Vegetarian Chili

After making the Super Meaty Chili, I  decided I was craving Chili too much to not make a vegetarian kind.. let me tell you this one is WAY better! I don’t know why people have a mis-conception if there’s no meat in it than it’s not good, because that’s what I’ve discovered on my 8 months of being vegetarian now. Crazy… I’m going to incorporate meat slowly back into my diet soon, although I really don’t miss anything but sausage! haha

I give it a huge kick so I’d tone that down if you can’t handle the heat.. and started eye-ing all the seasonings so use your own discretion as well. Heck, recipes are meant to be tweaked!

Ingredients:

• 1 med zucchini, chopped
• 2 med onions, chopped
• 8 oz bella mushrooms, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 can black beans, drained
• 1 can red kidney beans, drained
• 1 can light red kidney beans, drained
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (28oz) can crushed tomato
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 TBsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
• cayenne
• crushed red pepper
• chili powder
• basil
• oregano
• salt-n-pep

Steps:

1. Saute the peppers and zucc in a large pot on Med heat until tender (this gets all that extra water out) then add onions, then garlic, then mushrooms. Saute till soft ~8 mins.
2. Add tomato paste, and all the seasonings, stir around 2 mins.
3. Add drained beans, crushed tomatoes, lemon juice, mustard and more seasonings if need be.
4. Cook med-low for 20 mins till flavors infuse and beans are hot.
5. Serve with cheese and bread!