Quinoa and Vegetable Chili

Time to break in my new cast-iron pot (also known as a dutch oven)!  You can use a normal large stockpot if you want, but I wanted to use my dutch oven because it’s red (my favorite color), it’s beautiful, and I love it oh so very much.

I kinda love chili and I really love quinoa, so I decided to make a recipe that incorporates both. The quinoa replaces the ground beef, which still gives the dish lots of protein without using meat.  I also added a ton of vegetables, which makes it a perfect dish for vegetarians and those on gluten-free diets.

I know it looks like there are a lot of ingredients, but it’s basically a bunch of chopped vegetables and aromatics, chili spices, quinoa, a can of crushed tomatoes, and a can of vegetable broth.  For the chili spices, I usually just buy one of those “chili kits” at the grocery store that has a mixture of the spices that I need instead of spending lots of money buying bottles of each individual spice.  I’m just lazy and I don’t make chili often enough to need that much of the spices, so the shortcut works best for me.

It’s healthy and it’s yummy!  Hope you guys like it 🙂

Quinoa and Vegetable Chili
(serves 6)

1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable broth
1 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely diced
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
4 carrots, chopped
1 big zucchini or 2 small zucchinis, chopped
1 jalapeno, finely diced
1 roma tomato, diced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup vegetable broth or water
1 cup thawed frozen corn or drained canned corn
chopped cilantro, to garnish

1. Cook quinoa with 1 cup of water and 1 cup of vegetable broth.  I used my rice cooker, but you can also cook it on the stove.
2. In a large pot or dutch oven, heat up oil on medium heat and saute onions for about 5 minutes.  Add garlic, cumin, chili powder, and oregano and cook for about a minute then add carrots, peppers, zucchini, jalapeno, crushed tomatoes, and vegetable broth.  Simmer on medium-low heat with the lid on for 30-45 minutes.
3. Add corn and cooked quinoa and mix well.  Cook for another 10 minutes on medium-low heat.  Serve with a pinch of cilantro.