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| Tupperware'd and ready to be taken to lunch every day this week |
I love to casual meal prep. This is not filling individual containers with plain rice and plain veggies and plain chicken and hating my life, no, this is making one giant batch of something, typically soup or soup-adjacent, that can sit in my fridge for a week. I can pack it for lunch every day and it’ll taste great microwaved when I wolf it down on my 30 minute lunch break.
One of my favorite recipes for this is vegetarian chili mac. I made a giant batch of it last year during sorority recruitment and was subsequently roasted by my friends for months because I ate it every day from set one to bid night. No regrets. However, I can’t have noodles on Whole30, or cheese, or tomato soup (milky) so I had to improvise a new, healthier version. This ain’t the Midwest anymore, chili mac is a little gauche out here in LA. Also, on Whole30, ½ of every meal has to be veggies, so I had to make sure to pack this chili with more vegetables than the original. What eventually came from this was a sort of bean soup/chili hybrid which I have taken to calling Mega Vegetable Chili.
For this recipe you really only need a cutting board, a chef’s knife, a strainer (to wash veggies and rinse beans), and a Big Ass Pot with a lid. The Big Ass Pot (BAP) is a kitchen essential! You need it for any large-batch soups, stews, chili, mashed potatoes, or pasta. They’re like 20 bucks at Target for a cheap one, I highly recommend investing.
It has a LOT of ingredients, but don’t be intimidated because it will last you a long time and won’t actually take that much active time to make. Feel free to add different veggies or remove ones you hate, I’m not your mom.
• ½ large onion, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 cup baby carrots, chopped
• ½ bunch of broccoli, chopped
• 1 head of celery, chopped thin
• ½ red and ½ green bell peppers, diced
• ½ pint of mushrooms, diced
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can white beans
• 1 can red kidney beans
• ½ container of vegetable broth
• 4 cups water
• 1/3 bag of kale
• 3 T tomato paste
• 2 T paprika
• 2 T chili powder
• ½ T turmeric
• Salt to taste
You always always always start cooking with the onion. It’s just the law. My friend’s mom who showed me everything I know about cooking taught me that and now it is ingrained in me. Garlic should also usually follow the onion. Then, add veggies from hardest to softest, because the harder ones need longer to cook. Chop them as you add them to save counter space and time!
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| Proof that this chili is no less than 1/2 veggies (for the whole30 police) |
Add the beans once the veggies are nice n soft. Always rinse beans well before adding them. I like to pretend it removes all the BPA from the can lining! (It probably doesn’t.) The key to chili is to season it REALLY well. Back in the motherland (the Midwest) it has to warm you up so you can go shovel the driveway for the hundredth time that day. Out here it’s been raining all day so I guess that’s SoCal chili weather?
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| I know what you're thinking: "beans aren't allowed on whole30!!!" Well can it, they're allowed in the vegetarian version. Mind your own business. |
Let it simmer covered on the stove for an hour. Paint your nails. Listen to an episode of My Favorite Murder. Apply for a job. There’s a lot you can do in an hour.
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| Veggie Hot Tub |
Re-season it when its almost done. If it’s too soupy, take the lid off while it simmers for 15 minutes. If you’re not doing whole30, top it with some cheese and sour cream. If you are, just pretend it’s as good as chili mac. It’ll last for 5 days in the fridge, and by my very rough calculations, it costs about $1.15 per serving. Enjoy!