Simply Delicious Basic Chili

This is a basic vegetarian chili recipe. I encourage you to be creative and add more to it, such as cilantro, corn, red peppers, nopales, grated carrots, or other vegetables. As usual, I don’t recommend making chili very spicy. Each person can decide how hot they want it and add chilis to their own plate. You will find this recipe very quick to make.

Ingredients

2 cans pre-cooked pinto beans (total of about 30 oz. of beans)
15 oz. (one can) diced tomatoes or two large chopped fresh tomatoes
6 oz. (one small can) tomato paste
1 green bell pepper chopped
½ c. onion chopped (or substitute 2 tsp. onion powder)
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
½ tsp. black pepper
salt to taste
grated cheese topping if desired

Directions

Chop the green bell pepper and onion, crush the garlic cloves, and sauté these together in the olive oil until just soft. Then mix in the tomatoes, tomato paste, and herbs/spices and allow to simmer on low temperature, covered, for 5 minutes.

You are welcome to cook your beans from scratch, but what a lot of work! This recipe tastes terrific with canned beans and they are easy. There is a nifty trick to cooking with canned beans. You can reduce their gassiness by rinsing them. Just toss them into a colander and run cold water over them until they stop making bubbles.

Add the beans to the chili in the pan/pot and cook on a low temperature until the beans are hot, about 5-7 minutes. You might have to add a few tablespoons of water to prevent the chili from sticking to the bottom of the pan. I usually cook this chili in my deep dish cast iron frying pan.

Try serving this chili with grated cheese sprinkled on top and homemade cornbread, guacamole, and coleslaw on the side.

Eat well, be well, live deliciously!