Vegetable Chili
Ingredients
- 1 T basil leaves
- 3 bay leaves
- 15 oz black beans
- 2 T brown sugar
- 1 t cayenne pepper
- ⅔ c chili powder
- 1 T cinnamon
- 4 t cumin
- 15 oz chickpeas
- 3 cloves garlic
- 30 oz kidney beans one dark can, one light can
- 15 oz northern beans
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 T oregano
- 3 chili peppers red, dried
- 2 t red pepper flakes
- 1 T thyme
- 30 oz diced tomatoes
- 6 oz tomato paste
- 2+ c vegetables
- ⅓ c water
Instructions
Preparation
- Mince or grate the garlic cloves. Open all of your cans. Drain the canned beans and rinse them briefly in a colander with cold water.
Cooking
- Heat the oil to medium-high heat in a large pot. Add the garlic and lightly brown it to release its flavors. Add all of the remaining spices and cook them for a few minutes. The dried red pepper can be left whole or crushed if you want to make the chili spicier.
- Add the diced tomatoes and tomato paste and wait for them to warm.
- Add the vegetables, beans, and water. Once everything comes up to temperature reduce to medium heat and allow to cook, covered, for 2 hours or more.
Notes
We like this with shredded sharp cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream. Tortilla chips and bread make nice accompaniments.
You can use any vegetables you want in this chili. We use whatever we happen to have on hand, but a typical assortment might be 2c of frozen mixed vegetables (which can be thrown in straight from the freezer), a few handfuls of small Brussels sprouts, and a few handfuls of large cauliflower pieces. New potatoes, cut green beans, bell peppers, and almost anything else you can think of would also be good.
Having some large vegetable pieces in the chili makes it much more interesting.
Depending on how thick or thin you like your chili, you can play with the tomato paste and water. We like our chili to be very, very thick.
This makes a ton of chili. Luckily, it freezes very well.