Veggie Chili

I'm not accustomed to vegetarian dishes, but am turning over a new leaf in this new year.  I saw this on "The Chew" and it looked good, so I decided to make it for Sunday dinner (I used the recipe as a guideline).  I have never used cocoa in my chili so this looked interesting.  Unfortunately,  I didn't have any veggie stock.  I will remedy that in the near future by buying this.  I decided to just use no salt strained tomatoes and see how it worked out.  Tonight, I used:

• 1 eggplant, cubed
• 1 large zucchini, cubed
• 1/2 lb of organic cremini mushrooms, wiped and sliced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons of chili powder
• 1 tablespoon of cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons of Fry's cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon Trader Joe's no salt "21 Seasoning Salute"
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 jalapeno, diced with seeds and stems
• 1 cup of dried green lentils, rinsed and searched for stones
• 1 28oz can of no salt diced tomatoes
• 1 24oz jar of organic, no salt strained tomatoes
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 
• 1 small bunch of cilantro, chopped coarsely (some in chili and the rest for garnish)

I did the chopping fiesta first and measured out all my spices.  I divided the veggies into two bowls, for the way they would be added to pan once I started cooking.

I started by sauteing the eggplant, zucchini and mushrooms in some avocado oil.  I seasoned with S&P.  I wanted these to start browning so that took about 10 minutes and then they started releasing liquid and steaming.

The next items in were the onion, bell pepper, garlic, jalapeno and all the spices.  I stirred for about 5 minutes.  I added in the sauce, cilantro, tomatoes and lentils next.

I brought this to a boil, then turned it down and let it simmer for close to an hour.  While it was doing its thing, I made some Southern Cornbread (which is not sweet) in my cast iron pan to go with it.  I used 1% fat buttermilk in this recipe.  I like that there is very little flour in this too.  I also used avocado oil instead of the bacon grease, but honestly, I would have loved to use that instead.

The cornbread came out beautifully and was delicious!!!  It really stole the show.  I've said it a million times before, but I LOVE my cast iron pan...💖

I garnished my son's with some grated cheddar cheese.  I garnished mine with some Greek yogurt, only because I wanted to try it without the cheese taste covering it.  We both got more cilantro to finish.

Oh my gosh!  This was soooooooooo good!  The meat wasn't missed at all, and the cornbread really enhanced the dish to make it a star.  The spice was perfect, maybe a smidgen less cumin (I'd only use a teaspoon) next time but I could ignore that.  I could eat like this daily - well, if someone would do all my veggie chopping...  Yummers and two thumbs up!