Vegetarian Chipotle Chili (Slow Cooker)

The weather is finally warming up, but a rainy day calls for a good bowl of chili no matter the season. I wasn’t in the mood for Quinoa and Lentil Chili and I didn’t want to use meat or poultry. Then I remembered my friend Marnely had a recipe for a vegetarian chipotle chili that used trout beans.

I didn’t have any trout beans on hand (they look like speckled kidney beans), but I did have a giant batch of kidney beans I had made in the slow cooker the day before. (Our slow cooker gets a lot of use around here.) I modified Marnely’s recipe quite a bit, but must credit her for the inspiration.

Normally, if a slow cooker recipe calls for canned beans, I add them about an hour before the cooking time is up so they don’t get mushy. Since the ones I used had been cooked from dried beans and still had quite a bit of bite to them, I decided to let the beans cook the whole time. I’m glad I did. They were the perfect texture and made the vegetarian chipotle chili very hearty.

I’m sure this chili, or stew, was great when Marnely made it with white potatoes, but the combination of sweet potatoes and kidney beans really worked for me. The CompostMaster said it was the best vegetarian chili he’s ever eaten. And, for once after a vegetarian meal, he wasn’t in the kitchen an hour later looking for “a little somethin’ somethin'” to eat.