I headed out the door really early this morning. Early. It was 4am. And it was cold. Really really cold. Well, cold for Florida. I wasn’t scraping ice off my car but I was bundled up in a scarf and mittens. I know you guys up north are feeling no pity for me as many of you are buried in snow. My fellow Floridians can empathize.
Anyway, what is better for the cold weather (no matter what your definition of cold is) than a nice big bowl of piping hot chili? I have the easiest recipe for a chili that is full of vegetables.
And like most Veggie recipes, the veggies can really be interchangeable. You can add mushrooms or zucchini. You can substitute white beans for the kidney beans. You could use black beans and jalapenos to make it a little Mexican.
The key here is to use the liquid from the can of beans, tomatoes and corn instead of adding extra water or broth. I also add no additional salt as the salty liquids are more than enough. I bought reduced-sodium kidney beans and tomatoes with no salt added simply to control what amount of salt I could.
In making the chili, I also used kitchen shears to cut the tomatoes as opposed to making a mess trying to chop them up. I am messy enough in the kitchen without squirting tomato juice everywhere.
Now the inspiration for this chili was from a restaurant called Freshii. They have an awesome Vegan chili and added broccoli and sliced avocado as a garnish.
We did the same just to add even more healthyness to an already healthy bowl of delicious veggies. We also added rice to the bottom of our bowl as well just like the Freshii version. As a final garnish I threw a dollop of plain Greek yogurt on top (instead of full-fat sour cream) but leaving this off will make the entire dish Vegan.
The Easiest Vegetarian Chili
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegetable or olive oil
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 cup chopped carrot
- 4 cloves minced garlic
- 1 chopped green bell pepper
- 1 chopped red bell pepper
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes, sliced, liquid reserved
- 1 15-oz can yellow corn, undrained
- 1 15-20-oz can red kidney beans, undrained
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 1/2 tsp dried basil
For the Garnish:
- Plain Greek yogurt
- Broccoli florets
- Sliced avocado
Instructions
- Heat oil in large pot over medium heat. Add onions and garlic, saute until onions begin to turn translucent.
- Add carrots, cook 3 minutes until carrots begin to soften.
- Stir in peppers and chili powder and continue to cook for another 5-6 minutes, until veggies are tender.
- Add in tomatoes, kidney beans and corn, along with the liquid from the cans.
- Sprinkle in the cumin, oregano and basil and mix well.
- Reduce heat to simmer and continue to let the flavors cook for another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Scoop chili into serving bowls and garnish with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt, broccoli florets and avocado slices.
Very NICE 🙂