Vegetarian Chili

Recently I have been reading a book called, “Eat to Live” by Joel Fuhrman, and it has been making me seriously rethink how I view nutrition… well long story short, it made me pull out a cookbook called “My Father’s Daughter” that I bought last year and then subsequently forgot about because it just didn’t suit my cooking style and the recipes called for all kinds of weird ingredients that I can’t find in Russia.  Anyway, I reread and sifted through the recipes and I came up with a few that I have been testing at home that I plan to share on this blog. 

Side note: I am so excited to finally be adding a recipe that calls for lentils!  Its about time I helped out Kelly with this particular category of foods.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 large onion, peeled and finely diced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch dice
• 1/2 large, red bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed, cut into 1/4 inch dice
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 3/4 teaspoon mild chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon, freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon chipotle in adobo
• 1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes with their juices
• 1/2 dark lentils
• 1 14-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 14-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• Big pinch coarse salt
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste

Steps:

1. Heat the olive oil in a medium soup pot over medium heat.
2. Add the onion, carrot, bell pepper, garlic, chili power, cumin and black pepper.  Cook, stirring for 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are softened.
3. Add the chipotle, stir and combine.
4. Turn the heat up to high, add the tomatoes and their juice, crushing them a bit with your wooden spoon, and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 40 minutes.
6. Add the lentils and the beans.
7. Fill one 14-ounce can with water and add it to the pot, along with the salt.
8. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 40 minutes.
9. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 20 mire minutes, or until the lentils are soft and the flavors melted.

**My mom called right before Isla started eating so I didn’t get any pictures of her eating or the final product. Mea culpa.

Yield: The book says 4, but I would say that in my family we could stretch it to at least 6.  I’d call this a generous 4.

Miscellaneous:

1. I just rinsed the beans and lentils together since I didn’t want to get more than one colander dirty.  It worked fine.
2. I used kidney and white beans since I cannot buy black beans.
3. Also, I left out the chipotle in adobo! I don’t have it and I am not a fan of the flavor.  I still enjoyed the taste.
4. I also left my apartment for over two hours and left it simmering, instead of the 40 minutes the recipes requires, before adding the tomato paste.  Again, it was fine.

Difficulty Rating:  3 or 4. This one is a tough one for me.  I am giving it a 3 because it only dirtied one pot and one colander.  Normally it would have been a 4 because you had to come back 3 times to add things in, and it takes about 2 hours.

Epicutie Rating: Somewhat Yummy! <----See left side of the page for descriptions.

Sources say that Little Frances really enjoyed this, but she had had a long, tough day, so she didn’t gobble it down.  Considering her usual touchy evening taste buds, I think she must have liked it!