Vegetarian chili with bell peppers
27 Oct
Notice the little spots on the side of the bowl? It’s bothering me! I should have wiped it down with a napkin. Or Photoshop it out now. But instead of fixing it, I will purposefully leave it there and try to be cool with it. After all, a few spots never hurt anyone!
So I decided to make this for my friends the other night because the weather is getting colder. And since I had a meat dish to go with this, I made it vegetarian cuz I don’t really like ground beef that much anyway.
(Serves about 6)
Ingredients:
1 15 oz can of black beans
1 15 oz can of kidney beans
1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup of chicken stock (or water)
1 large sweet onion, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 orange bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
2 jalapenos, diced
2 tbsps of brown sugar
1 tbsp of tomato paste
1 tbsp of cumin
1 tbsp of chili powder
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of Chipotle Tobasco sauce
1 tsp of cayenne pepper (more if you like spicy)
1/2 tsp of oregano
5 cloves of minced garlic
Procedure:
1) In a large frying pan coated with olive oil, sauté onions, peppers, and garlic with salt over medium heat until onions are cooked through.
2) Add sugar, jalapenos, brown sugar, cumin, chili powder, Tobasco and oregano to vegetables. Cook for about 3-4 minutes.
3) Transfer to a large sauce pan. Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste and beans to veggies and stir. (There’s my microwave!)
4) Add chicken stock or water.
5) Close lid and bring to point of boiling then reduce heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes with a slight opening of the cover.
6) Simmer on the lowest heat setting for as long as possible.
7) Serve with shredded cheddar cheese, chopped green onions and sour cream. And of course, bread!
Something to note - I made a mistake and added too much cayenne pepper in the end, which made me feel really bad for my friends who don’t like spicy stuff. I just dusted a healthy amount instead of measuring it out. Lesson learned – don’t experiment when you have people over!
I had whole cumin seeds so I used my coffee grinder to grind it up. After grinding, I had a lot more than I started with, not to mention fresher flavor. It got me thinking… what other spices can I buy whole, then grind myself?
