Skillet Beer Chili Mac. Vegan. GF.

This recipe is from Thug Kitchen’s 101 cookbook. Skillet Beer Chili Mac.

Does anyone else feel the need to whip up a batch of chili on Sunday? I mainly feel the need during football season. It’s one of the one pot meals you can make and let simmer on the stovetop all day long. My family comes and grabs a bowl whenever the need strikes them. Because it’s vegan and gluten free (remember to use GF beer) everyone in my family can eat it. My daughters and husband always eat chili, regardless of the pasta, with tortilla chips for an extra crunchy texture.

This chili is packed with healthy fiber and protein to keep you filled up for hours. Plus, today’s real feel temp was 1 degree when we ran and this chili was exactly what we needed to warm our bones on this chili winter day. Leftovers can be stored in the fridge all week and just get better with time. This would also be a perfect option for Meatless Monday – which coincidentally will be our dinner tonight too!

Ingredients:

Olive oil
2 yellow onions, mine were small or you can use 1 medium or large – diced
2 carrots, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, diced
2 tablespoons of chili powder
2 teaspoon of ground cumin
2 teaspoons of smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 15 ounce can of tomato sauce
1 cup of beer, use gluten free if necessary
4 cups of veggie broth
3 cups of pasta (smaller variety)
3 cups of beans (I used black eyed peas and black beans)
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (the original recipe calls for lime juice)

Method:

Drizzle a bit of olive oil into the bottom of large Dutch oven or stock pot for soup. Once hot, add your onions and cook until softened and browned. Add your carrots, peppers and jalapeños to cook. After 3-4 minutes, add all of your spices and coat each of the veggies.

You want to cook your spices to remove the raw flavor from them. Then proceed to add your paste, sauce, beer and broth. Bring that to a simmer, stirring often.
The recipe calls for you to add the pasta to the chili and you can but I don’t like cooking it in my actual meal. I cooked my pasta separately in salted water and then added the drained pasta to the pot. Then add the beans, nutritional yeast, syrup and apple cider vinegar. Stir and serve. I topped with jalapeños and cilantro.

Enjoy!

Last week I managed to have an equal balance of running and weight training. I was quite pleased despite battling some weird viral/cold/infection crap. I did limit my mileage because I thought I had shin splint issues but found out today I had some anterior tibialis problems. Had that worked on with my chiro and feel much better. I’ll probably keep my mileage at bay this week to help promote healing until that is resolved. Ahhh the joy of overuse issues.