April 27 2014

Today’s recipe for Soup for SuperSoulSunday is my most recent concoction – Vegetarian Chili Soup. It is my newest and easiest recipe. Here’s why; it is just vegetables that you like, beans of your choice, spices, broth and that’s it! It is completely satisfying and fully enough just as it is.

Elizabeth Lesser returns for a conversation with Oprah on this week’s SuperSoulSunday. The well-known author discusses perhaps her greatest personal discovery, when she realized that who she was in her deepest self was what was most valued and needed. Facing a terrifying illness, her sister reached for Elizabeth not caring about credentials and accolades, wanting only the soul-full Elizabeth. It was a beautiful surprise for Elizabeth to be told that her soul was enough. Ms Lesser calls this your ‘golden radiant core‘.

I believe this place pulses with love. It says ‘I see you’ and conversely ‘you see me’. Elizabeth discusses with Oprah about what it is to be seen. My viewpoint takes in what it is to see and to be seen. That is when the true acceptance and therefore love of one another can take place. Who I am is enough because it is what you want. Yes. And then, who you are is enough because it is what I want. End of story. We see each other and reveal to each other, our golden radiant cores.

When making this week’s Soup for SuperSoulSunday I mulled over the recipe options and decided that the Vegetarian Chili Soup would be ideal. Vegetarian chili Soup is definitive. It is what it is. No magic tricks or secret ingredients. You really can’t go wrong! You can make it pretty fancy with your fancy peppers and your fancy pots, your fancy mushrooms and your fancy ladles, but at the heart of it, it is still just chili. Warm, spicy, comforting chili.

If you are still a bit intimidated or unsure of the choices ahead with this recipe, then fall back on my old standby  – just make it with love! What vegetables do you love? What types of beans do those you are making it for love? When you decide that love could be the answer then most questions are easy! As Elizabeth Lesser and Oprah encourage ‘Love is the great answer to everything!‘ (even when making Vegetarian Chili Soup!)

Recipe for Vegetarian Chili Soup

1. Choose your vegetables. I use onions, celery, zucchini, tomatoes, green, red, yellow peppers and mushrooms. Chop them up!

2. Choose your beans. I use canned black beans, chick peas and kidney beans. Open the cans (yup, canned!) and drain.

3. Gather your spices – chili, black pepper, salt, garlic. All these are to taste.

4. The remaining ingredients are vegetable broth, a can of tomatoes, frozen or canned corn and extra virgin olive oil.

5. Put a soup pot on the stove, on medium heat.

6. Add enough extra virgin olive oil to cover the bottom of the pot.

7. Add the chili powder and garlic along with the onion and celery. Cook for 5 – 6 minutes.

8. Add all the remaining ingredients and let simmer for the afternoon.

This is not a very thick chili which is why I call it soup! You can always make it thicker by adding a can of tomato soup or paste. And don’t forget, it will thicken overnight. Chili is always best the 2nd day!