Serves 6 to 8
photo by Kate Lewis
I’m a vegan chili devotee! But sometimes you want chili and you want pasta and you don’t want to choose. Enter chili mac: the dish that says why not both? It’s kind of like hamburger helper in that the pasta cooks right in the pot with everything else. One pot, minimal dishes, loads of flavor. Why is life this easy?
The magic of cooking everything in one pot is that all the flavors blend together as they simmer. The pasta absorbs the tomato and chili spices, the seitan soaks up all that savory broth, and everything becomes this cohesive, deeply flavored masterpiece. The Mona Lisa of one-pot meals! It’s basically what those boxed hamburger helper mixes promised us in the ’90s, but actually good. And vegan. And made with real ingredients you can pronounce.
The baby carrots cook down soft and sweet, adding little pockets of sweetness and some color to all the red and brown. The jalapeños bring the kick.
If you’d like to replace the seitan, beans would be amazing. You can also just add some beans with the seitan. I would recommend kidney, pinto or black beans but now that I think about it why not great northerns or chickpeas? Whatever makes you happy.
You can also do it up with the toppings: vegan sour cream or shredded cheese. Add some tortilla strips for crunch. But honestly and truly, it’s perfectly wonderful as is.
One-Pot Chili Mac With Seitan
Ingredients
- 3 cups diced seitan
- 3 tablespoons olive oil divide
- 1 large yellow onion diced medium
- 1 cup baby carrots diced
- 2 jalapeños thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 3 tablespoons mild chili powder
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 25 oz can diced tomatoes
- 8 oz macaroni pasta
- For serving:
- Scallions sliced, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat a 6-quart pot over medium-high heat.
- Sauté the seitan in one tablespoon oil for about 5 minutes just to crisp it up a bit, then remove from the pan and set aside on a plate.
- Add the remaining oil, then sauté the onion, carrots, and jalapeños with a big pinch of salt for 8 to 10 minutes, until the onion is lightly browned.
- Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt, and nutritional yeast, and toss to coat the veggies, letting the spices toast for about 2 minutes.
- Add the cilantro and sauté until wilted and cooked down, another 2 minutes or so.
- Add the vegetable broth and scrape the bottom of the pan to deglaze. Add the canned tomatoes and pasta. Cover and bring to a boil, then give it a stir.
- Once boiling, reduce heat and let simmer with the lid ajar so steam can escape. Pasta takes longer to cook when there are tomatoes involved, so this could take 20 minutes or so. Stir occasionally and add a splash of water if things start to look too thick.
- Stir the seitan back in after about 10 minutes.
- When the macaroni is tender, it’s ready! Tastes best if you let it sit for 10 minutes or so. Pro tip: tastes even better as leftovers.
- Garnish with sliced scallions and serve.
