I came across the basis for this recipe in a vegetarian cookbook I found and had forgotten all about. It called for, get this, carrots. I laughed, but figured that I couldn't really taste anything too subtle anyway (having a cold at the time) so no harm in giving it a go. I was shocked (SHOCKED, I tell you) to find that carrots seem to be the missing ingredient in chilli. They give it a flavor I didn't even know I was missing.
So give it a try. Really. It's super cheap to make and relatively fast, so no harm done.
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 red pepper diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced no larger than the last joint of your pinky finger!!!*
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 cans of pinto beans, drained
5-10 slices of pickled jalepenos, diced super fine
Black pepper to taste
Directions:
Drizzle olive oil around the bottom of a large pan (I used a spaghetti pot) and heat over medium high. Dump in the onion and garlic and snap a lid on that sucker. (be careful of oil spitting up out of the pan) Lower the heat to medium and let cook for 10 minutes.
If you haven't already done it, chop the pepper and carrots while you're waiting. Lift the lid, dump in pepper and carrots and give it a good stir. Put the lid back on and let cook for another 10 minutes. Take off the lid and get it out of your way, you won't need it again. Jab at the largest carrot chunk you see with a fork: the fork should slide right in. (If it doesn't, you probably didn't listen to me about the size. That's ok, just stick the lid back on and check at 5 minute intervals until you can sucessfully jab that carrot)
Dump tomatoes and beans on top of everything. Turn heat back up to medium high. Stir a few times, till everything is warm, then dump in the jalepenos. Let cook for about 5 minutes (this is flavor-merging stage), then serve into bowls. Very delicious with a sprinkle of cheddar.
Bonus! It's good cold, too.
*If the carrots are too big, you'll wait forever for this to be done
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