How do you like your chili?

When it comes to chili, are you Team Beans or Team Gimme All The Meat?

Happy Sunday!

Can we talk about chili today?

Yeah?

Great. Let’s.

I feel like there are two types of chili eaters in the world: Team Beans and Team Gimme Alllll The Meat.

I fall squarely into Team Beans. There’s just something about beef and tomato sauce together that makes me gag. I hate meat sauce on pasta. Spaghetti and meatballs is an hard pass for me. And beef-based chilis are just plain gross. (And yes, I DO like ketchup on my hamburger. I’m not a monster.)

The very first time I tried a bean-based chili, I was pleasantly surprised. Turns out it wasn’t the chili I hated, it was the meat in it.

Over the years, I’ve made my fair share of bean-based chilis. Some of my all-time favorites are Fire Roasted Vegetarian Chili, Buffalo Chickpea Chili, Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili, and a Nightshade Free Sweet Potato and White Bean Chili. (All of these can be found in The Recipe Archives eBook.)

I now get to add this Slow Cooker Lentil And Bean Chili to the Made With Lev Chili Hall Of Fame.

What I like about this slow cooker lentil and bean chili:

1. It’s easy to make and requires like 10 minutes tops of hands-on time.

2. It cooks in the slow cooker, so it is a great recipe for those evenings where you either don’t have time to make dinner or just don’t want to spend a lot of time getting something on the table for dinner. (Which is my every night. 😬)

3. It makes a LOT of food, so it can feed a crowd OR be frozen for a later date when you really only have two minutes to get food on the table and in your belly.

4. It’s delicious.

But the absolute best part about this particular chili… The Big Kid wanted to eat it, too!

That’s right. She saw me eating a bowl for dinner the other night and asked to try it. Which WHOA-M-G. And then — AND THEN — she asked to have a bowl of her very own for dinner the following night.

I almost fainted.

Did she end up loving it when it was her very own dinner? No. But she tried, y’all. And that was a MAJOR win in my book.

Tl;dr - make the chili. Your kids might like it. And if they don’t, you’ll have a delicious meal that you can enjoy over and over (and over) again.

X+O,

Emily

---

Slow Cooker Lentil And Bean Chili

Ingredients:

• 1 cup lentils, rinsed

• 2 cups diced tomatoes

• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed

• 1 (15-ounce) can white or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

• 4 cups organic vegetable or chicken broth (or 1 tbsp better than bouillon plus 4 cups water)

• 1 ½ cups diced red onion

• ½ cup diced celery

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• 2 tbsp tamari (soy sauce, or coconut aminos)

• 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice

• 2 tbsp chili powder

• 1 tbsp ground cumin

Directions:
Put all ingredients into a slow cooker and cook for 3 to 4 hours on high or 7 to 8 hours on low.