The wind and rain is getting crazy outside right now! When nasty weather come's along, what makes you feel better? Chili. I came across this Slow Cooker Black Bean Chili recipe on Kalyn's Kitchen cooking blog.
She gives great step-by-step instructions and photos. For this recipe, she provided the instructions for both slow cooker and stove top methods for cooking the soup. Her blog has become really popular with those that are looking for a lower-glycemic index way of eating. At the end of most of her recipes, she includes alterations or recommendations to the recipe for those that are on the South Beach diet. Give her blog a look and check out her other delicious recipes!
Vegetarian
Chili. Two words I never thought I would say. My diet until recently
could have been compared to that of a five-year-old's: chicken nuggets,
macaroni-and-cheese, fries and ketchup. I decided to go out on a limb and try a vegetarian soup. I
compiled the ingredients for a basic chili, substituted the ground beef
for crumbled veggie burgers and there you have it: Vegetarian Chili! Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 4-5 hours Servings: 6
Ingredients: 2 Boxes (four burgers each) of Veggie Burgers 1/2 Onion 16 oz Can of Diced Tomatoes 10 oz Hot V8 Juice 15 oz Can of Hot Chili Beans 1/2 tsp. of Salt 1 Tbsp. of Chili Powder Brown
the veggie burgers and crumble. Combine all of the ingredients in the
slow cooker. Stir occasionally. Cook on low 4-5 hours. Garnish with sour cream, cheddar cheese or jalapeno peppers.
This was such a good chili, I will definitely be making it again! And what's great is that the leftovers can be used as a chili topping for fries, tater tots, (veggie) burgers, etc. 'Till next time, Matthew
Let's just start this post with as a kid I would choose Wendy's over McDonalds any day of the week. Why? Because Wendy had red hair like me! Even though it could be argued that Ronald is also a redhead but he's a really weird looking one. Wendy was at least cute and us ginger-girls have to stick together!
Wendy's claims they use 100% pure North American beef in their chili. That's about 1000 points better than Hormel, Campbells or Wolf canned chili. Wendy's is in the lead right from the start. Honestly, canned chili completely grosses me out. Have you tasted that stuff? Gag. It makes me want to cleanse my pallet licking door knobs or other disdaining objects.
Wendy’s chili is pretty darn good for the money. The meat is very fine but the red kidney beans and pintos add a lot of texture. Overall, this soup is good and I enjoyed a thicker tomato base and the pieces of celery and bell pepper. I particularly love this chili with a baked potato as shown in the picture.
A small chili, which is usually all I order because it’s very filling, is 210 calories, 6 g. of fat, 21 g. carbs and 17 g. of protein.
I made soup to feed 16 comfortably and had plenty leftover. Divide everything above by three if you are feeding a family of four.
A quick look at our ingredient list.
Boil your chicken breast and place in the refrigerator to cool so that you can easily shred.
Chop your onion and garlic. I used a food processor to chop mine fine and quickly. Add your onion and garlic with olive oil in your stock pot. Cook until translucent. If you are cooking the same amount as me, I would use the largest stock pot you have.
Add your chicken broth, spices, green chilis, tomatillos and canned tomatoes to your onion/garlic mixture. I also added a pinch of sugar at this stage. A hint on the tomatillos...these are odd little boogers and dicing them is not as easy as you would think because they just fall apart. I ended up holding two at a time in my hands over the pot and squeezing the juices and pulp out but discarding majority of the actual skin of the tomatillos. Either way you choose to add them, diced or squeezed, will work just fine.
While your flavors are marrying in your pot, remove your chicken from the refrigerator and shred with your hands. Some people put their chicken in a food processor and this is fine but I think it shreds the chicken too fine. I don't like chunky chicken or super fine chicken so I hand shred mine.
I absolutely love fresh corn and given the opportunity, I always chose fresh over canned or frozen. Take a good knife and slowly cut down the sides.
Drain your white beans and add your beans, corn and chicken to your mixture.
Drink of choice this week: Bud Light Lime. There is just something about a beer and southwestern food.
My new phone case: please note how nicely the design matches the color palet of this blog. I literally squealed when I saw it.
