Recipe: Carol’s Chili (Veganized)

My mother makes a mean chili, however, unfortunately it typically has one or more animal products in it. Chili is a really easy thing to veganize, so my mom did so for me when I was visiting. I then just tweaked her recipe a little to add more beans to make the consistency a bit thicker and voilà - an amazing dish!!!

Carol’s Chili (Veganized)

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 large green pepper
• 1 large red pepper
• 1 large yellow pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 28 oz crushed tomatoes
• 1 6 oz tomato paste
• 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
• 2 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon basil
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• Dash cayenne pepper
• 1 19 oz kidney beans (or a 2/3 cup dried, or 2 cups cooked)
• 1 15 oz can dark red kidney beans (or a 1/2 cup dried, or 1 1/2 cups cooked)
• 1 15 oz can cannellini beans (or a 1/2 cup dried, or 1 1/2 cups cooked)

Directions:

1. Use olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan in order to sauté onion and peppers. Add the garlic toward the end of the onion and peppers cooking so as not to burn it.

2. Add tomato ingredients, then add spices and mix thoroughly. Then add all beans. Simmer until heated through.

Note: If you are going to cook the beans from scratch, good for you!! It’s easy to put all the beans in a big bowl to soak together and they cook at approximately the same time so they can be cooked together as well.

Serves 6-8

That’s it! Other than sautéing the vegetables, there is really no other labor intensive direction to this easy meal. We tend to make this dish on a Sunday night and keep it in the fridge for easy go-to meals during the week. It’s good for a quite a while, although I have never pressed the limits as it doesn’t last very long in my house!!