It’s here! Our go-to recipe for easy, vegan spinach and artichoke dip! Let’s do this!
This 10-ingredient recipe comes together quickly and easily with foolproof methods.
Inspired by our White Bean & Kale Artichoke Dip, we simplified things even more and removed vegan cream cheese as an ingredient, as it can be difficult to find for some and often contains processed soy (an ingredient many try to avoid).
Cheesy Vegan Spinach & Artichoke Dip from Minimalist Baker →
Want to learn how to make homemade chili? This easy homemade chili recipe is full of satisfying meat, beans, and veggies, and will be the last chili recipe you’ll ever need. It makes a great weeknight dinner and meal prep and is only 235 calories (15g protein, 2g fiber, 5g carbs).
By now, you probably know I like to keep it simple with my recipes. Same goes for my homemade chili. Chili in itself is not a complicated dish to physically make, but it is complex when it comes to flavors.
Just the thought of a big bowl of spicy, hearty homemade chili warms me up, and makes me dream of those cold winter nights when I’d curl up in front of the TV with a bowl of piping hot chili and some freshly baked cornbread.
Just because you’re following a clean eating plan doesn’t mean chili is off limits to you! Follow this easy homemade chili recipe, which is made with whole, healthy chili ingredients. Serve it with these homemade corn tortillas and enjoy your completely clean easy weeknight dinner.
HOW TO COOK HOMEMADE CHILI WITHOUT BEANSNo beans about it, you can easily cook homemade chili without beans. Even though I love beans in my chili, if you prefer your chili meatier or just hate beans, you’re not alone. In fact, I make this chili without beans for Dustin since he hates beans.
P.S. If you’re looking for a good recipe for chili without beans, try my Texas Chili recipe, too.
WHAT’S THE BEST MEAT TO USE IN HOMEMADE CHILI?Ever wondered what is the best meat to use in homemade chili? While making homemade chili isn’t rocket science, there’s definitely some science behind making truly great chili. This certainly applies when you’re choosing what meat to use in your chili recipe.
Traditionally, chili is made with either beef or pork. You can use ground meat or whole cuts, depending on your preferences. Here are some of my favorite meats to use in homemade chili:
Ground Beef Beef Chuck Brisket Buffalo/BisonMy usual choice is to go with 85/15 grass-fed organic ground beef for good flavor and still a decent price point. This will usually be the cheapest option, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad quality. If you’re wanting lots of flavor, but not too greasy, you can also add in some ground chuck for added fat and flavor.
Whichever kind of meat you use, what is important is browning it properly so it keeps all of its delicious meaty flavors no chili is complete without. My mom always told me the secret to tasty food is in browning the meat and she was right!
CAN YOU COOK HOMEMADE CHILI IN A CROCK POT?Can you cook homemade chili in a Crock Pot? Yes, you sure can! I love using my slow cooker to make chili because it makes this super simple process EVEN simpler. Just like most Crock Pot recipes, Homemade Chili made in a Crock Pot is shockingly easy and very satisfying – which is pretty much easy comfort food at its best.
In order to make this homemade chili in a slow cooker, you’ll still need to brown the meat before adding to the Crock Pot — remember the secret rule about browning your meat we talked about earlier! Once that’s nicely browned, you can add everything but the beans to the crock pot and cook on High for 1-2 hours or on Low for 3-4 hours. When about 10 minutes from being ready to serve, add in the beans and stir together. Cook until the beans are heated through, and you’re good to go!
HOW TO STORE HOMEMADE CHILIIf you’ve got yourself a big skillet full of delicious homemade chili and you’re interested in knowing how long it will last in the fridge, the good news is it will last up to 5-6 days. To get your chili to last as long as possible in the fridge, make sure to properly store it in an air-tight container.
If you’d like to freeze your chili, you can easily freeze it and then just heat up the leftovers whenever you feel like diving into a bowl of this steamy, savory deliciousness right here. Just allow the chili to cool down before transferring to a freezer safe sealable plastic bag, and then place n the freezer.
To save space in your freezer, you can first freeze the chili in the bag flat on a baking sheet in order to stack the frozen bag for later. When ready to eat, just thaw in the fridge overnight and then reheat in the microwave for 2 minutes per serving or in a skillet until heated through.
MORE HEALTHY HOMEMADE CHILI RECIPES TEXAS CHILI RECIPEThis easy Texas Chili Recipe, made without beans and using red wine is seriously one of my favorite chili recipes ever. Well, I am a Texan after all! Made with lean ground beef, crushed tomatoes, and greek yogurt, my Texas Chili Recipe has only 203 calories per serving.
