Tasty Tuesday – The Best Vegetarian Chili You’ll Ever Taste

Chili is one of my favorite things becuase it’s (usually) healthy, hearty and makes a big batch that can be easily warmed up for healthy lunches, dinners and even snacks throughout the week. Sometimes I’ll be out in the morning with Siena and not sit down for lunch until 1:30 PM. That’s when it’s essential that I have something quick and healthy, like this chili, to eat immediately. 

This chili is my far my favorite chili recipe and it doesn’t contain any meat (my other go-to chili recipes usually have ground turkey). This recipe is adapted from vegan ultra runner Scott Jurek‘s Minnesota Winter Chili recipe that he published in his book, Eat and Run (great book by the way, I highly recommend it!). He claimed in the book that this chili proved to him that he could go vegan becuase it’s that good. I agree! Although I am not vegan, I appreciate plant-based recipes and this is one of my favorites.

I’ve also come to accept that my food photography skills are pretty poor.

Ingredients 

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil or olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 8–10 medium mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1 medium-large bell pepper (I use red), finely chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
• 1 jalapeño pepper or other hot pepper, seeded and minced (optional, I usually omit becuase Trader Joe’s only sells a pack of 6 jalapeños and I don’t need 6!)
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 2 tablespoons chili powder, or to taste
• 2 teaspoons sea salt, or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 15-ounce can kidney beans, drained
• 1 15-ounce can black beans, drained
• 1 15-ounce can red beans, drained (I used pinto beans this time – I’ve found the actual type of bean isn’t that important)
• 3 cups water
• 2 cups dry farro (the original calls for bulgur but it’s not sold at Trader Joes so I use farro instead).

Directions

Add the oil to a large pot. Sauté the vegetables and spices in the oil over medium to medium-low heat for 10 minutes or until tender. Add a few tablespoons of water if the veggies begin sticking to the pot.

Add the remaining ingredients and simmer over medium-low heat, covered, for 40 minutes, stirring a few times.

This tastes even better the next day!

21 Day Fix Containers

When I eat vegetarian for a meal, I count things like beans as a protein/red container. Therefore, I’d portion out one red, and one yellow and count it as 1 red, 1 yellow, 1/2 green and 1 tsp. Not exact, but close enough!

Do you like chili? What is your favorite chili recipe?