Vegetarian White Chili

Last night at work, the idea of white chili popped into my head…then it wouldn’t leave. All night I had images of creamy beans, grains, and veggies dancing through my head. I couldn’t wait to run home and throw everything into the Crock Pot. I pictured the ingredients in my fridge and cupboards and knew exactly what was going into this delicious soup.

As soon as I got home, I got to chopping. I used one medium yellow onion, one green pepper, and nine cloves of garlic (some of them were small). I sautéed them on high for 3-4 minutes so that the veggies would get brown and flavorful but not cook too much.

   

Into the pot went pinto, white kidney, and garbanzo beans. No reasoning to this…just because they were in my cupboard.

 

They look so pretty all together! The white kidney beans were really soft and fell apart easily, but I think that added to the creaminess of the soup.

 

Next in the pot went vegetable broth. After shopping around, even at small health food stores, I’ve found that Trader Joe’s has the lowest sodium vegetable broth. For some reason there’s always low sodium beef and chicken broth, but never vegetable. I don’t get it!

 

For some texture I also used 1/2 cup quinoa and 1/2 cup wheat berries.

Everything in the Crock Pot! Next I added: a splash of rice vinegar, 3T adobo sauce, hot sauce, salt, pepper, vindaloo seasoning, cumin, and curry powder. Just a tablespoon of each seasoning, then I adjusted to taste.

 

It cooked on high for five hours. My apartment smelled soooo good. After it was done cooking, I added about 2 tablespoons of cream.

(It doesn’t look very much like white chili in this pic!)

 

The wheat berries were deliciously chewy, and the adobo sauce added a wonderful, subtle smoky flavor to the soup.

Served with asiago cheese on top. Delicious!

This is such an easy put-everything-in-and-press-go recipe. Perfect to eat while watching the snow melt out the window!