Lentil and Bean Chili with Eggplant and Sweet Peppers

Author Notes

This dish draws inspiration from many sources—vegetarian chills in Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins', The Silver Palate Goodtimes Cookbook and Didi Emmon's, Vegetarian Planet. And there's the Indian lentil stews I've learned to love over many years of marriage, like dal makhani that pairs lentils with red beans. We're constantly improvising—each time we stir up a pot there's an opportunity to tweak here and there. The first version began with sautéed eggplant courtesy of Rosso and Lukins. Years later, lentils and beer were added per Emmon's suggestion, and somewhere along the lines the spices that go into dal were stirred in. If we have zucchini in the garden, we add it (toward the end of cooking). Fennel is nice too, sautéed with the eggplant and peppers. The beans we choose depend on what's in the cupboard—cannellini, black, kidney and garbanzo are all able partners.

You can easily have a finished pot on the table in an hour or so, but it's worth planning ahead, since the flavors are even better after a day, or three, which allows time to mingle, mellow and come together.

I like to grind my own spices, a trick I learned from my mentor in Indian cooking, my mother-in-law. The flavors are far superior to what comes packaged in a glass jar at the supermarket. There's a small coffee bean grinder tucked on the pantry shelf, reserved just for spices. Buy bags of cumin or coriander seed at an Indian market in bulk—the cheapest prices you'll find anywhere.

We love Spanish pardina lentils—they retain definition as they cook and have a lovely nut brown hue—but use any earth-colored lentil. If you make a substitution, be sure to test the lentils for doneness as each variety cooks at a different rate. You may need to add more water too.

Besides a steamy bowlful of chili, there's a reward to the cook here—the half glass of beer that's left in the bottle. It'd be a shame to let it go to waste. So drink up. —Ann S