Yummy. I think this soup is best with fresh avocado, a little sour cream, shredded cheese and tortilla chips. Enjoy!
I currently work at a college in Rome, GA. A couple of years ago, I started inviting student staffs over to enjoy Souper
Sunday with me. It’s a BYOB event (meaning bring your own bowl) because if
there is one thing I hate about cooking it would be the clean-up!
This Sunday the students requested chicken noodle, tomato basil and
chili. Even though I love all three, I
thought chili was the best fit to kick-off Souper Sunday. So alas, chili was
the chosen one. Now, I have made several
chili recipes over the years and they didn’t quite cut it. Have you ever been to a chili cook-off? There are a 1000 ways to make chili and only half
are actually good.
I first consulted the cookbooks that my Mammie left me. Those cookbooks are some of my prized
possessions. If the house ever catches on fire, they are conveniently located
by the door so that I can grab them on the way out. My Mammie was (and is as far as I’m
concerned) the best baker in South Carolina. I was surprised to find that there
wasn’t even a soup section in most of her cookbooks! So to the internet I went. Of course, I hit up some of my favorite
sites: allrecipes.com, food.com and Pinterest. I found several that I was interested in but none that really caught my
fancy, if you know what I mean. I then
consulted with my dad and he described a chili that my Aunt Judy used to make
called Chili Con Carne.
Okay. Let's get started. Are you excited? I am!
Ingredients:
3 lbs London broil round
2lbs Spicy sausage
2 Poblano peppers
1-2 Sweet onions
2 Green bell peppers
2 Tbsp Liquid smoke
3 cans of mild chili beans
2 (28oz) cans Crushed tomatoes
10 cloves Garlic 1 Jalapeno pepper (seeded and
diced)
Dice your peppers. I slaved
away over these (not really I used my food processor.) I like my chili to have
a kick but if you don’t then I would recommend that you only use one Poblano
pepper or maybe even eliminate both one Poblano and the Jalapeno. I don’t think this soup was too hot by any
means but I recognize that I like spicy foods. No one was downing water, wiping their brow or wiping their nose if that
helps determine the level of hot-ness.
Now, chop up your onions in
the chopper as well as your garlic.
Slice your meat into one inch cubes. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I don't like huge chunks of meat in my chili. Slowly add your sausage and mix the meat well. Add 3-4 tablespoons of Worcestershire, 1 tablespoon of Dales, 1-2 tablespoons of soy, 2 tablespoons of Liquid Smoke and season with Kosher salt. Work all of this into your meat well.
Now combine your pepper mixture with your meat mixture. I suggest you use your hands until it is well mixed. Place this in the refrigerator for a few hours. I only had an hour to let it marinate and it was still delicious. If you can let it sit overnight or several hours then fantastic. I just never seem to plan that far ahead.
Now you kill time. I had a glass of wine, checked Facebook and painted my nails in case you were wondering. The picture above is my favorite cheap white wine. It's light and yummy!
On medium-high heat, add your mixture to the pan. Don't cram too much into the pan or it won't cook as well. Brown the meat mixture. It's okay if the meat doesn't cook all the way through because it will finish cooking in the pot Add additional batches to your pot as you finish them. I use a 16 quart stainless steel pot for my soups and I love it!
Add one can of beans and one can of crushed tomatoes to the pot so your meat is cooking in the liquid. I started my soup on medium heat in the pot. As you add more meat to the pot, add the other cans of beans and crushed tomatoes.
Now that you have everything cooking in the pot, it's time to spice it up! I added 3-4 tablespoons of chili power, 8 dashes of tabasco, 1 tablespoon of cumin and a medium sprinkling of cayenne pepper. I then added 2-3 pinches of sugar. Sugar is the secret weapon in so many recipes because it marries the flavors. I also added a light sprinkling of black pepper. Feel free to taste your soup and add accordingly based on your preferences.
I let this cook on low for about 2.5 hours. You could definitely let it cook longer, but I wouldn't let it cook for less than two hours. I served this chili with Fritos, sour cream, shredded cheese, crackers and tortilla chips.
I love this recipe and so did my guests. I even gathered their feedback in which I'll post about later.