BUTTERNUT SQUASH INSTANT POT CHILIEnjoy this hearty, healthy and easy to make Butternut Squash Instant Pot Chili – ready in just 20 minutes! My Butternut Squash Instant Pot chili is vegan, gluten-free, paleo and clean eating approved. If you don’t own an instant pot, worry not! This instant pot recipe can easily be converted into a slow cooker recipe.
Want to learn how to make homemade chili? This easy homemade chili recipe is full of satisfying meat, beans, and veggies, and will be the last chili recipe you’ll ever need.
When oil is hot, add onion and cook until tender.
Add ground beef and cook until browned.
Add bell peppers, garlic, and all the spices, and stir to incorporate. Cook for 10 minutes, or until bell peppers begin to become tender.
Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, olives, pinto beans, and bring to a boil.
Reduce to a simmer over medium heat, cover, and cook for an additional 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve with a sprinkling of grated cheddar cheese, sliced green onions and a dollop of greek yogurt, if desired.
Nutrition information does not include optional toppings.
This post contains affiliate links for products I use often and highly recommend.
The post How To Make Homemade Chili (Easy Weeknight Dinner Idea!) appeared first on A Sweet Pea Chef.
Want to make a healthy vegan nacho cheese sauce at home? Basically vegan queso, this cashew cheese sauce recipe is ultra simple and delicious.
Can we talk about vegan nacho cheese? Yes, vegan nacho cheese. If you’re like Alex’s brother and think vegan is a dirty word, you’re probably not reading this. So, I don’t have to convince you that vegan is indeed a delightful adjective that simply means this vegan nacho cheese recipe has no real cheese in it! However, this does not mean vegan nacho cheese tastes like fake cheese. It’s so creamy and flavorful that it has me swearing off that plastic processed nacho cheese forever! And let me tell you: I’m a huge cheese fan. Alex and I eat mostly vegetarian on the regular, but more and more vegan recipes have been creeping into our kitchen repertoire. And we think this vegan nacho cheese recipe should be in yours! Why we think so—and a new video—below.
Related: The Best Loaded Vegan Nachos
Watch how to make our vegan nacho cheese recipe How to make vegan nacho cheeseThe magic of this vegan nacho cheese recipe is in one word: cashews. We use cashews in many vegan recipes to make a creamy dairy free cashew cheese sauce: like in this Vegan Pasta Marinara, these Greek Nachos with Cilantro Drizzle, and these Vegan Tacos with Chipotle Cashew Cream. Oh and our Incredible No Mayo Potato Salad! After cashews are soaked, they blend into the perfect creamy consistency that can carry any flavors you like.
For this vegan nacho cheese (basically a vegan queso), we’ve added some traditional Mexican flavors. The special ingredient is a can of green chiles, which you should be able to find in most international grocery aisles. The canned green chiles we’ve specified are mild, but they do have a backend heat! Once it’s blended, you won’t notice too much heat: unless you use a hot chili powder! We’d done this by accident before, which resulted in a hot (but still delicious) vegan nacho cheese sauce. The other ingredients are all ones you likely have in your pantry and refrigerator: chili powder, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, white wine vinegar, and yellow mustard.
We created this vegan nacho cheese sauce to be used on our Best Loaded Vegan Nachos! These nachos combine use popular Smoky Instant Pot Lentils and Rice recipe — but if you don’t have an Instant Pot or other pressure cooker, you can use our Lentil Tacos recipe. This chip dip would be perfect as a gameday snack to nosh on while watching football! Here are some other ways to use this vegan nacho cheese sauce:
Plain: Just put in in a bowl and use it to dip chips! Buddha bowl or grain bowl: A Mexican or Latin themed Buddha bowl is much more delicious with vegan nacho cheese! Try this Southwestern Bowl with vegan nacho cheese! Chili: Our popular Vegetarian Chili turns into a vegan chili when topped with this cashew cheese sauce! Tot-chos: As in, Tater Tot Nachos. Need we say more?A few other notes: the recipe is totally kid friendly! Larson absolutely loved this cashew cheese sauce and loved dipping small pieces of tortilla chips! However, important: this sauce is messy! Because it has turmeric, if it lands on clothes it makes a yellow mark. So, when Larson eats it we strip off his clothes and put on his silicone bib.
Looking for more vegan recipes?Here are some of our favorite vegan recipes!
Very Veggie Vegan Pizza Chocolate Tahini Vegan No Bake Cookies Vegan Banh Mi Sandwich This recipe is…This vegan nacho cheese recipe is vegetarian, gluten free, vegan, plant based, refined sugar free, and naturally sweet.
