The Soup Kitchen: Chipotle Black Bean Chili

 If you are looking for a comforting vegetarian chili or just don't have any meat thawed out this is a great recipe. The recipe is based on a vegan recipe so you can easily make this vegan as well. It's a great recipe to throw in the crockpot on these chilly days and let it do the cooking for you. This is like part black bean soup and part chili. Interestingly enough does not use any chili powder. All the chili taste comes from the chipotle and the cumin. 

The ingredients:

1 TBSP avocado oil

1 yellow onion diced

1 TBSP cumin

1 TBSP cocoa powder

5 garlic cloves minced

1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce finely chopped

1/4 C tomato paste

5 C black beans or 4 cans rinsed and drained

28 oz or 2 cans of diced tomatoes

2.5 C broth

kosher salt to taste

Garnish: cilantro, cornbread, tortilla chips, cheese, avocado, etc. (optional)

Note: I added a frozen cube of cilantro to mine as it cooked.

The Recipe:

In the crockpot, add the oil, onion, and seasoning and cooked until softened (or in a saucepan).

Add the rest of the ingredients to the crockpot and cook on hi for 3-4 hours. 

Halfway through, use an immersion blender to blend some of the beans and thicken the chili. 

I also add my secret ingredients (masa flour 1 TBSP and a dash of liquid smoke) at this point. 

Let cook the remainder of the time on Low and stir to make sure does not stick to the bottom. 

I added some of my masa cheese puffs to go along with this instead of tortilla chips or cornbread. They are seriously addicting. (See blog post on masa harina for the recipe.) They are seriously addicting. I could eat them all at once.