3 Bean Crock Pot Chili with Corn Dumplings

3 Bean Crock Pot Chili with Corn Dumplings

I woke up yesterday morning with the whole day ahead of me.... it was one of those rare mid week day off summer mornings.  I put the ingredients together for a crock pot chili and cornmeal dumplings. This left me the rest of the day to do what I wanted -

Yep, that's what I wanted.  This is my wonderful road bike.  She and I spent the morning cruising the hills of Santa Cruz with another friend while the chili cooked!

Three Bean Chili with Cornmeal Dumplings

(This recipe is inspired from "Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker")

Chili:

 - Olive oil (1 - 2 tablespoons)

 - 1 large onion, chopped

 - 1 red bell pepper, chopped

 - 2 or more cloves garlic, chopped

 - 3 - 4 tablespoons tomato paste

 - 1 or more tablespoon chili powder (I only use one because our daughter still lives with us and if I use more than 1 it is simply too spicy for her)

 - One 28 ounce can of chopped fire roasted tomatoes (now listen, it's the summer so you can totally roast your own fresh toms and dump them in.... it just takes a bit longer and the crock pot is supposed to make everything take less time! I used canned this time)

 - 1 can black beans

 - 1 can pinto beans

 - 1 can kidney beans

 - 2 ears fresh corn, corn cut off the cob (when fresh corn is not available, you can use frozen or canned)

 - 1 1/2 cups water or vegie broth

 - 1 teaspoon salt

 - pepper to taste

Dumplings:

 - 2/3 cup all purpose flour

 - 1/3 cup cornmeal

 - 2 teaspoons baking powder

 - 1/8 teaspoon salt

 - 1 ear of fresh corn, corn cut off the cob

 - 1/2 cup soy or nut milk

 - 2 tablespoons olive oil

 - optional teaspoon or two of fresh chopped herbs like chives, parsley, etc.

1.  Heat the oil in a large skillet over low to medium heat and add chopped onion, garlic, and red bell pepper.  Cook until softened.  Add the chili powder and the tomato paste and mix it all together.

2.  Transfer the mixture to the crock pot.  Add the tomatoes, beans, water, corn, salt and pepper.  Cook for 6 hours or so on low.  It can totally cook longer on low without any problem so those of you with an 8 hour job, no worries!  Just leave it in the crock pot while you work and it will be ready when you get home!

3.  To make the dumplings, combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and fresh herbs (if using).  Stir in the fresh corn, milk, and oil until just combined.  Don't over mix or it will stiffen and the dumplings may be dense and hard when cooked.

4.  Turn the slow cooker to High and drop the dumpling batter by the spoonful onto the top of the chili.  Cover and cook for about 30 more minutes - on high until the dumplings are cooked through.  This gives you enough time to make a big big big green salad!

Onions, garlic, red bell pepper in the saute' pan with yummy olive oil.

My good friend, Laurie, made me this chili olive oil.  I used half regular olive oil and half chili olive oil for the saute'.

If you have time, I highly recommend roasting fresh tomatoes in your oven at 400 degrees.  If you are feeling at all rushed or trying to throw this together in the early morning while drinking your coffee and getting ready for work, then use canned.  These were actually really yummy.

You can see my cookbook behind the crock pot filled with beans.  This is a well used recipe - the pages are all bent, warped, and spilled upon!  Look at all those beans.  Think fiber, folks, think fiber!  Oh, and protein!  Lots of delicious plant based protein.

Here's how the chili looked prior to me putting the lid on and forgetting about it for the next many hours.

Dumplings dumped on top of chili.  It only takes about 30 minutes on High to cook these puppies!

I think it would be marvelous to add chopped kale, chard, collards, broccoli, carrots... any vegetable to this chili if you are looking to add even more veg to your diet. I would just put it  all in at the start of cooking.

We each ate at least two servings of this chili.  We paired it with a fabulous salad of butter lettuce, lemon cucumbers, fresh garden tomatoes, strawberries, and sunflower seeds with a dressing of flax oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.  Everyone was SUPER satisfied.  There's enough chili left over for lunch today!  Yay!