Want to make a healthy vegan nacho cheese sauce at home? Basically vegan queso, this cashew cheese sauce recipe is ultra simple and delicious.
Place the cashews in a bowl with water and allow them to soak for at least 30 minutes. (You can soak even longer if time allows, or even overnight if desired. If you don’t have a high speed blender, we recommend soaking at least 1 hour.)
Place all ingredients in a high speed blender and blend on high until creamy and fully combined. Place in a sealed container and store in the refrigerator.
Keywords: Nacho Cheese, Vegan Nacho Cheese, Queso, Vegan Queso, Mexican, Cashew Cheese, Vegan Cashew Cheese, Nacho Cheese Sauce
These loaded vegan nachos are the best because they’re plant based, healthy nachos that are so flavorful no one will miss the meat!
Turns out Alex and I are into nachos. Clarification: we’re into healthy nachos. Or, nachos with a healthy twist? Healthyish? Pick your favorite word for a recipe that’s a whole food, from scratch, lighter take on comfort food, and that’s what we love. There’s our Loaded Grilled Nachos, made on the grill in a cast iron skillet. And our Greek Nachos that use pita chips as a base. And then our fusion style Mexican Fried Rice Nachos we made around the time our son Larson was born. There’s even Loaded Vegan Tater Tot Nachos, made with our homemade tater tots! But these *new* Loaded Vegan Nachos are our new favorite! They star our very favorite new Vegan Cashew Cheese recipe and are quick and easy to make once you have a few components on hand.
Watch how to make healthy loaded vegan nachos How to make healthy vegan nachosNachos is a pretty loose concept, so there’s no “perfect” way to make vegan nachos. And in this case, healthy nachos are nachos that are healthier than normal, using lots of fresh plant based toppings and homemade sauces. Making these loaded nachos is very simple once you have made up a few of the components. Here are a few of our secrets:
Organic corn chips: Chips are where issues with processed ingredients can come into play if you’re not careful! So, for healthy vegan nachos we suggest buying organic corn chips that have only 3 ingredients: corn, oil, and salt! Look on the back of the package to determine whether your chips fit this description. Another way to get around processed chips is to make your own! We have a recipe for homemade tortilla chips in our Pretty Simple Cooking cookbook. Lentil topping: These nachos were born out of our popular Instant Pot recipe, these Smoky Instant Pot Lentils and Rice. The fantastic thing about this lentils recipe is that it makes a big pot that you can use in different ways throughout the week! We used them in our Instant Pot Lentil Tacos, and then agreed that nachos would be another great fit! If you don’t have an Instant Pot, use this Lentil Tacos Filling. Vegan nacho cheese: This vegan nacho cheese recipe is so delicious and simple to make: and it tastes way better than the plastic store bought nacho cheese! It’s made simply of cashews and a few spices. It’s also incredibly kid friendly! When to serve vegan nachosThese healthy vegan nachos are a perfect gameday appetizer for watching football — just don’t mention the word healthy! We’ve found that if you call something “healthy,” people automatically expect certain things from it. Even vegan is a negative buzzword for some people in our family! However, everyone in the family can enjoy these vegan nachos: vegan doesn’t have to sound lofty, unattainable, or tasteless! The experience of these vegan nachos is like any other: except that it leaves your body feeling good, instead of the typical gut bomb of salt and fat!
Looking for more vegan recipes?Here are some of our favorite vegan recipes!
Instant Pot Thai Sweet Potatoes Grilled Mango Tacos with Dream Sauce Very Veggie Vegan Pizza Chocolate Tahini Vegan No Bake Cookies This recipe is…This best loaded vegan nachos recipe is vegetarian, gluten free, vegan, plant based, refined sugar free, and naturally sweet.
These loaded vegan nachos are the best because they’re plant based, healthy nachos that are so flavorful no one will miss the meat!
Make the Smoky Instant Pot Lentils and Rice or Lentil Taco Filling. Before serving, make sure the lentils are warm (reheat them if made in advance).
Make the Vegan Cashew Cheese.
Seed and dice the tomato. Mince the red onion. Thinly slice the green onions.
To serve, place the chips on a plate. Top with lentils, tomato, red onion, green onion, Vegan Nacho Cheese, torn cilantro, and hot sauce.
*Note: The timing for this recipe assumes that the Lentils and Rice and Nacho Cheese are made in advance.
Keywords: Nachos, Nacho Cheese, Vegan Nacho Cheese, Vegan Nachos, Lentils, Rice, Cilantro, Healthy Nachos, Gluten Free Nachos, Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten Free