The healthiest chili ever! GF

Growing up my mom use to use V8 juice in place of tomato juice in chili. It gave it a little bit of a thicker texture and a little zip. I loved it! The other night I had piles of veggies that I was unsure of what to do with. I figured what the heck, I will make my own veggish juice to use in my chili. I mean 12 cups of organic veggies in a pot of chili?! Can't go wrong there! You don't even notice they are in there, but you still get the benefits! If you don't have these exact veggies, throw in what you do have. There are no rules when it comes to what gets put in this soup! This is a meatless chili but you could add meat if you wanted to. Was super pleased with this recipe! Also, This makes quite a bit. I usually make a huge pot and freeze half for another time, so if you are only making it for one meal, you could halve the recipe.

veggies pre cooking

after cooking, add the juice and puree.

Ingredients

2 tbs olive oil
3 organic celery
5t organic carrots
1 organic zucchini
1 organic softball size onion
7 organic garlic cloves
1 organic green pepper
1 5 oz package organic fresh spinach
2 bottles of organic tomato juice
2 cans organic pinto
2 cans organic dark red kidney
2 cans organic black beans
2 cans organic light red kidney beans
1 small can green chilies
2 Tbs chili powder (Could use less but we like spicy stuff)
3 Tbs cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp chipotle pepper ground
1 tbs paprika powder
Tabasco to taste ( I use 1 Tbs cause I like it hot!)

Directions 

Chop veggies to similar size. Heat oil in large pot, add veggies and sweat down for about 15 minutes on md/high. Add spinach the last 5 min. Add tomato juice and seasonings and puree with immersion blender to completely puree. Add in beans and let simmer for at least 30 min. I like a little plain Greek yogurt in mine, it tastes like sour cream. mmm....