My apologies for a lack of posts this week, I just finished moving! My new place has my first proper, house-sized kitchen in years, and I am very excited to make use of it and its extensive shelf space. So, today, in order to properly break in the new house, I made one of my absolute favourite dinner-for-friends-plus-leftovers dishes: all-bean chili!
Chili was one of my favourites growing up. It was my mom's stand-by vegetarian recipe, and for years she would make it any time we had vegetarian guests over. My first memory of her chili was New Year's Eve: every New Year's when I was little, four families (all close friends from before they had kids) would get together and do a big dinner, thanksgiving, year-in-review and celebration. Every year my mom's friend made rainbow tortellini with alfredo sauce for the kids (a huge treat), and mom made chili for the adults. Initially my mom made her chili with tofu; as we got older and started to turn our noses up at this weird white stuff in our chili, she switched temporarily to ground beef. Then, with the advent of veggie ground round, the recipe once again became vegetarian.
The secret to mom's chili lay in using cans of Campbell's concentrated tomato soup mix as a thickening agent. The chili was thick, and slightly sweet, and generally utterly delectable. However, Campbell's soup tends to be very high in salt, and as I discovered recently, also contains gluten. Clearly that was something I needed to learn to work without. I also can't eat ground round (I have a soy allergy), so I wanted to increase the number of beans. And I have much more of a love for spicy food than most of my family, so I played around with the spice mix as well. But I love chili, for the taste and also because a big pot of chili can last me a week in leftovers. So I've been playing around with customizing this recipe for the past two years, and I've come up with a combo that I personally think is pretty awesome. If you try it out, let me know your thoughts too.
Family Gathering Chili:
1-2 stalks celery, diced
1-2 carrots, diced or grated
1/2-1 onion, diced
1/2 each green and red pepper, diced
2-4 cloves garlic, chopped or crushed
red pepper flakes, to taste
chili powder and cumin, lots
chipotle chili powder (optional)
cocoa powder and cinnamon, a couple dashes of each
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
2 19-oz cans beans, your choice (I like 1 can black, 1 can mixed)
2 cans baked beans in tomato sauce, drained
ketchup, to taste
frozen corn kernels
fresh or frozen spinach (optional)
Sauté the veggies and red pepper flakes in a large soup pot. Add them stepwise in the order listed to ensure even cooking. (Grated carrot will work but I much prefer the consistency of chopped). Add chili powder and cumin, to taste (I tend to be overly generous with my spices). If you have chipotle chili powder on hand, add a couple of dashes (but use fewer red pepper flakes; chipotle chili powder packs a lot of kick). It's really expensive, though, so don't go out and buy it just for this recipe. The little touch of cocoa and cinnamon just adds a really nice flavour to the dish.
Add the tomatoes in their juice, and 2 cans of assorted beans (kidney beans are traditional but I don't really like them; black beans are nice because they're small, and I like the variety of adding a can of mixed beans. But chickpeas, black-eyed peas, pinto beans, and kidney beans all work well). Drain two small (or one giant) can of baked beans in tomato sauce (any brand), and add those as well. Add ketchup to taste - be generous, it adds sweetness and a bit of thickness, which in my mom's version is provided by the concentrated tomato soup. Add canned/frozen corn kernels (and some washed spinach, if using). Simmer chili until well warmed and to let flavours develop, with the lid off to thicken.
I generally serve the chili over brown rice (fbeans are high in most protein but low in the essential amino acid methionine; rice adds a high level of methionine to compensate). I garnish with cilantro and green onion, for colour and deliciousness.
For those who can eat gluten, by all means add a can of condensed tomato soup instead of the ketchup; and this chili is also very good served with a side of crusty bread. For those who can have soy, veggie ground round can be used in place of one of the cans of assorted beans. Any way round, have fun, experiment, and enjoy!
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