This New Mexico-style vegetarian green chili is packed with flavor and will have even meat-lovers going in for seconds! Get the recipe now.
Out of all the 100+ posts on The Healthy Toast, this recipe was by far the most researched and thought about.
One of my best friends, and Man of Honor at my wedding, has a phenomenal family recipe for traditional New Mexico pork green chili.
A couple months back we were sitting in his backyard, eating bowls of the pork green chili and started talking about making a vegetarian version.
While this may seem simple – just nix the meat — we wanted to keep that depth of flavor that you get from the pork. And I’m happy to report that we were successful!
But before I jump into how we accomplished our mission, I want to give a brief introduction to green chili for anyone who isn’t familiar.
When you hear “chili” my guess is that most of you think of a combination of meat, beans, possibly vegetables, sometimes beer, and always chili powder. Something that can be made in a slow cooker and is often served over French fries or hot dogs.
Well this is not that kind of chili. It’s also not that gravy-consistency green sauce that you might find at taco chains or more American-style Mexican restaurants.
Traditional green chili is more thin than other chilis and does not contain any chili powder or beans.
For those of you from the Southwest, you are probably familiar with the dispute over Colorado Green Chili vs New Mexico Green Chili.
From what I’ve been able to find, the only real difference is what type of chili you use: in New Mexico it’s the hatch green chili and in Colorado it’s the Pueblo chili. Both of these chilis are usually found around the end of August and beginning of September.
We found ours at a local Farmer’s Market where they were roasting the chilis on the spot.
First things first: you don’t make green chili in a slow cooker. The key is to slowly build and deepen the flavors by adding them in gradually.
Secondly, please, please don’t used canned chilis! You can used frozen hatch green chilis, but just not the canned version.
In addition to the tips above, there are a few key additional pieces to building just the right flavor for green chili:
To keep these traditional, I recommend serving your green chili over a bed of refried beans (I used my healthier refried beans recipe) and scoop up using home-style tortillas rather than a spoon.
For crunch, you could use tortilla chips instead.
And let me tell you, after the first bite we were all in heaven. Seriously, this chili is so full of flavor that you won’t believe there isn’t any meat!
You can bet that I’ll be buying a bunch of roasted hatch green chilis to freeze so that I can enjoy this chili all year long!
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Thank you for fixing that, you’re the best! Will be making this week! 🙂
I have made this recipe along with the refried beans a few times now and it is always delicious. Really reminds me of green chili we get down in Santa Fe! However, it looks like the link to the refried beans is no longer working..is there a way to fix that please? 🙂 This is such a great winter meal and I’ve been craving it all week!
I’m so glad you’ve been enjoying the recipe! And oh no! I’ll check and fix that, thanks for letting me know!
Your idea to use beans on the side seems just right. I’ve been seeking a version of Colorado Green substituting pintos for the pork, but this just might be the answer!
I’ll go flexitarian, and still use my chicken stock – oh, and start with the onions in bacon grease – but featuring the refrito style beans along with the stewed chiles will be dope.
I hope you like it Bryan! I took several tries and collaboration with a friend who’s family has been making New Mexico green chili for generations. I like the flexitarian take on it – let me know how it turns out!
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