Vegetarian chili anyone? I whipped this one up the other night in my beloved Instant pot and Glenn proclaimed it the best veggie chili yet! I normally make vegetarian chili in my huge skillet, and a little later in the season, when there are lots of peppers, recipe here. This is an excellent way to use lots of summer squash (yellow, zucchini, cousa…) and I bet it would freeze beautifully if I ever had any left! As always, make appropriate substitutions or omissions – I used garlic scapes and Egyptian Walking onions, but next time I make it I we will likely be harvesting onions and garlic đŸ˜‰
Geve’s Veggie Chili
- 4 Stillman’s Farm summer squashes, any variety, diced
- 3 Egyptian walking onions (one medium onion would do) chopped
- 8 Stillman’s Farm garlic scapes chopped
- 2 Stillman’s Farm tomatoes diced
- kernels from one ear of Stillman’s Farm corn
- 1 cup red lentils
- 1 Tb chili powder
- 1/2 tsp cayenne (I could use more, but Halley and faith are weenies when it comes to heat)
- 1 tsp cumin
- 3/4 tsp onion powder
- 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- about 4 cups flavorful liquid??? (I had just pressure cooked 8 chicken thighs in salsa verde and a little water…I shredded the chicken to serve next tot he chili and used the pot liquid in the chili (…so it turns out it wasn’t actually vegetarian chili, but I could have used vegetable stock, so there)
Okay, so here’s the complicated part: dump everything into your electric pressure cooker, close it up, set on high for 12 minutes. After the satisfying beep, I let it sit for a few minutes, released the pressure, and seeing there was more liquid than I wanted, I put the saute feature on and boiled off a little more liquid (maybe took 6 minutes). I think that is a variable that will depend on how watery the veggies are, as well as how much liquid you put in there to start with, so if you are worried about having soup, start with 3 cups of liquid.
It was very tasty, super simple, did not say “squash” when you ate it, and everything was cooked but not obliterated; anyone who has experimented much with their pressure cooker can relate đŸ˜‰
In case you were wondering why I used my Instant Pot instead of the large skillet…
