Fail Proof Vegetarian Chili

Let me start out by saying that I am not a chef. There is a reason that this blog does not feature many recipes. I mean, I'm decent at cooking, but I never attempt a recipe that appears to have too many ingredients, especially if there are too many ingredients that I have never heard of. That is not to say that I don't love the taste of complicated food dishes, I just prefer when someone else makes them.

Example: I LOVE creme brulee, but you will never see me using a torch in the kitchen. It would not be safe.

However, there are a few things that I can cook, and find to be pretty easy, and pretty fail proof. Chili is one of those things. I feel like you can pretty much throw anything into chili and it will turn out. However this totally contradicts my rule about not making things with too many ingredients, but you kinda need lots of things for chili. Oh well, I am a walking contradiction.

I love chili because it's so nutrient dense. You can throw so many vegetables in the pot, and it tastes better than if you were to eat all the vegetables separately. The batch I made this time is oozing with nutritional value.

Since I am a vegetarian, to me chili does not mean having ground beef or turkey, but you could easily add meat and I am sure it would turn out great.

I decided to try making this in the crock pot, which I rarely do, but should probably start doing more often. Ya know, so I can really cement my status as a Midwestern gal. Minnesotans really love their crock pots.

Because I just kind of threw things in the pot, I won't really have exact measurements, but bear with me!

Ingredients: 

Fresh Produce

1 poblano pepper

1 zucchini 

3/4 of a yellow onion 

1/2 a bag of baby carrots

1 sweet potato 

3 cloves of garlic 

A handful of kale 

Canned goods

1 big can (read: 28 oz) of diced tomatoes

1 normal sized can (15.5 oz) garbanzo beans

1 normal sized can of dark red kidney beans

1 small can (6 oz) of tomato paste

1 small can (4 oz) of sliced jalapenos

some water 

Seasonings

cayenne pepper 

chili powder 

red pepper flakes

cinnamon

salt

pepper 

So basically I threw all of that into a crock pot, except for the kale, I put that in about 2 hours before it was done. I drained all of the cans except for the diced tomatoes, I threw the whole can in. But then it seemed a little thick, so I filled up my empty tomato paste can and put 2 cans worth of water into the mixture. Although I don't think I would have needed any because as the day went on it became more juicy. See, I am not a chef, I have no intuition about this sort of stuff. 

Then I threw in seasonings, I didn't put a lot of cinnamon in, just a little. And enough cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes to make my nose run. 

Changes that I would make next time would be using some vegetable broth to give it a little more flavor. No kale, but replace with spinach, which was my original plan but my kale was closer to spoiling. Overall I loved it and found it to be extraordinarily easy. 

How does everyone else make chili? Do you follow a recipe? Or just sort of wing it?