Chunky White Bean Chili

It wasn't particularly cold today. In fact, it was unseasonably warm today. But for some reason, on my drive home, I was craving chili. I didn't have all the ingredients on hand for my Quinoa Chili but I did have enough ingredients to think up a new recipe. I've been meaning to find a recipe for a White Bean Chili for a while and so today, I decided to cook something up with what I had at home ... and for a first attempt, it came out really good. Tony loved it enough that he wants to take leftovers for lunch :)

Chunky White Bean Chili

Prep Time: 20-25 min

Ingredients (4 Servings):

1. 1 cup white Quinoa, rinsed and drained
2. 2 x 15oz cans of Butter Beans, drained and rinsed
3. 2 Russet Potatoes, diced
4. 3 tbsp Dried Minced Onions (or a medium white onion, diced)
5. 1 tbsp Minced Garlic
6. 2 tbsp Dried Cilantro
7. 6 cups of Water or Home-made Vegetable Broth
8. 2 cubes Knorr Vegetarian Vegetable Bouillon 
9. Salt & Pepper, to taste

Directions:

Bring water or broth to boil in a deep pot. Add all ingredients, bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 min until potatoes are tender and the Quinoa releases its germ rings. Taste test for salt/pepper. Serve simmering hot!! 

Non-Chunky :) White Bean Chili, with extra broth, if you like it soupy!

Nutrition Facts (Per Serving)*: Calories 440 (Fat Calories 36)

Total Fat 4.0 g; Cholesterol 0 g; Carbohydrates 82.6 g; Dietary Fiber 12.8 g; Sugars 3.3 g; Protein 20.2 g

* Nutrition facts are provided for the water option as vegetable broth calorie content can vary.

HH Butter Bean Cookies w Chocolate

So I've posted about these HH Butter Bean cookies before. They're an amazing way to make kids eat healthy cookies, with lots of protein, and without added fat. So much better than Oreos or Chips Ahoy! The original recipe can be found here. The reason I'm re-posting this recipe is because of the latest modification. 

HH Butter Bean Cookies w Chocolate

So I shared the recipe for these cookies with a friend at work. And she shared it with another colleague at work. In the end it so happened that the last person to use this recipe decided that they wanted these cookies to be chocolate chip cookies ... so she substituted a half a cup of cocoa instead of flour. 

I've always made a double batch of this recipe. The original calls only for a half a cup of Butter Beans and a 15oz can has just a little more than 1 cup. It was just easier to double the recipe and use all the beans because these cookies don't last long in my house. So in a double batch, instead of using 2 cups of flour, Jessica decided to use 1.5 cups of flour and 0.5 cup of Pure Cocoa powder. The result was simply phenomenal. 

... check out the gooey center of the cookie on the right!

My Assessment: I think I like this version a lot better than the non-chocolate version!

HH Butter Bean Cookies

I've never bean a big fan of chocolate chip cookies. I am more of a short bread cookie kind of person. Occasionally, I would eat an oatmeal raisin cookies. Having grown up in India, I still prefer traditional Indian desserts over anything else. I live in a remote rural part of Ohio and I'm probably 1 of 5 Indians in the county. Needless to say, good Indian desserts are hard to come by. So once I went plant-based I never really bothered with any of the cookie or dessert recipes. 

Lately, I've seen a lot of posts on facebook about these Butter Bean Cookies from Happy Herbivore. I tried the recipe tonight ... to the tee, except that I added about 1.5x the amount of chocolate chip cookies and once done, I sprinkled a little bit of raw sugar on top of each piece to give it a glow :)!!!

These were great. Even my omni boys liked them and ate 'em like regular cookies. Score!!!! 

The coolest part about this recipe - no added fats, no processed sugar, no oil at all and best of all ... packed with 2g protein per cookie !! Score!!!

Also, Butter Beans made it to my list as New Veggie #41.