Vegetarian Chili

This is a comfort food and especially during winter you will find great comfort in this spicy hot bowl of chili. The Mexican flavors will kick your taste-buds. My husband and I are up for anything from the south of US, except for beef and pork dishes, like most of the Indians.

I am a carnivore (have eaten lamb and goat, but now I limit myself to chicken and seafood) and my husband is now a herbivore (used to eat chicken before), so being a carnivore I cannot stand boring food that makes me miss the meat. So I try to cook vegetarian dishes that are so flavorful that I do not miss meat (which I do enjoy occasionally). Also thankfully being an Indian gives me the advantage of having loads of yummy vegetarian dishes as a part of our culture.  So we can preserve our personal choices without changing each other. I thank dishes like this vegetarian chili to make our marriage work!

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion chopped fine
• 5-6 garlic cloves minced (I like lot of garlic)
• 2 carrots chopped fine
• 1 red bell pepper chopped fine
• 1 green bell pepper chopped fine
• 1 stalk celery chopped
• 3/4 cup corn
• 3-4 tomatoes chopped fine
• 2- 1/2 cups cooked beans (after soaking overnight) like pinto, red/ pink or black beans
• 1 green chili (Serrano or jalapeno) seeded and chopped fine
• 1/4 tsp red chili powder (optional) 
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• Salt to taste
• Sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese to serve (optional)
• 4 tsp cooking oil

Directions:

• In a large pot, heat oil. Add chopped green chili, minced garlic, chopped onions and saute.
• Add chopped carrots, red and green bell peppers, celery and corn. Mix well, add salt and let them cook till they are soft.
• Add chopped tomatoes, red chili powder and cumin powder. Mix and let the tomato release all its juice.
• Add the well cooked beans (they should be so well cooked that they mash up at the slightest touch) and add 3-4 cups of water and let the chili simmer on low heat for 5-10 minutes, so that the flavors get blended well. Do not add too much water or your chili will become watery. You can always add more water if you feel your chili is too thick and simmer for some time. Adjust salt and seasoning as per your taste.
• Take the chili in a bowl and top it with a blob of sour cream and some shredded cheddar cheese.
• It really tastes yum, enjoy!!

Serving suggestions:

To make it a complete meal you can bake quarters of corn tortillas or leftover/ fresh rotis, till crispy and serve with the chili. Just crumble them into the chili  and there you have a nutritious and more importantly, delicious;) meal.