Comforting Chili Mac

The perfect fall comfort food for Friendsgiving or for a weeknight meal

Colorful chefs - new and old, welcome! This is where we cook easy, delicious, saucy, colorful meals made from whole, unprocessed foods, and we make it fun, easy, and learn important stuff about metabolic health while doing it. If you are new and you’ve got questions or ideas, or just want to say hey, please head to the chat!👇🏼

The ultimate comfort food hot dish that tastes even better as leftovers

In today’s issue:

• A comforting, nutrient dense, chili-mac…because that’s what’s needed this week

  • The first Thursday of the month, the recipe is FREE for everyone (Color Club members + Substack subscribers)

• Details about a giveaway of my favorite beans from Beanstory for my Color Clubbers!

When I polled you all on Instagram for Fall comfort food recipes that you wanted a Cooking in Color remake of, I got TONS of suggestions for Chili Mac. To be honest, I had never made Chili Mac… which was surprising given I grew up in Minnesota — the land of casseroles and hot dishes. After 5 rounds of recipe testing, debates with my recipe testers if it should be more “chili” or more “mac”, I think it’s perfect. It’s flavorful like chili but creamy like mac and cheese.

My favorite way to make this is actually with a vegan sauce - essentially cashews, cauliflower, nutritional yeast - but I’ve included a cheese version as well if you prefer. I’m not vegan, but sometimes I’ve found a great vegan sauce can really up the nutritional value and flavor of a dish. If you want to add more protein, add in some ground beef - or any ground meat of choice.

Like all my recipes, it’s nutrient dense, blood sugar friendly, colorful, and packed with fiber and micronutrients. This is a great one for meal prep as it reheats super well!

I’m counting 9 colors: 1 (jalapeño) 2 (red pepper) 3 (orange pepper) 4 (tomatoes) 5 (pinto beans) 6 (cauliflower) 7 (green chilies) 8 (green onion) 9 (cilantro). *I don’t usually count dried spices and seasonings, but those add some extra colors, anti-inflammatory components and nutrients as well!

The recipe AND full length video can be found on my website for free and of course, also for my Color Club members!

I’ve been doing longer recipe videos for Color Club members based on request. They are casual, chatty videos as if we were just cooking in my kitchen together (with Alfie my sous cat too of course). I try to sprinkle in some of the why behind the ingredients and also tips I’ve learned as a home chef!

Warm, cozy, nutritious, colorful = how I’m thinking about all my food this November

In addition to being up on my website (where you’ll find an easy “print this recipe button”), I’m also including the recipe below:

Yields: 6 servings

Total time: ~45 minutes

• Prep time: 20 minites

• Bake time: 20-25 minutes

TOOLS

• 9x13 rectangular baking dish (Caraway non-toxic or glass)

• Stock pot or dutch oven (for chili ingredients)

• Stock pot or dutch oven (for boiling pasta)

• Cutting board

• Chef’s knife (I love my Made In knife!)

• Blender, Vita-mix or food processor

• Measuring cups/spoons

INGREDIENTS

CHILI MAC

• 1 small yellow onion or 1/2 a medium onion, chopped

• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped

• 2 bell peppers, seeded and chopped - I like doing two different colored peppers for more COLOR!

• 1 small cauliflower or 3 cups cauliflower florets, finely chopped (ideally around the same size as the pasta)

• 2 tbsp red or white miso paste

• 2 tbsp chili powder

• 1 tbsp smoked paprika

• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp ground cumin

• 2 tsp garlic powder

• 1 tsp cayenne pepper (less if you don’t want as much spice, more if you want a little more spice!)

• 2 tsp salt

• 1 can (15oz) diced tomatoes, liquid mostly removed from the can

• 1 cup pinto beans (this is basically half a 15 oz can, save the other half for adding protein and fiber to salads or bowls!)

• 2 tbsp tomato paste

• 1 can diced green chilies

• 1 box or about 3 cups Chefs Kiss pasta (use code SONJA for 20% off)

• more salt and pepper, to taste

CAULIFLOWER CASHEW "CHEESE" SAUCE  (see notes for a cheddar + mozzarella version if you prefer)

• 1 cup cauliflower (scoop 1 cup from your stock pot from step 4)

• 1 1/2 cups raw cashews, soaked in warm water to soften

• 1 1/2 cups water, vegetable or bone broth

• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

• 1 tsp dijon mustard

• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

• 1 1/2 tsp salt

FOR SERVING

• Green onions

• Cilantro

HOW TO DO IT

MAKE THE CHILI

1. Soak cashews in 2 cups of hot, filtered water while you are preparing everything else. Put a pot of water for the pasta on the stove so the water heats up while you prepare the chili.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

3. In a dutch oven, sauté onion and jalapeño with miso and olive oil for 2-3 minutes.

4. Add cauliflower and 1/4 cup of water to the pot. Put the lid on to steam the cauliflower. After 5-7 minutes, once the cauliflower is soft but not mushy, remove 1 cup of the cauliflower (and onion and jalapeño mixture) and set aside.

