Amazing Vegan Chili

For the last ten days I've been in Istanbul with family. Seeing as my sister and I moved out of our place there, I didn't have a space to cook and unfortunately (fortunately?) ate out a lot while there. 


I do love to eat out and try new restaurants but I really can't go more than two or three days before I crave a nice, home-cooked meal. Thankfully, I got to enjoy some of those as well while in Istanbul, but I'm excited to be back at home and in my kitchen this week. I plan on making lots of yummy stuff and not eating out till the weekend hopefully, so I should have some fun recipes for you guys. 


One of my favorite dishes to make is a big ol' pot of chili. Chili is super easy to make, doesn't take a lot of time and gets better the longer it sits in the fridge, in my opinion! The flavors meld together and the quick addition of some fresh ingredients like cilantro* and avocado make it feel like it was cooked that day. 


I mentioned that I purchased the Happy Herbivore cookbook a while ago and I've been super impressed with all the recipes I've tried since. The best part is that most of the recipes are low fat or even  fat-free and you can't tell at all! Trust me, the author Lindsay did a great job and you won't be disappointed. 

Look at all those great colors!

Unfortunately it turns out I can't actually copy the recipe here, so my apologies and from now on I'll only recreate recipes that are printed somewhere else online from now on or that I have permission to reprint. If you do happen to want to check out the book, it's available on Amazon here and the recipe is on page 81. 


Notes:
I omitted the textured vegetable protein (TVP) because I don't like it very much. Feels too artificial to me and I knew it would be great without it (and kinder on my stomach!). However, this meant that the broth should have probably been reduced a bit, seeing as most of the broth is meant to rehydrate the TVP. Having said that, it was amazing as is, but next time, I might reduce the broth by 1/2 cup (depends how soupy you like your chili). 


I added some diced avocado, cilantro and hot sauce and it was the perfect meal. I served it over spinach the second time I ate it and it was even better! 


Keep in mind this is a great dish to make and enjoy all week, for those that don't have a lot of time to cook every day. 


*I recently read an interesting article that says cilantro love or hate may actually be genetic! I'm one of the lovers, but interesting to know either way!