Vegetarian Chili

I hate packing lunches because it’s so hard to get all of the food groups into a satisfying, compact, easy-to-prepare, inexpensive little meal that my kids will actually eat. I hate nutrition-less sandwich meat and refuse to serve it to my children, they won’t eat salads, peanut butter isn’t allowed, processed and preserved lunch kits are easy but they barely pass as ‘food’.

A good girlfriend of mine gave me this chili recipe and I’ve been making batches of it on the weekends for years now to use in the kids’ lunches (and my own) throughout the week. It’s jammed with vegetables, protein and nutrition. It is so filling and satisfying that my kids aren’t starving when they come home from school. It’s easy to heat and pack in a little thermos for them to have a nice warm lunch in the middle of the day. I promise you’ll love it and it only takes about 30 minutes to prepare this pot of chili that will feed you for the entire week! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

TIP: To make this recipe GLUTEN FREE, omit couscous and substitute one and a half cups of cooked Quinoa.

Ingredients
Don’t be intimidated by the long list of ingredients, it’ll take no time to throw them all together and this is a great way to get a variety of vegetables into one serving!

-2 tbsp olive oil
-1 large onion, chopped
-2 cups chopped carrots
-2 cups chopped zucchini
-1 cup chopped celery
-1 red pepper, chopped
-1 green pepper, chopped
-2 big cloves of garlic, minced
-2 cans of crushed tomatoes
-1 can chick peas
-1 can lentils
-2 cups cous cous
-2 cups tomato juice
-1 tbsp chili powder
-2 bay leaves
-salt and pepper

Directions

-Start off by chopping all of your vegetables so that they’re similar in size and ready to go. I prefer a chunky chili but chop them however finely you like.
-Place a large pot (this recipe makes a HUGE batch of chili so use a very large pot!) over medium heat and add the olive oil, allow to heat up.
-Throw the chopped onions into the pan and allow to cook slightly (about two minutes)
-Add the rest of the chopped vegetables (starting with the carrots and celery because they take the longest to cook) and sautee until slightly tender.
-Add the garlic, a healthy dash of salt and pepper, the tbsp of chili powder and the bay leaves.
-Rinse the chick peas and lentils well then add them to the pot stirring to combine.
-Add the two cans of crushed tomatoes and then the cous cous.
-As the cous cous absorbs the liquid from the crushed tomatoes, add the tomato juice one cup at a time (you might not feel you need to use it all, depends how liquid-y you want your chili to be).
-Stir everything together and taste, add salt/pepper if necessary.
-Serve warm with some grated cheddar or Parmesan cheese and enjoy!

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