I find it rather amusing that I have a lot more fun experimenting with chili recipes now that I’m vegan than I did when I ate your standard ground beef chili. I remember it was just a short three years ago that I tried to make chili for the first time, calling my mom at work for her recipe and borrowing my roommate’s crock pot. I remember it not coming out like my mom’s and thinking chili just wasn’t something I was meant to make well. Once I went vegan I was so nervous to make a vegan chili when the cooler weather came around. I was afraid I was destined to not enjoy it since I wouldn’t be able to have those chewy chunks of meat in there. Well, I was wrong, so wonderfully wrong! My Vegan Three Bean Chili is one of our favorite chilies ever! (And yes, “our” – my carnivorous husband loves this vegan chili, too!).
Tonight I decided to make another variation of chili – white chili. I actually never made a white chili in my pre-vegan days, so I don’t really have your standard cream, cheese and chicken recipe to compare it too. I don’t need a comparison though, because this was really, really good, and wholesome, too. 
Ingredients:
- 1 pound of dried Great Northern beans
- 2 cups of raw, unsalted cashews
- 4 cups of organic vegetable broth
- 4 cups of water
- 2 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large sweet onion (or three very small ones, like mine)
- 4-5 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 2, 4-ounce cans of diced green chilies
- 1 jalapeno, diced
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 cup light coconut milk
- 2 Tablespoons yellow corn meal
- 2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
Into your crock pot pour your beans, vegetable broth and water.
Meanwhile, heat a skillet over medium-high heat with two tablespoons of olive oil. While the skillet is heating, chop your onion and garlic!
Sauté your onions and garlic until the onions are translucent and starting to get a bit of carmelization (not pictured as done in the below photo!).
Once done, add to the crock pot with spices, green chilies….
Raw cashews….
Jalapeno! I promise it’s mostly for flavor – it’s really NOT that spicy! If you really fear the spice, remove the seeds and membranes (the white stuff inside) because that’s where most of the heat is anyway.
At this point you can walk away and leave the crock pot on! I had mine on for eight hours, and it was too long. I had to add more water when I got home! Four to six hours would probably be good.
About 20-30 minutes before you want to stir, mix up your coconut milk thickener. Combine the two tablespoons of nutritional yeast, two tablespoons of corn meal and one cup of light coconut milk and stir the mixture into the chili.
I simmered a bit more to let the flavors blend together.
Finally, dinner was served!
It was good! I actually was wishing for more heat in it! The coconut milk adds a really great texture and flavor to the chili, and you could probably get away with just using a half cup!
I can’t wait for leftovers!
What’s your favorite chili variation?This is definitely my new favorite when I don’t feel like my standard bean and tomato based chili!
I love making Cincinnati chili…it is sweeter than most chilis. But this looks awesome!!
I LOVE white chili!!!! But I think my favorite is the Coconut Coco Chili from the EDBV cookbook. Lindsey, you MUST try this one! It’s out of this world!
Oh wow! This looks sooooo good!!!! Yum!!
YUM, I’m totally making this. I have a great recipe I’ve found online for spicy vegetarian red chili if you are ever craving it. I’m pretty sure it’s vegan and I’d be happy to send you the link. It’s amazing with cornbread….mmm…okay, maybe I need to make it this weekend
Anyway, you mentioned that Ross is carnivorous. It seems like you cook vegan dinners for him every night, so does he still eat meat often or not? D is not vegetarian, but eats meatless most of the time since I cook for him. He still asks me to buy him lunch meat most weeks, but he gets annoyed if I buy him “expensive” nitrate-free meat (“who cares about nitrates?”) so I wind up buying like the most processed crap that my carnivorous parents wouldn’t even eat–we’re talking Oscar Mayer!! I don’t argue with him because it gives me more $$ in our grocery budget to buy fruit, but I’m still totally grossed out by it. I was just curious how you guys do it! Maybe we need Ross to share his eats for a day, hmm?
Ross is definitely carnivorous, as in he welcomes steaks, skim milk, cheese, etc. But I’m also extremely blessed in that he loves my cooking, so he’ll always eat what I make. Sometimes he’ll add some chicken or something to it if he wants, but usually he just eats what I make. For lunches he’ll do leftovers or turkey sandwiches, and will often do cereal with skim milk for breakfast.
Keep your eyes out, there just may be a Mr. Sound Eats post one of these days.
I definitely need to try this – the addition of cashews sounds delectable!
I’ve been craving a white chili that isn’t loaded with cream and butter and this is totally what I needed! Love you!!!!!!!!! haha
Thanks for posting, I’m going to save this post on my favorites so I can recreate the recipe soon.
White chili is one of my *favorites.* I mean, you can’t really go wrong with chili! I absolutely love the addition of cashews. Where did you find that idea? It’s brilliant =)
I wish I could say I brilliantly thought of cashews all on my own, but the fantastic vegan chili from Infusion Tea in Orlando puts cashews in their chili and that’s where I got the idea.
I love it!
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