Recently, we’ve been dealing with some extreme weather. When it’s really gross and dark outside and pretty chilly, all I want is comfort food. To me, nothing says comfort quite like chili!
Being pretty close to stranded meant coming up with a recipe using whatever I had laying around:
1.5 ish cups black beans (already cooked)
1 can cannelloni beans
3 cans diced tomatoes
1 can corn
1 green bell pepper diced
1 onion sliced
Vegetable broth
chili powder
chipotle powder
garlic powder
black pepper
1/2 ish cup quinoa
Here’s what you do:
Throw all canned goods, black beans, and bell pepper together in a pot. Turn on the stove to medium/medium low. I usually like to start it a bit higher to get it bubbling and then turn it down to simmer. Season to taste. I forgot about the onion until after I had done this step, so I cooked it until translucent in a pan and then added it. You could probably start with the onion and only use the one pot. That would be way smarter! You could also add fresh garlic in the same manner as the onion.
Go sit on your couch and drink some tea and maybe read a good book while everything simmers. Let it simmer for a good long while (so you can get in plenty of reading).
Check the seasoning and make sure you’re happy. About 40-60 minutes before you want to serve, add the quinoa and let it plump up.
Add vegetable broth at any time to keep the consistency normal.
Top with extra sharp cheddar, plain yogurt, or whatever you usually put on chili.
Serve and enjoy! 🙂
This recipe makes about 4-6 generous servings.
So, while this was going on around me, I occupied myself with chili! I’m so lucky!
As you can see in the recipe, I used a lot of cans on my shelf! I always try to buy canned items that contain nothing but the item itself (corn with no salt added, no preservatives in the tomatoes, etc.). They can be surprisingly difficult to find, but I always feel a bit better knowing I’m not tripling my usual salt intake, which is generally quite low, every time I used canned goods.
By the way, the black beans I cooked (probably a few months ago) and froze for easy access. Thank you patty for the wonderful suggestion! Works beautifully! Obviously I haven’t been using them a lot. M doesn’t like black beans much and while I initially was going to make more black bean burgers, which we both love, I haven’t quite gotten around to it.
Since I was kind of stuck at home, I thought it would be nice to get this started and let it stew for a long time because it smells amazing and because I simply had nothing better to do. Probably could have been made in an hour or so, but I had it on the stove for probably…3 hours?
Anyways, flash flood has passed and while many are still dealing with the consequences, our chili is gone and life is pretty much back to normal for us!
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A Foodie Family 
I like the idea of using quinoa! What a great way to add some more texture and protein!
It was pretty delicious with the quinoa! The last time I made chili, I was eating meat, so it was interesting to see what I wanted to put in eating vegetarian now. I’m not sure anyone eating it noticed the missing meat!