Easy Chili

I made this chili the other day on a whim and a desire to get dinner done in the morning.  It turned out to be so delicious and is going on our list of favorite foods.

Normally I don't promote eating anything from a package.  It's bad for you and usually doesn't taste good.  But this day I used some packaged tempeh.  It was "lifelight organic smoked tempeh strips" and was made mostly of soy, lactic acid, and brown rice.  If you don't use this tempeh you could just use some liquid smoke to add that smoky flavor- something I've not done before but a lot of vegan recipes use.

Opt)Smoked Tempeh, cut into small chunks
1/2 yellow pepper, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1/2 onion, diced (or 1 1/2 Tbl dehydrated onion)
1 can dark kidney beans, rinsed
1 can pinto beans, rinsed
1 can stewed tomatoes with juice
1/2 can tomato paste
2 Tbl chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp crushed red pepper

Combine all (I put 1 Tbl olive oil in the bottom of my crockpot and spices and turn it on high while i dice my veggies, then add everything.  Put on low for 5/6 hours.

If you are not making your chili the quick way like I did, you should rinse and soak your dry beans overnight, then add all your ingredients and cook everything for 8 hours.