Our volunteer luncheon was wonderful and I had many compliments on the recipe. That means it’s good enough to share with you all! Keep in mind that just like with most of my recipes, I do a little bit of tweaking. So I’ll give you the recipe as best I can and you’ll have to do a little bit of experimenting on what works best for you.
The first thing is that I used dried beans! Why? You know why if you read my last article! If not, check it out: One of the Top Cancer Fighting Foods: Dried Beans! How to Cook Dried Beans. The article also spells out how to prepare dried beans to use in recipes.

Image via Wikipedia
Black Bean Chili in a Crock Pot!
First I’ll give you the recipe, then I’ll tell you some ways you can alter it to fit your needs. I got the inspiration from this site.
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 6 garlic cloves, minced or crushed
- 2 chopped onions, medium size
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste – of course, I definitely used more!
- 1 tablespoon chili powder – …. or more!
- 2 to 3 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried leaf oregano
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cans (14 oz. each) diced tomatoes in juice
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 2 cups of frozen sweet corn (I added this, because i love sweet corn in chili!)
- 2 cans (16 ounces each) black beans, drained and rinsed (see below on how you can use dried beans)
- 2 cans (16 ounces each) beans — pinto, garbanzo, great northern, kidney beans, etc. — drained and rinsed (see below on how you can use dried beans)
- GARNISHES: grated cheese, sour cream, green onion, or other
Instructions:
- Heat the oil in a skillet and saute the onions, garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook 1 minute, then add chili powder and cumin and cook 2 minutes, stirring.
- Add this mixture to the crock pot along with all remaining ingredients except canned beans.
OR - Add the mixture to the crock pot with the previously soaked beans! [SEE TIPS BELOW ON A FEW ALTERATIONS TO THE RECIPE IF USING DRIED BEANS!]
- Stir well and cook on low all day. If using canned beans, stir in an hour or so before serving.
- Serve with garnishes.
Extra Tips for This Recipe
Tips If you are going to use dried beans:
- In order to make it with dried beans, be sure to soak the beans in
plenty of water for at least 8 hours before using in the recipe. - To measure out the 4 cans worth of beans (as the recipe calls for) – I used the empty tomato cans as scoops.
- I added extra water/broth (probably an extra 1.5 – 2 cups) to the recipe when using the soaked dried beans. It then seemed a bit runny, so I thickened it at the end by mixing a little bit of flour with water and stirring in.
- It also required extra spices! I pretty much doubled all the spices that were called for. Then, I added even more of each of them at the last minute before serving. You can never have too much spice, ha! Before serving, I also added some onion powder and garlic powder.
- If you’re brave – You could try this recipe with beans that you did not even soak!
Tips if you want to make it in a regular pot, instead of a crock pot:
- I have been able to take almost all crock pot recipes and cook them in a regular pot. You could do that for this recipe. If using canned beans, just follow the instructions above and instead of moving to #2, just add all the other ingredients to #1 and heat until the chili is ready to eat! This would likely not take more than 20-30 minutes.
- If using dried beans, you would do the same thing, follow the tips above for using dried beans (extra water and extra spices) and then cook for a WHILE until they are done. First bring to a boil, then let it simmer. That would probably take about 2 hours.
I hope you enjoy!!
– Julie
Curious why you would recommend vegetable oil to cancer patients instead of a healthy fat like olive or avocado oil?