This was one of my first chili recipes with out meat. Years later it’s still one of our family favorite chili’s. It also freezes well.
Yield: about 8 cups
Ingredients
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1-2 ribs celery, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 ½ cup water*
- 2 cups crushed tomatoes (fresh or canned 398 ml/15 oz)
- 3 cups cooked pinto beans* or two 398 ml/15 oz cans)
- 1 can tomato paste (156 ml/5.5 oz)
- 3 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1-2 tsp chili powder
- ½ tsp chipotle powder
- ½ tsp oregano
- 1 tsp cane sugar
- ½ to 1 tsp salt*
- ¼ tsp liquid smoke (optional)
Instructions
- Sauté onions without oil until they begin to brown then add the garlic, celery, green pepper and water. Cover and simmer until celery is tender.
- Add the tomatoes, beans, tomato paste, and spices. Stir well to combine. Add water to achieve desired sauce consistency. Bring mixture to boil and serve piping hot.
- Keep leftovers in air tight container up to 5 days in fridge or freeze up to 5 months.
Notes
- Instead of pinto beans use red kidney beans. You can also do a mix of half pinto and half red kidney beans.
- Instead of water, when cooking dry beans use the cooking water from the beans instead of water.
- Adjust salt to taste. This will vary as when using canned tomatoes and beans these usually are salted.