Recipe | Vegetarian Chili with Soy Chorizo and Tri-Colored Quinoa

This is what I had for dinner tonight. No pre-planning, it was just a last minute dinner idea that turned into a god damn masterpiece (Rachel's reactions to it when she got home from work were enough proof) It should yield about 4 servings and it's VERY filling and hearty.

1 large onion, chopped
1 bell pepper (whichever color you prefer, I used red), chopped
1 package of Soy Chorizo
1 cup Quinoa
3 cups water
1 cup Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper soup
1 can of Black Beans, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp Sriracha Hot Sauce
1 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Smoked Paprika
1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Start off by heating up a large saucepan or pot with the olive oil to medium heat. Saute the peppers and onions until they soften up. They don't have to be browned or anything, so salt and pepper them and just sweat them out for about 5-7 minutes.

Once the peppers and onions begin to soften up, add the soy chorizo. Make sure you remove the chorizo from the plastic casing within the plastic packaging before you add it to the pan! Also, I don't know if there's any other brand out there that makes soy chorizo besides Trader Joe's. If you can't get a hold of soy chorizo you can just use soy crumbles and season it up like chorizo (google it, guys. I already threw out the packaging).

While the peppers, onions, and soy chorizo are cooking together, you can start cooking the quinoa. Check your packaging, but usually the cooking method for quinoa is 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water. So for this recipe, combine 1 cup of the tri-colored quinoa (or whatever quinoa you prefer... cooking methods may vary) with 2 cups of water in a pot and bring it up to a boil. Once the water's boiling, cover the pot and bring it down to a simmer for 10-12 minutes, or until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is tender. For more flavor, you can substitute veg stock for the water.

While the quinoa is simmering, add the cup of water, cup of roasted red pepper and tomato soup, black beans, sriracha, cumin, cinnamon, and smoked paprika to the pan. Stir to incorporate all the flavors, cover, and simmer until the quinoa is finished. After the quinoa is done, add it to the pan and stir once again to combine all the flavors.

If you can't get a hold of a decent roasted red pepper and tomato soup, using a can of fire roasted chopped tomatoes would be reeeeeally delicious in this. I was actually planning on using that but I didn't have a can on hand to use. Also, to stretch this recipe you could double or even triple the amount of beans in it, making it a 2 or 3 type bean chili by adding kidney and/ or cannelini beans or your favorite type to the recipe. Also, feel free to add as much or as little hot sauce to the recipe depending on your ability to handle spicy foods.

I'm probably gonna mix some of the leftovers with eggs tomorrow for breakfast.