5. Add peppers and all of the spices (chili powder, paprika, cumin, garlic powder, cayenne, salt) to the pot, sauté for 2-3 minutes more.

6. Add diced tomatoes, beans, green chiles, and tomato paste. Stir and turn down to a simmer for another 5-10 minutes while you cook the pasta and make the sauce.

MAKE THE PASTA

7. Cook pasta for a few minutes less than the directions call for. You want it to be al dente because it will keep baking in the oven. Strain and set aside.

MAKE THE CASHEW CHEESE SAUCE (or your just cheese sauce!)

8. In a blender, combine the 1 cup of cauliflower mixture you set aside earlier with nutritional yeast, cashews, water or broth, garlic powder, dijon mustard, and salt.

9. Blend on high until smooth.

If you want to swap the cashew cauliflower sauce for cheese: Mix in 3 cups of shredded cheese in step 10 instead of the cashew cheese sauce. Stir until melted. I like doing a combo of sharp cheddar and mozzarella, but you can pick your cheese of choice!

COMBINE, BAKE, SERVE

10. Add the cashew cheese sauce to the chili pot. Stir.

11. Pour a layer of the chili sauce to coat the bottom of an oven safe baking dish. Then gently add in the pasta and the remainder of the sauce. Stir together.

12. Optional to top with shredded cheese before baking. I like a little sharp cheddar on top of this dish!

13. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350F.

14. Before serving, top with green onions, cilantro and a little flakey sea salt.

VIDEOS

Reel below, and longer-form video (5 minutes) here.

sonjakmanning

A post shared by @sonjakmanning

SWAPS, TIPS, TRICKS

• If you want to add meat: Sauté ground meat with a little salt, cumin, and tomato paste in a separate pan. Add in step 6.

• If you want to swap cheese instead of the cashew cauliflower sauce: Mix in 3 cups of shredded cheese in step 10 instead of the cashew cheese sauce. Stir until melted. I like doing a combo of sharp cheddar and mozzarella, but you can pick your cheese of choice!

• Swap for pinto beans: Use any beans you have on hand! Black beans or kidney beans would work well.

• If you are not vegan/vegetarian: Swap water for bone broth in the cashew cheese sauce.

• Storage: Keeps well in the fridge for up to a week and the freezer for 2 months, but it’s never actually lasted that long in my freezer because it always gets eaten!

NUTRITIONAL INFO

This is calculated with 1 box of Chef’s Kiss pasta which has 20g protein, 20g of carbs, 19g of fiber per serving. It will vary if you use a different type of pasta.

Per serving, makes ~6 servings

Calories: 526
Carbohydrates: 33g
Fiber: 21g
Net carbs: 12g
Protein: 38g
Fat: 26g
Sodium: 1843mg
Sugar: 5g

Next week I’ll be randomly selecting two lucky winners from my Color Club to get a free heirloom bean bundle from one of my favorite small brands - Beanstory!

How GORG are these?

It’s soup season, and I love nothing more than using beans in a warm, comforting soup. This year, I’ve become a dried bean (vs. canned bean) convert, and I try to cook with dried beans as much as possible (even though, yes, in the chili mac recipe above I used canned pinto beans 🤣).

For example, in this free recipe for winter big white bean soup, I talk about how dried beans generally are a little bit more nutritionally dense (DOI: I10.4236/fns.2011.22009) and they have less sodium than most canned beans. They also just taste so much better.

I love highlighting small brands that are aligned with the Cooking in Color mission, and Beanstory certainly fits the bill! Beanstory is on a mission to source the best heirloom beans from uncompromising U.S. farms committed to organic and regenerative growing practices. The company is rooted in the belief that eating nourishing food, grown with respect for people and the planet, has the power to change the world (and I couldn’t agree more!). Their beans are single-origin, 100% organic, 100% U.S. grown, and come straight from the farm for standout taste and freshness. Beans are a superfood with incredible power to nourish us and heal the planet, AND they are a cornerstone crop for a sustainable future.

The co-founders, Maggie and Katherine, say “Beans are tiny and mighty, nourishing and beautiful - an ideal metaphor for celebrating this idea that small choices drive big change.”

So if you have not joined the Color Club yet, join this week and you’ll be entered to win an heirloom bean bundle, to be announced next Thursday.

That’s it for this week! Let me know your questions, thoughts, and suggestions for topics you’d like to see me cover or recipes you’d love to see my Cooking in Color spin on. 💛

Chef’s Kisses,

Sonja

One of the best ways you can support me and my work is forwarding this newsletter to someone you think would enjoy my recipes or content. My recipes are especially great for someone with pre-diabetes, diabetes, PCOS, or who eats grain-free, gluten free, or just someone who wants to eat whole foods to support their health and better learn what “healthy” actually means.