Slow-Cooker Easy "Use Up Your Dried Beans" Chili

I had to transfer the chili from the crockpot to a larger pot because
I put too many beans in it and the swelled up and filled the crockpot
so that I didn't have room for the vegeburger and veges. I had to cook
it down the rest of the way on the stove which is trickier than doing
it in the crockpot. Moral of the story? Only file the crockpot to about
half or two-thirds with beans or you won't have room for the other stuff.

 
Slow-Cooker Easy "Use Up Your Dried Beans" Chili

Prep: 20 minutes

Cook: 8 hours

Total: 8 hours 20 minutes

This makes a very nice vegetarian chili. We tend toward the milder sorts of chili around my house and for potluck purposes. I have built up an assortment of dried beans in my emergency pantry, so I kind of cleared out the shelves for this recipe. I didn’t really measure the beans so much as dump whatever was left in the bags into the crock pot. Also the veges were something of a catch as catch can. When I buy peppers, onions and such, I chop up any leftover veggies like that and dump them in a freezer bag and put them in the freezer. This time I dumped what was left of a bag of onions, a bag of green peppers, a leftover container of Rotel Tomatoes, a half tomato I cut and diced, some poblano peppers diced fine and a smattering of a little hot pepper I had bagged and frozen last spring. The recipe is pretty forgiving. I also dumped a can of diced tomatoes into it since I like my chili with a tomato flavor to it.

Ingredients:

• 1 or 2 packages of dried pinto beans (soaked for 4 or 5 hours) Pintos are the usual base, but you can toss in other kinds of beans such as those listed below. Almost any beans will do (except maybe garbanzo beans or lentils unless you are really fond of those).
• 1 packages of dried kidney beans, (soaked for 4 or 5 hours)
• 1 package of dried black beans, (soaked for 4 or 5 hours)
• 1 package of dried Navy beans (soaked for 4 or 5 hours)
• 2 cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes (crushed tomatoes are also good if you like your chili tomato-ish) You can even just dice garden fresh tomatoes if your garden happens to be over-producing at the time.
• 2 medium green Bell peppers or poblanos or whatever your favorite pepper happens to be or even whatever you happen to have in the fridge - chopped (about 3 cups chopped)
• 2 medium yellow onions, red onions, or even green onions,, chopped (about 3 cups chopped) I like those Aggie sweet onions, Noonday onions or other sweet onions better than the more sharpish sorts of onions.
• 2 medium cloves garlic, chopped, or you can just sprinkle in a tablespoon or so of garlic powder. I recommend starting with less and adding until you get the flavor you are looking for. I don’t like too much garlic in mine, but everyone has their druthers.
• 2 tablespoons chili powder (again, start with less and work up to the full dose or more. - it kind of depends on how hot you like it).
• 1 tablespoon of cumin. Cumin is another spice you want to add a little, taste it, then add a little more till you get it right.
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano. Oregano is very forgiving, so I just dump it in and add more later if I’m in the mood for oregano.
• Optional: 20 dashes Tabasco sauce (warning – this is VERY optional. I love the smell and taste of Tabasco, but not the heat. Stuff burns my tongue and I like to be able to feel my tongue when I’m eating chili. I’m kind of a No-Alarm chili sort of guy. I like just a little heat, but without the flame.
  Vegeburger (optional)

If adding vegeburger to it:

Brown a can of vegeburger or a bag of Morningstar Farms Recipe Crumbles with the veggies in olive oil after the beans are thoroughly cooked and simmer for another hour or so.

Directions:

1. I like to do my beans first so that the veggies don’t overcook
2. Fill the crock pot with beans, cover with water and add the dry spices, stirring it into the uncooked beans. Fire up the crockpot on low and let it cook for 8 hours. You can start it up in the morning and let it simmer while you’re off at work or, as I prefer to do, start it up at night and let it cook straight through till morning.
3. When the beans are almost done, brown the vegeburger (if you are using vegeburger) and sautee the frozen or chopped vegetables with the vegeburger or by themselves if you’re not using vegeburger. Hold back on adding the Tabasco to the beans (if you are going to use Tabasco Sauce that is). When the beans are edible but could stand another hour or two to cook to a more tender state, add the vegeburger/vegetable mix and give it an hour or so to finish.
4. Here’s the fun part if you’re the cook. Taste the chili to see if the beans are done and to determine if you need to add more spices. This is the part where the hand of the cook is most important. You can play with the flavor more easily because you are slow cooking the chili and don’t have to be in a hurry. If you add additional spices, they’ll have time to be absorbed into the beans and give your chili that “Wow!” factor.
5. The cool part of crock pot cooking for potlucks is you can plug it in at church and leave it on low during Sabbath morning services, then when it comes time to serve, simply lift out the crock from the heating part, set it on a hot pad with a handy ladle and you’re ready to go.,

Serving suggestions:

• Straight up – Just pour it in a bowls and eat it. You can add crackers or cornbread if you like. This is lovely stuff and you can have it as hot as you like. I’ve been known to add a gentle smattering of jalapenos when I brown the vegeburger to give this stuff a little kick, but mostly I don’t because of the gentler stomachs in the family
• Topped - This chili is lovely with all sorts of toppings like diced avocado, fresh or dried cilantro, chopped raw onions, sour cream (vegan if you must), grated cheddar or Monterey jack cheese (or even vegan cheese if that’s your desire). Tabasco or Tapatio sauce or some jalapenos can be added to your individual bowl if you like it spicy hot.
• 

  Frito Chili Pie

  Frito Chili Pie - You can make a simple instant Frito Chili Pie by dumping Fritos in a bowl, pouring nice warm chili over it and covering with grated cheese or any other toppings over it. If you’d like you can lay down a bed of Fritos, cover it with beans and cheese and bake it in the oven till the cheese bubbles. This works really well for a potluck dish as you can bake it in a casserole dish and tuck it in with the other casseroles at the potluck for a nice Tex-Mex surprise.
• Haystacks – This recipe also serves as the beans and vegeburger part of traditional Adventist potluck haystacks – the sort where one bunch brings the chips, another brings the cheese and someone brings the beans. Just make up a big crockpot or two of this stuff and there’s your contribution to the Adventist haystack experience. This chili recipe makes really wonderful haystacks.
• Frozen -  The great thing about this stuff is that you can put the leftovers (if any) into ziplock freezer bags and toss it in the freezer.  I divided this batch into enough per bag to give us two bowls of chili per bag.  When we want chili, we just thaw it out in the fridge overnight or gently heat it in the microwave or a pan of hot water to loosen the chili, then slide it into a microwave safe bowl and then defrost it using the defrost settings. You can also heat it up in an electric skillet on low without burning it.

© 2019 by Tom King