Vegetarian Quinoa Chili

For those of you who have made your healthy New Year’s Resolutions, I have an amazing recipe for you today from one of my favorite blogs, Two Peas and Their Pod. Its hearty, healthy and super tasty. There’s this restaurant by work called The Protein Bar and my favorite thing to get there is the chicken quinoa chili. It fills me up and tastes oh so good – I don’t even miss the ground beef and sour cream! So when I was searching for some healthy recipes to kick off 2013 and stumbled across this vegetarian quinoa chili I knew I had to try it. It was so simple to make – just chop vegetables, cook the quinoa, open a few cans – nothing complicated here. It should have taken me just 15 minutes to prep but our can opener broke, so there were some struggles. Jake had to come to the rescue to help me open the cans of beans and tomatoes with a knife. It was a little scary to be honest. Oh and the part where I accidentally touched my mouth with jalapeño juice hands. By far the stupidest thing I have done in awhile. My mouth was burning for at least an hour. I had an ice cube on my lip trying to make it stop hurting, the roommates were laughing. I ending up trying every remedy ever found on google to subside the pain and finally got it to stop after awhile by soaking my lip in milk. Sounds kinda gross when I type it out. So take my advice and make sure you wash your hands right away after cutting the jalapeño. But all in all it was easy to make and so delicious. The recipe makes quite a bit – 10 servings, so I decided to freeze half so that I can have some for lunch when work starts to get busy. Want to know the best way to serve it? With a dollop of greek yogurt and cheddar cheese, served with some baked corn fritters (tomorrow’s post!). Yum!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed

1 cup water

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 jalapeño pepper, diced

1 large carrot (about 1/2 cup), peeled and diced

2 celery stalks (about 1 cup), diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 medium zucchini (1 cup), diced

2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1 (15 ounce) can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

3 (15 ounce) cans diced tomatoes

1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce

2 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp ground cumin

salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

In a small pot, combine quinoa and water and cook over medium heat, until the water is absorbed, 15-20 minutes. In the meantime, in a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add in the onions, and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add in the garlic, carrots, celery, jalapeño, bell peppers, and zucchini and cook until soft, about 10 minutes. Then add in the beans, tomatoes, and sauce. Stir in the chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper and quinoa. Cook over low heat for 30 minutes. Serve with greek yogurt and cheddar cheese.

Makes 10 (2 cup) servings.

Source: Recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod