Healthy Lentil Chili

Photo and recipe courtesy of Food Network.

While cleaning out my kitchen cupboards last weekend, I came across a lot of lentils. Brown lentils, green lentils, black lentils, and red lentils. I make a couple of dishes with green lentils, like my lentil and tuna salad, and vegetable lentil soup. I have a yummy red lentil soup recipe with warm spices. This time, I thought I might make something with some of the brown lentils, and I wanted to make something that wasn’t soup. So I went to google and came up with this recipe for Lentil Chili. Looks delicious, and bonus, it’s vegetarian and no bread or noodles, so everyone around here can eat it. That’s huge for me. So I gave it a try, and I’m happy to report that it is not only pretty simple to put together, it is also delicious and healthy. The lentils do the work of the meat, interestingly enough. Definitely a keeper recipe.

For the toppings (last bullet point on the list) I used diced avocado, cheddar cheese, sliced green onions, sour cream, and a squeeze of lime, because I had all of those things sitting around and wanted to use them. Having just eaten the last of it for lunch, I think one change I will make next time is to use 2 cans of beans instead of one. I like my chili with a lot of beans.

Healthy Lentil Chili

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 red, orange or yellow bell pepper, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• Two 14.5-ounce cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes
• One 15-ounce can navy beans or another small white bean (do not drain)
• 1 cup dried brown lentils
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• Shredded reduced-fat Cheddar, plain yogurt, pickled jalapenos and crushed tortilla chips, for serving (all are optional)

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the onion, bell pepper, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt and several grinds of black pepper. Cook until vegetables are just tender and browned in spots, stirring occasionally, about 6 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, chili powder, oregano and cumin, then continue to cook until fragrant and brick-red in color, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes.

Stir in the vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, beans (and their liquid), lentils, bay leaf, 1/2 teaspoon salt and a couple grinds of black pepper. Bring to a steady simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Partially cover with a lid and gently simmer, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are tender and the chili has thickened slightly, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf and stir in the vinegar. Season with salt and black pepper, if needed. Ladle into bowls and serve with toppings as desired.