Slow Cooker Vegetarian Chili

I created this recipe to serve as dinner for the Super Bowl this year. It came out pretty well, if I do say so myself. But that's the great thing about chili: it can be customized to any cook's taste. Reading about conditions and practices in CAFO's (confined animal feeding operations), I decided to skip the meat in the traditional chili recipes and double up on the beans. Enjoy!

2 cans black beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
4 tomatoes, diced (or 2 cans diced tomatoes)
1/2 onion, diced
4 celery stalks, chopped
4 carrot sticks, peeled & chopped
1/4 c brown sugar*
tomato juice (or V8 juice, or bloody mary mixer, or water, or any combo thereof)
2 t chili powder*
1 t onion powder*
1 T EVOO
salt & pepper

1. Sauté onion, celery, and carrots in EVOO.
2. Drain & rinse beans, add to slow cooker with tomato and sautéed vegetables. Cover with tomato juice (or substitute). Add brown sugar, chili powder, onion powder, and salt and pepper.
3. Cook on high 3-4 hours. (Can also cook on low 6-8 hours.) Season to taste. Serve hot. Makes a full crock-pot: leftovers can be frozen.


* Measurements approximate, season to taste. This recipe makes for reasonably sweet chili with a little kick.

Introduction

I love food and I love eating food. I've also recently discovered that I love cooking food. I'm not so keen on growing food yet, but my mom was asked by a neighbor to help tend a large sunny plot in their yard this summer, so I've been recruited to help there, in addition to tending my balcony planter of peppers and tomatoes.

Recently, I've been reading a lot on the food movement (local/organic, inspired after watching Food, Inc.) and have been experimenting with some recipes of my own and have decided, following in my sister's footsteps, to create a food blog to keep track of recipes, my garden, and generally my thoughts on the food world.

Enjoy!