Trader Joe’s Vegan Harvest Chili Review – I’ll admit that I am not vegan. not even close. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy Vegan food. My wife and I eat vegan food all the time when we cook for ourselves.
The kids eat it if I don’t tell them what it is. Usually some pasta dish without meat. They might turn their noses up at it if they knew that I left out the meat but usually, they are too hungry to care. I don’t usually hunt around in the fridge section for things to review. They usually rotate too fast for me to catch one that would be worthy of a review.
My time is limited and I go for maximum impact on my reviews. If I had to review every salad or spread or drink that came through, I’d have thousands of reviews by now and people wouldn’t care about 90% of them. Well, this chili isn’t that. It’s pretty darn good!
I have to admit I looked at the container and absent-mindedly picked it up and put it in the cart thinking it was regular chili with MEAT! It wasn’t until I went to make the darn thing that I read in little tiny letters on the top label “vegan“!
Argh… but being the trooper that I am, and considering how hungry I was, I just went ahead and made it. It’s pretty easy to make. Either heat it in the plastic tub that they sell it in and put it in the microwave or just dump the contents into a pot and heat it on the stovetop. It just takes a couple of minutes to warm it up to the proper temperature.
While I was heating it up, I could smell the rich smokiness from the smoked paprika. I could see chunks of pumpkin and cauliflower floating around in it. I could see this chili was bean heavy, probably more than I like, but you need to get the protein and calories somewhere and beans are a good source of all that. It has a nice dark rich red color, no doubt from all the chili powder and paprika (aren’t those two the same things?).
I put it in a nice big bowl. This is a hearty meal and will fill you up. It was fairly thick when I poured it into the bowl. I like thick Chili. If there is one thing I hate is Chili which is like soup and not thick and rich. Since I am not a practicing Vegan, put some sharp cheddar cheese on the top. I probably should’ve put some vegan cheddar cheese on top.
Next time… Anyway, after letting it cool off, I was impressed with the rich, smoky goodness of the chili. Lots of black beans. Some of them seem to be undercooked a bit but. There were chunks of cauliflower and pumpkin in there. Lots of little interesting bits. It wasn’t too spicy, which is good for me. All in all, I quite enjoyed it. I would easily buy this again!
I am going to give this Trader Joe’s vegan Harvest Chili a solid 8 Bells!
INGREDIENTS
water, cooked black beans (water, black beans), onion, butternut squash, diced tomatoes in juice (tomatoes, tomato juice, salt, citric acid), cauliflower (cauliflower florets, cauliflower stems). pumpkin, sweet potato, canola oil, french green lentils, red quinoa, tomato paste (tomatoes, citric acid), guajillo pepper puree (guajillo chili peppers, citric acid), garlic, sea salt, cilantro, lime juice, cumin, chili powder (spices, sea salt, dehydrated garlic), coriander, oregano, turmeric, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika (paprika, natural smoke flavor).
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