Dinner on a Saturday Night - Winter Vegetable Chili

We haven’t made this in some time, but it has been a favorite vegetarian meal of ours. It’s just a bit time and effort-consuming to make and the kids usually aren’t that thrilled with it. But to heck with the kids, we’re making it this weekend.

We found the recipe on a cooking website more than a decade ago, but as far as we can tell, the website is now defunct. Fortunately, we saved it to a file on our local computer. In fact, I’d recommend that to anybody who finds good information online. You can’t expect to retain access to it in the future, even if it’s a major corporate site. Things change too fast and are outside your control. So, copy copy copy…

Winter Vegetable Chili

4 tsp olive oil
1 medium-size butternut squash (1 3/4 pounds), peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2 medium-size carrots, diced
1 medium-size onion, diced
3 T chili powder
1 can plum tomatoes (28-ounce)
1 can chopped mild green chiles (4-ounce)
1 c vegetable broth
1/4 tsp salt
2 can black beans, rinsed and drained (15- to 19-ounce)
1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro
4 T non-fat sour cream (optional)

In 5-quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat, heat 2 teaspoons olive oil. Add butternut squash and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden; remove.

In same Dutch oven heat 2 more teaspoons olive oil; cook carrots and onion until well browned. Stir in chili powder; cook 1 minute, stirring.

Add tomatoes with their liquid, chiles with their liquid, vegetable broth, and salt; over high heat, heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally with spoon to break up tomatoes.

Stir in black beans and butternut squash; over high heat, heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 15 minutes or until squash is tender and chili thickens. Stir in cilantro. Serve with sour cream if you like.



Butternut squash is really tasty and cooks up very well, but it is a royal pain in the ass to peel and cut up. I have a large vegetable cleaver (looks like a meat cleaver, but intended for veggies). It’s got a nice and heavy blade, but I still think I need to get a wooden mallet to pound it through sometimes.