It's a Chili kind of night!

Happy New Year everyone!  It's that time of year where all you hear about is resolutions and weight loss strategies and yes, healthy recipes.

I received my copy of Food Network Magazine this week.  There are several recipes I wanted to try, including a cheesecake that looks like nachos (definitely not on the "light" list)!  But that's for another post.

I started with the Spicy Vegetarian Chili.

Here's a LINK to the recipe.

For those of you interested in the nutritional information: 

Per 1 cup serving: 156 Calories; 4g Fat (21.7% calories from fat); 6g Protein; 27g Carbohydrate; 7g Dietary Fiber; trace Cholesterol; 536mg Sodium.  Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 Vegetable; 1/2 Fat.

I won't kid you, there is lots of chopping to be done for this chili, onions, peppers, carrots and a chipoltle chili.  There are a lot of seasonings in this chili too, chili powder, cumin, coriander, oregano (yep, oregano!) and garlic.

There are also some unusual ingredients like cocoa powder, a couple of corn tortillas and brewed coffee.

I will admit I only used two tablespoons of chili powder rather than the three the recipe called for.  Three just seemed like too much with everything else.  It's plenty spicy (not hot spicy but seasoning spicy) with just the two tablespoons.

The veggies are chopped and sauteed in a little olive oil.  I used a chipoltle infused oil this time.  Isn't this beautiful?

The seasonings are added along with some tomato paste and things really start smelling good!

The recipe calls for canned roma tomatoes.  I opted for some fire roasted tomatoes instead.  Just to add a little smoky flavor!  Bean and water are added too and the whole thing simmers for about an hour and a half.  It really didn't look this much like mud.  It's just the picture!

The final touch is adding grated cauliflower.  Yes, grated. No, I've never grated cauliflower before.  It pretty much crumbles.  Next time maybe I'll just finely dice it!

Dave and I both really liked this chili.  It had enough heat for our noses to run but our mouths weren't on fire.  It had the nice slow, back-of-your-tongue heat that you get from chipoltle peppers.  What was really surprising was neither of us could tell ther was no meat in it!  I don't know if it was the diced carrots (I've never put those in chili before) or maybe it was that shredded cauliflower but the chili had a meat texture with no meat!   I think it's a keeper!

Oh and Dave would like me to remind all of you that I "forgot" the cilantro.  NOT!