Welcome Home Chili

This past week Daniel left me all alone forever went on a business trip to Minnesota for a few days. I knew that when I picked him up at the airport the night he came home I wanted to have a nice, homey dinner ready to go when we walked in the door (you know, remind him why he came home). I thought chili would be perfect, since I could throw it in the crockpot and have plenty of time for making-out not have to fuss to much. I don’t have a go-to chili recipe but luckily my latest issue of Cooking Light did!

Black Bean Salsa Chili
(From Cooking Light Magazine, October 2009)

2 (15 oz) cans black beans; rinsed, drained and divided

2/3 cups water

1 tbsp dark brown sugar

Cooking Spray

½ pound ground turkey

1 cup chopped sweet onion

½ cup chopped green pepper

½ cup chopped red bell pepper

3 sweet hickory-smoked bacon slices, chopped

1 ½ tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tsp dried oregano

1/8 tsp crushed red pepper

1 ½ cups mild salsa

3 tbsp tomato paste

1 (14 oz) can fat-free, less-sodium beef broth

½ cup reduced-fat sour cream

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 tsp fresh lime juice

1. Combine 1 ½ cups beans, 2/3 cup water, and sugar in a food processor; process until smooth. Combine bean puree and remaining beans in a bowl.

2. Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add turkey; cook 3 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Remove turkey from pan.

3. Add onion, bell peppers, and bacon to pan; cook 5 minutes or until bacon and onion are lightly browned. Return turkey to the pan. Add chili powder, cumin, oregano, and crushed red pepper to pan; stir well to coat. Stir in bean mixture, salsa, tomato paste, and broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Combine sour cream, cilantro, and juice in a small bowl. Serve chili with sour cream mixture.

-Yields 6 servings (serving size: 1 cup chili and about 4 tsps sour cream mixture.) Calories 199; Fat 6.2 g; Fiber 5.9 g

I did take some liberties with the recipe. First off, I used a full pound of turkey. I was lazy and didn’t feel like dividing it, and I think it added some nice heft to the chili. I also skipped step 4 because I hate cilantro. Instead I just served fat-free sour cream, chopped onion and shredded cheese on the side, to be added to taste by each of us. I also didn’t do any measuring for the onion or bell pepper, I just used a smallish onion, and one of each color peppers.  Finally, I wanted to put this in the crockpot to cook while I was at work, so the night before I did everything up to the point of simmering for 30 minutes, threw it in the crockpot and stuck it in the fridge for the night. When I got up in the morning I pulled it out and plugged it in as I walked out the door.

This was a perfectly good chili recipe, but I don’t think that it’s my chili recipe. To me chili should be easy, something you can throw together and not have to worry about it. I definitely shouldn’t have to be pureeing anything. So for me, this recipe is a little fussy. The point of the pureeing is to thicken it up, but after sitting in the crockpot all day I don’t think that would be a problem. Plus, I like lots of beans in my chili, so in the future I would probably skip the first step and just use the beans whole.

All in all it was a tasty recipe, but I don’t anticipate using it again. However, it was a perfect meal to eat with my honey while we got caught up. I served it with crescent rolls on the side, and for dessert we had some hot out of the oven chocolate chip cookies (courtesy of Pillsbury).