the recipe i have below is (in my mind), a poor girl's version of chili, because i forgot to buy chili powder, and i only put in one type of bean. some other suggestions i found while looking for chili recipes include black, kidney, and pinto beans, in addition the chili beans. you can also add practically any type of vegetable --if you're a vegetarian, mushrooms are a good substitute for a more meat-like texture. i even found a recipe that suggested crumbling up veggie burgers! which might actually be good, but i was a little skeptical, so i didn't try it out. if you're not a vegetarian, you would just add in ground meat of your choice, and let it cook through (usually til it browns) before adding the beans and tomatoes at the end...this will add probably 5-10 min of cooking time, according to most recipes out there.
more importantly: chili is easy to store. as delicious and flexible as it is, this does actually take longer to make than i'd prefer, so if i'm going to spend an hour making a dish, i'd like to keep it around for a while so i can eat it later in the week. while researching what meals are easy to freeze, i came across this website from TLC:
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/tools-and-techniques/how-to-freeze-foods1.htm
which i just thought was interesting. and useful, because i found this site over break last week, after i had left school leaving my heavy cream in the freezer. oops. but back to the original matter: when you're busy, the last thing you want to deal with is finding something to eat. so if you have about an hour on a sunday morning, like i did, you can make a dish that you know you'll eat later in the week.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
#3: Vegetarian chili (4 servings)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup carrots, chopped
1 green bell pepper
2 tomatoes
1 can chili beans, with the liquid
cumin, pepper, basil, garlic powder for seasoning
Heat the oil in a pot (low heat) while chopping the garlic, carrots, and peppers. Mix in the carrots and garlic into the oil, and let it cook for about 4 minutes on medium heat or until the carrots are tender. Add in peppers and again, let it cook until tender. Add in cumin seeds (about 1/4 tsp).
Stir in the beans with the liquid, and chopped tomatoes. Season with garlic powder, basil, etc, and let it simmer for about 20 min, stirring occasionally. If you prefer it a little less thick, add about 1/4 cup of water.
If you want to store it rather than eat it immediately, let it cool for about 5 minutes before putting it away in the fridge.
Prep time: 5-10 min (this includes taking out all of your ingredients, and starting to chop the vegetables)
Total cook time: about 45 min
Plus clean up: 50-60 min (if you can, collect all of the garbage from chopping on a plastic bag, so while the chili is simmering, you can clean up quickly!)
Nutritional facts:
Serving size: 1 cup
Calories: 92 from fat:35
Total fat:4g
Cholesterol: 0
Sodium: 153mg
Carbs: 13g sugars: 9g
Protein: 3g
This meal also has LOTS of vitamin A and C. And if you add more beans (different types), that will increase the amount of protein!
No comments:
Post a Comment