The best thing about chili is that you can put anything you want in it…and somehow it still tastes good. Also, you can never have enough chili recipes. Ever.

I found this one in a vegetarian cookbook — Vegetarian Times: Low-Fat and Fast. There are a ton of awesome vegetarian recipes in there, so if you’re trying to cut meat out of your diet, or if you’re looking to spice up your recipe box, I recommend that book. I’m not a vegetarian, nor do I ever plan on being one in the near future. However, I do enjoy a lot of vegetarian recipes, especially those with beans, because I find they will fill you up just as much as meat does.

I took this out of the library a few weeks ago, and tonight I was in the mood to make chili. So I searched for one in this book and found a pretty good one. I altered it a bit to my own taste–here’s what I did with it.

Ingredients:

1 med. red pepper, chopped

1 med. yellow pepper, chopped

1 med. onion, chopped

2 tsp olive oil

2-3 tsp garlic powder

1 can chicken broth (The original recipe calls for vegetable broth, both work)

1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained

1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

4 jalapeno peppers, chopped

2 tsp chili powder

2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp oregano

pepper to taste

Sprinkle in the following spices: thyme, marjoram, celery salt, red pepper flakes, nutmeg, parsley, extra garlic powder

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan, cook the bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, onion and garlic powder in oil over med. heat for 2-4 minutes or until they are crisp tender.

2. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Then reduce to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes so the flavors will blend.

3. Top with sour cream, cheese, or whatever you desire. Serve rice/cornbread on the side.

My observations: Essentially, use whatever spices you want for this recipe, because that’s honestly what I did, and both Chris and I loved it. But I must warn you, this was spicy. I used pickled jalapeno peppers for this recipe, and decided to use four, even though the recipe called for a 4.5 oz can of chile peppers. But, I couldn’t find that in my sub-par supermarket, so had to improvise. If you aren’t a fan of really spicy chili, then cut back on the jalapenos.

Also, the original recipe calls for minced garlic. Either use 2 cloves of fresh garlic, or use 2 tsp of minced garlic. I quite honestly just didn’t see that ingredient when I started making this, so added the garlic powder with all of the other spices. Still tasted great.

The beans are also a free-for-all. The original recipe called for butter beans (someone please explain to me what the hell those are). So I substituted cannellini beans for those (which are white kidney beans) and hey, guess what, tasted great!

Like I said in the ingredient list, either vegetable or chicken broth work for this recipe (I assume, because I used chicken and it tasted great). If you are a vegetarian, use the vegetarian broth. I didn’t have any on hand, so I used chicken.

As for the list of spices, do whatever your heart desires. I personally love making chili because I get to stand in front of a huge pot with about 10 spices lined up next to me. Then I go down the row and shake a little bit of this and a little bit of that into the pot. Please enjoy this part of the process as much as I did.

PLUS this chili recipe took me 20 minutes! How many do you see that require you to simmer it for hours? No sir, not here. Just heat it up and serve.

A+ on this one.