Recipe: Optional Chili

There are a lot of great dishes with great names.  This is not quite one of these.  It's great, but the name I came up with leaves something to be desired, but it is fitting. See, this chili leaves a lot of room to experiment, adjust and meet personal preference.  I made it as a turkey chili, but it could be vegan, beef, pork or even seafood.  It has some heat (though not enough for my liking), but could be super hot or totally heat-free.  It's very low sodium, but could be much saltier.  The veggies I put in could be completely rearranged and replaced.  Etc, etc, etc.  Hence, "Optional Chili" - you basically can turn it into whatever you want.  I happen to like what I made (though I'd go hotter next time).

It's chili - of course it looks gross, but it tastes great!

Here's what you need:

• 1 large sweet onion
• 5 scallions
• 2-3 zucchini and/or summer squash
• 2 cups white button mushrooms
• 1 cup shitake mushrooms
• 2 jalapeño peppers
• 2 cups pico de gallo
• 1 cup salsa (find one with very low sugar, but with a good tomato sauciness to it)
• 2-3 cups of beans (I split 50/50 pinto and black)
• 4 cups water
• Seasoning
• Cayenne pepper (I used 1 teaspoon, but I'd at least do a table spoon next time)
• 1 tsp Turmeric
• 1 tbsp Sea Salt
• 1 tsp Ginger
• 1 tsp Coriander
• 2-5 sprigs of cilantro, chopped up
• 1-2 lbs of ground turkey (or other meat, tofu, nuts or nothin' at all)
• 1 cup millet, buckwheat, amaranth or other gluten-free grain if you want a little more meatiness to the chili (got the idea from a vegan chili recipe in Scott Jurek's great book Eat & Run)

2 portions set aside for eating now, 4 ready to freeze for later

Chop up the various veggies as finely or coarsely as you like, making sure everything is rinsed well.  If you are using dried beans, be sure to soak them for at least 8 hours.  I don't like to use canned vegetables due to the BPA exposure, so I picked up some Tetrapak beans from Whole Foods (365 brand has an organic option).  It's for this reason that I used salsa and pico instead of canned tomatoes, which are a common component.  I found that the pico and salsa worked really well anyway, so I would do this from now on regardless.  If you are using canned beans or ones like I used, be sure to rinse them until the water flows cleanly through them - no residue or you'll have gas issues.

In a large pot, cover the bottom in an oil of your choice, but I'd recommend coconut oil or olive oil.  If you can find and afford macadamia nut oil, that would work nicely, too.  Stay away from canola and general 'vegetable' oil.  Bring the oil up to a good heat (have on medium high), and add in the onions, scallions, zucchini and seasoning.  Stir around a lot, sautéing the veggies and spreading the seasoning around for 5-10 minutes.  You want the onions to start to get transparent.

Next, add in the rest of the veggies and mix everything up.  Make sure you're now on a medium heat, and break apart and add in any meat or tofu.

Add the beans, salsa and pico, and stir it all up.  If you are putting in hot peppers, now's the time to do that.  I recommend keeping them in big pieces so you can fish them out if you find the chili is hot enough.  If you want more heat, you can fish 'em out, cut them up, and mix 'em back in.  That's what I did after deciding I wanted more heat.

Just as gross looking in a single portion, but still super-tasty

Pour in 3-4 cups of water - basically, it should be enough to cover everything.  If you're adding a grain, throw it in now, and stir it all up.  Lower to medium low heat, cover, and let it simmer for at least an hour, but ideally two.

If you are adding meat, in a skillet, cook it with a bit of olive oil so you aren't sticking raw meat into a warm vat of veggie goodness that might result in salmonella risk.  I find this also adds a really nice flavor if you let the meat brown a bit.  Once it's cooked, make sure it's broken up, and drop into the chili and stir.

That's it.  If it sounds like a lot of work, look for pre-cut veggies to help out.  There are great diced onion options in the frozen veggie section, and probably others that would work well here (e.g. corn, though I don't want that much sugar in my food).  Whole Foods has lots of pre-cut veggies in their produce area, so if you have access to one, I'm sure you could find a good mix of veggies to use.

All in, it probably took me about 25 minutes of prep, and 10 minutes of clean up and storage.  I got 9 adult servings out of this.  I'm also uncomfortably full from this tonight.

So, go for it, enjoy the process and the result, but don't under-heat and overeat like I did, and you'll enlighten.your.body.