I used gluten-free liquid smoke instead!)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin - 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
- 1 (15 ounce) can pinto or kidney beans, drained and rinsed (I used organic chili beans)
Directions:
Line a large pot with a thin layer of broth, and sauté onion and garlic over high heat until onion is translucent, about a minute.
Add the bell pepper, tomatoes with juice, mushrooms, celery, carrots, tomato paste, remaining broth, spices, and condiments. Stir, cover, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to low and simmer until the vegetables are fork-tender, about 10 minutes. Add water or tomato sauce to make it more chili-like if necessary. Add beans and serve.
~*~*~
Okay…confession…I totally missed the part where it said to cover the pot. HAHA! No wonder it took a little bit of time to get those vegetables fork-tender. My total bad! But, it still worked. And what emerged was a fantastic spicy (but not too spicy…because the roomie didn’t even comment that her sinuses were running!) chili that celebrates vegetables. Most vegetarian chilies seem to put so much emphasis on beans that this was, indeed, a nice change. And serving this up with a couple slices of gluten-free and dairy-free cornbread made for one great, perfect fall meal.
It’s soup/chili season, folks! Let’s get cooking!
The Celiathlete 