vegan chili

If you are looking for a hearty but healthy recipe you can make in about 35 minutes, look no further. We gotchu with this plant-based chili. This makes a batch that will serve a big family or group of friends, and it also keeps well in the freezer if you want to have the rest another week.

We "beefed" this chili up (pun-intended) with quinoa and crumbled tofu to give it texture, along with black beans and pinto beans, so it is PACKED with plant-based protein! We made seasoning the chili easy by using Siete spicy taco seasoning blend, which worked well and had great flavor. We also cheated on the cornbread with Bob's Red Mill gluten-free cornbread mix to make things extra easy. Maybe we'll come up with our own cornbread recipe for the blog soon :)

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion

4 green onion

1 yellow bell pepper

2 cans black beans

1 can pinto beans

1 can diced tomatoes

2/3 C dry quinoa

32 oz vegetable broth

1/2 a block of firm tofu

2 tsp liquid smoke (optional)

2 lime's juice

2-3 Tbsp Siete spicy taco seasoning (or similar)

additional black pepper and/or cayenne to taste

optional toppings:

avocado

plain coconut yogurt or greek yogurt

cilantro

green onion

Instructions

1. Finely chop onion and bell pepper. For the green onion, chop the whites and save the green part for later as a topping.

2. In a large pot on medium-high heat, add in olive oil and onion, whites of green onion, and bell pepper. Add in 1 Tbsp of the taco seasoning and cook for ~5-6 minutes.

3. Add in the beans, tomatoes, quinoa, broth, and lime juice.

4. In a separate small bowl, crumble the tofu with the liquid smoke. You can simply use your hands to do this. Then, add the tofu to the pot.

5. Add another 1-2 Tbsp of taco seasoning and additional black pepper and cayenne to taste if you wish.

6. Reduce heat to low, cover the pot, and cook for 30 minutes. Once it's ready, the quinoa should be fluffy and the chili should have a nice, thick consistency.

7. We recommend serving with a dollop of plain coconut yogurt, cilantro, cubed avocado, and green onion with a side of cornbread.