Vegetarian Chili

Healthy and affordable can coexist. Here's proof! Enjoy!

Vegetarian Chili

Ingredients:

1 can stewed tomatoes (with onion, celery, and green pepper), do NOT drain

1 can diced tomatoes, do NOT drain

1 can rotel, do NOT drain

1 can chili beans, do NOT drain

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can red beans, rinsed and drained

1 can light red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 can chickpeas aka garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1 pound dry lentils

2 cloves garlic, crushed (optional)

1/4 tsp. cumin

Chili powder to taste (add 1/4 tsp. at a time if you're not too familiar with spices…. you can always add more, but you can't take it out)

4 cups water

1 Tbsp. Vegetable Soup Base & Seasoning

Directions:

1. Get out your trusty Crockpot and turn it on HIGH.

**This recipe completely fills my 6-quart Crockpot**

2. Rinse lentils thoroughly and sort.

3. Add all canned ingredients to the Crockpot, lentils, spices, water, and vegetable soup base.

4. Stir well.

Let it do its thing for about 4 hours (or turn it on low for about 6-8 hours).

The lentils will soak up most of the liquid and the final product will be thick and hearty.

* You may pre-cook lentils in the water and vegetable broth in another pot and then add to chili. If you do this, you can omit adding water and broth to the crockpot.

Serve with 2% shredded cheddar. If you're not watching your figure you can also serve it with corn chips, saltines, sour cream, ranch, salsa, etc. I'm sure leftovers would be delicious on a baked potato, hot dog, a bed of Frito's, etc.

It tastes great the first day, but even better the next! As it sits in the fridge overnight it thickens even more.

I purchased most of the canned goods used in this chili at Aldi. I'm betting it cost under 6 bucks to make this giant batch of chili. It freezes well too.