Vegetarian chili

This chili is a hearty, low-fat, one-pot meal. The best thing about it is that you can adjust the spices to suit your taste. If you don’t like the heat, go easy on the jalapeño peppers. The same goes for garlic. A few cloves give moderate garlic flavor, so add more if you love the taste of garlic.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon of olive or vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped
3 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 green pepper, chopped
1 fresh jalapeño pepper, finely chopped or 2 tablespoons chopped canned hot peppers (jalapeño or green chilies)
1 28-ounce can tomatoes in purée or drained tomatoes, chopped, plus a 15-ounce can of purée
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon whole cloves or generous pinch ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon allspice berries or generous pinch ground allspice
2 teaspoons oregano
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 cups cooked kidney or pinto beans
1cup brown or white rice (Brown rice has more fiber.)

Directions

1. In a large, heavy saucepan, heat the oil and sauté onions, garlic, jalapeño and green pepper until soft.
2. Add the tomatoes (and purée), coriander, cloves, allspice, oregano, brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, and beans. Bring the chili to a boil, reduce the heat, cover the pan, and simmer the chili for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. While the chili is cooking, prepare the rice according to directions.
4. Serve the chili over rice.

Serving suggestions

When you serve the dish over rice, the beans and rice combine into a good source of protein. And there’s plenty of fiber too.

Serve with a green salad.

If you’d like to make the meal seem even more casual than it already is, you may want to add some type of tostado chips for dipping into the chili. Make sure that they’re the lower fat variety; otherwise, the meal is no longer a low-fat one.