Chili is a great vegetarian meal as true chili connoisseurs believe that a good chili recipe shouldn’t contain any meat at all. Original chili recipes like that made in the Old West on the chuck wagons contained beans, tomatoes, and a lot of spices that made it more than delicious and a very filling meal for hungry cowboys.

There are a lot of recipes for vegetarian chili, and we are pleased to give you a couple of our favorites to try out in your own kitchen. The first recipe was found at www.allrecipes.com which is a great place to find tons of meatless recipes. They call this recipe the Best Vegetarian Chili in the World:

INGREDIENTS
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1/2 medium onion, chopped
* 2 bay leaves
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 2 tablespoons dried oregano
* 1 tablespoon salt
* 2 stalks celery, chopped
* 2 green bell peppers, chopped
* 2 jalapeno peppers, chopped
* 3 cloves garlic, chopped
* 2 (4 ounce) cans chopped green chile peppers, drained
* 2 (12 ounce) packages vegetarian burger crumbles
* 3 (28 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, crushed
* 1/4 cup chili powder
* 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
* 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
* 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
* 1 (15 ounce) can black beans
* 1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and season with bay leaves, cumin, oregano, and salt. Cook and stir until onion is tender, then mix in the celery, green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, garlic, and green chile peppers. When vegetables are heated through, mix in the vegetarian burger crumbles. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer 5 minutes.

2. Mix the tomatoes into the pot. Season chili with chili powder and pepper. Stir in the kidney beans, garbanzo beans, and black beans. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 45 minutes. Stir in the corn, and continue cooking 5 minutes before serving.

From our own kitchen, we bring you the following recipe for vegetarian chili that is a bit less complicated than the one above, but which is just as good (we think) and very easy to make.

INGREDIENTS
* 1 large can whole tomatoes or 12 fresh tomatoes peeled and quartered
* 1 can diced tomatoes
* 1 can kidney beans
* 2 cans chili hot beans
* 4 large jalapeno peppers minced
* 2 cans tomato sauce
* 2 cans tomato paste
* 1 large onion chopped
* 4 tablespoons chili powder
* 2 tablespoons red pepper
* 3 tablespoons garlic salt

DIRECTIONS
Place all ingredients into a large pot and simmer for 2-3 hours stirring frequently so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

There are many more vegetarian chili recipes, but these two are great places for you to get started! Bon appetit!

Perhaps you have chosen to switch over to a vegetarian lifestyle because you want to lose weight and need to find some low calorie vegetarian recipes to help you in your weight loss goals. The good news is that just be switching over to meatless eating, you will be eating low calorie already. The secret to cooking low calorie vegetarian recipes is to cut out the extras that make meals fattening in the first place.

To begin with, when you are cooking low calorie vegetarian recipes, you will want to shy away from using too much oil. You can, however use a good quality extra virgin olive oil for flavoring and salads. EVOO (as Rachel Ray calls it) is low in calories and provides some of the “good fats” that our bodies need.

Stay away from fried foods when you are cooking low calorie vegetarian recipes. Even if you do use the extra virgin olive oil to fry in, fried foods are classically higher in calories, so you should avoid these as much as possible.

Steam your vegetables instead of boiling them. Boiling them will cause a lot of the important nutrients to be lost. Grill vegetables for a great change. Use a no calorie or low calorie cooking spray to give them a little moisture or even spray on a little diluted lemon juice.

If your diet allows you to eat seafood, broil fish instead of frying it and, again, grilling is a great way to add flavor and uniqueness to your foods. Spices can make the difference toward a full-flavored low calorie vegetarian recipe that is satisfying and delicious.

Many low calorie vegetarian recipes can be found on the Internet. You can also buy vegetarian cookbooks with low calorie recipes in them. Another great option for low calorie vegetarian recipes is to simply modify regular recipes by using low calorie substitutions like low-fat cheeses or substituting plain yogurt for sour cream.

If you are creative, you will be surprised to find that you can find low calorie vegetarian recipes are plentiful and able to be implemented into your diet that will complement your weight loss goals. All you need is a little education into where you can make substitutions that will make high calorie foods into low calorie foods with a little alteration and a lot of imagination. Implement low calorie vegetarian recipes into your diet and realize that you can have delicious foods while supporting your meatless lifestyle.

When you are converting your eating habits over to a vegetarian lifestyle, you may want to go out and buy a good vegetarian cookbook that can provide you with a variety of recipes you can try for meatless meals. Making the switch over to a vegetarian lifestyle can be a difficult transition. Having an arsenal of recipes at your disposal is the first tool toward the successful switch.

You can also find a plethora of vegetarian recipes on the Internet as well. There are tons and tons of websites that are dedicated to the vegetarian lifestyle that will give you some great recipes to try out as you try and figure out how you are going to cook without meat.

If you’re like a lot of people who are just switching over to vegetarianism, you are probably used to cooking with meat like beef and chicken. However, there’s a reason why you wanted to become a vegetarian. So keeping your eye on that reason can make cooking vegetarian recipes much, much easier.

Here are a few of the websites that we found that feature vegetarian recipes:

www.allrecipes.com – this website contains regular recipes but it also features a vegetarian section that can spark some great ideas for meatless meals.

www.vegweb.com – dedicated to the vegetarian lifestyle, Veg Web not only has vegetarian recipes, but it gives a lot of advice on how to stick with the vegetarian way of life and deal with some of the adversities you might face during the transition.

www.vegcooking.com – this great website has hundreds and hundreds of vegetarian recipes in all categories including grilling, appetizers, and much more. There is a section that will suggest menus and provide you with an online shopping list that you can print out off your computer and take right to the grocery store.

www.vegkitchen.com – not only does this site have hundreds of vegetarian recipes as well, it helps you stock your kitchen with vegetarian essentials and gives advice on how to begin making your kitchen a vegetarian paradise.

Keep in mind that you can also adapt your favorite recipes to be vegetarian recipes. Either you can cut out the meat in your recipes altogether or you can find alternatives to use in place of the meat. You will find that vegetarian recipes are versatile and even regular recipes can be converted over to become meatless. Vegetarian recipes abound if you know where to look. We hope that you can get a start with the information we’ve been able to provide you in this article! Happy cooking!