This is a vegetarians dream! Everything they could ever want all wrapped inside a warm bowl of comfort! Even if you’re not a vegetarian, you will absolutely not be missing the meat in this dish what so ever. It’s filled with all the delicious spicy, warm flavors that we all know and love when it comes to enjoying the classic bowl of chili, but with a delicious cheesy spin, along with tasty toppings that will make your mouth water before even taking your first bite! I feel like you can never just eat a bowl of plain chili.. I always have to be piling the goodies on top, including mountains of cheese, a dollop of sour cream, crushed up salty tortilla chips, and a few dashes of good hot sauce for that bite that we all look for when indulging in the coziest bowl of fall that there is! I mean it is CHILI! I always say.. you can’t really enjoy it unless there’s a nice chill in the air because I’m sure we can all agree that this is one meal best served hot, curled up on the couch watching your favorite football team play on the big screen!

Every single time before I start cooking I make sure all of my prep is done, and everything is in place. With a “one pot wonder” (in the words of my father) .. it makes it that much faster & easier when you begin whipping everything together!

• Chop up one white onion into small dice
• Chop two stalks of celery. (make sure your celery is nicely clean & all the dirt is out of the inside)
• Thinly slice two stalks of scallions.
• Peel & thinly slice one medium carrot.
• Small dice one small red bell pepper.

In a large stalk pot over medium heat, sauté your vegetables that you chopped up with a good gulp of vegetable oil, and a pad of butter. Let everything get translucent, and browned around the edges of each piece of produce.

After letting the vegetables sauté for 15-20 minutes, it’s going to be time to add that sizzling spice!

• 3 tablespoons of chili powder
• 2 tablespoons of paprika
• 2 tablespoons of cumin
• 1 tablespoon of garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons of celery salt
• Salt & pepper to taste.

Once you’ve added all of those succulent spices, toss in a can of green peas, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, and a can of sweet corn. All of these ingredients are whats going to make this chili extremely thick, and filling since we are in fact missing the meat, but not actually missing the meat. If you Diamonds catch my drift! 😉 After all the rainbow goodness gets mixed in the pot, then it’s time for the cheesy goodness of it all!

• Pour in one whole can of cheddar cheese soup in with everything! It’s the magical ingredient in this vegetable chili, and it gives it such a luscious creamy texture that this needed. As we know.. since it doesn’t have the ground beef in it, another fat component was a pretty necessary add in!

In every single chili, besides white chicken chili of course, you need a tomato product! I used a 15 oz can of tomato sauce, and then finished it off with the same amount of water. You can of course use a can of crushed tomatoes, but since my family was going to be enjoying this, and my dad can’t consume seeds of any kind.. I chose to do the sauce instead.

• Once you have everything combined in the pot, let that simmer for 1-2 hours on low depending how how thick and flavorful you want the chili to become!

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This chili is great to even have going in a crock pot all day on a Sunday while the games are playing, with a toppings bar set up right next to it, so that everyone will be able to go serve themselves a nice little bowl topped with anything they could ever want! All types of bars especially “chili bars” are stars of a party, or get together during this time of year. I truly think it’s one of the best things you can put out while having guests over, no matter if it’s 5 people, or 50, and with the holidays on their way, it’s an amazing way to brainstorm ideas for other types of bars! You can arrange everything from shredded cheese to lime segments! Anything and everything you could ever want to host the best, and most memorable football Sundays this fall!

XOXO