Steven Savage

This is a delightfully different, light, vegetarian chili.  It has a mild but pleasing spicy-sweet taste that is satisfying without being the same old chili flavor.

Makes 6 250 calorie servings or 5 300 calorie servings.

• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil, divided
• 1 large, white onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp crushed garlic
• 3 cans (14 oz ea) low-no sodium white beans, about 5 cups
• 1 1//2 cups low sodium vegetable broth
• 1 medium chopped seeded green chili (about 1/4 a cup not packed).
• 2 Tbsps Soy sauce
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/8 tsp ground red pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp dried cilantro
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

1. Sautee the onion in one Tbsp Olive oil until it softened.
2. Add garlic to onion, stir regularly until onion and garlic begin to brown.
3. Add all other ingredients except remaining olive oil’ lemon juice, and dried cilantro. Mix thoroughly.
4. Bring to simmer, and simmer covered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Add olive oil, cilantro, lemon juice, stir thoroughly. Bring to simmer.
6. Remove from heat and serve.

Thats it.  Pretty simple – which is another thing I like about it!

You can freeze it pretty easily.  To unthaw it I’d let it unfreeze in a frigde or use microwave defrost a bit then cook it up to a light boil.

As for side dishes I’ve found it goes best with corn, corn chips, steamed broccoli with lemon juice, and (oddly) cherry tomatoes.  I don’t think it’d go good with rice, potatoes, or refritos.  It would probably be an excellent game day chili or event chili, and its thick, creamy broth would also be satisfying in winter – though it’s not too heavy.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.