Wow. I meant to post this recipe last week but it turned into quite a week. My husband cooked this chili the same day I cooked my Pizza Soup, and we had some all packed away to send to his dad for Tuesday, January 3rd when my husband was returning to work.
Well, Tuesday EARLY am comes and my husband wakes up with chest pains that didn't go away after an hour so we had to make an emergency room trip at 6 am. Fun times. Turns out he had a minor case of pneumonia, which we luckily caught pretty early. Of course, I was super paranoid about me getting sick since I am pregnant. Well, so he was home all week and I was doing more around the house, plus we were trying to set up our bathroom remodel that is happening in just mere weeks! So needless to say, I didn't get to post this chili recipe.
But I can now! He is back at work and I have my normal Monday day off to myself. My husband decided to make it extra spicy, so you can definitely tone it down. We found the recipe in the USA Weekend insert in the newspaper. It was called "Healthy Black Bean-Hominy Chili." We kept the recipe healthy, but used corn instead of hominy (that is what they said to substitute if you couldn't find hominy in the store. We just had a ton of corn in the house!) Hominy is corn kernels whose hull and germ have been removed, so regular corn is perfectly fine.
I am going to post the original recipe and put our substitutions in parentheses. We also halved the recipe. The original full recipe says it makes 4-6 servings, BUT the HALF recipe seems like it made just as much because my husband had 2 of the taller Chinese food soup containers completely full. So make at your own risk and make sure you have plenty of containers to store and freeze extra chili in.
After it was done cooking, my husband tried it and really liked it! He realized he made it a little too spicy, but with some shredded cheddar on top and sour cream, it cut the spice back. He has since used the chili alone, on top of french fries and is considering making a chili burger or chicken sandwich next. He will definitely make this recipe again.
It was also really fast to make - this isn't a slow cooker chili.
And now, the recipe: (original recipe with our changes next to it and full serving size, we halved).
Ingredients:
1 quart vegetable broth (we halved this!)
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (husband used spicy diced tomatoes)
1 TB vegetable oil
1 medium-large onion, diced
1 bell pepper (any color) diced
3 Tbs chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp oregano
2 cans (15.5 oz each) drained black beans (we used 1)
2 cans (15 oz each) drained hominy (we used frozen corn)
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 oz bittersweet chocolate
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
(My husband also added in a dash of crush red pepper flakes, probably overkill!)
Directions:
Microwave broth and tomatoes in a microwave safe dish on high power until steamy hot, about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and peppers and saute them until soft and golden brown - about 5 minutes.
Add the chili powder, cumin and oregano (and in my husbands case, the crushed red pepper flakes) - saute until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add beans and hominy (corn) along with the hot broth mixture. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low and simmer partly covered until vegetables are tender and flavors have blended - about 20 minutes.
Stir in the garlic, chocolate and cilantro and simmer a few minutes to blend flavors.
Turn off the heat and let stand a few minutes.
** If you want a thicker chili (this one is a little thin), vigorously stir in some fine cornmeal at the end of cooking. My husband did this and he ended up really liking how it came out!
And, enjoy! My husband topped it with shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream and was very satisfied.
No comments:
Post a Comment