How to make simple, flavor-filled chili
Ingredients
- Love
- Beans
- Tomato or Pasta Sauce
- Salsa (optional)
- Onion
- Garlic
- Carrots
- Tomatos
- Olive Oil
- Meat (optional)
- Spices
- Cumin
- Mixed Herbs (Like Italian)
- Oregano
- Chili Powder
- Black Pepper
- Salt (optional)
- Garlic Powder (optional)
- Onion Powder (optional)
- Essential Oil
- You can add Cumin essential oil for a sharper taste and therapeutic benefits
How To
Just like…. put it all together. … And stir.
More Information (Organized by Ingredients)
Ok. Well, if that didn’t describe how to make the chili, here are the particulars.
Love
I’m a big believer that your attitude, mood, and emotions while your are cooking have a big impact on the end product. Try it. I love being present mentally and focusing on the beauty of the ingredients and flavors.
Go ahead and try to make a dish when you’re angry or sad. Good luck with making it taste great.
Beans
Beans are great. You MUST activate or sprout your beans, which means you need to plan these meals at least 24 hours in advance. You need to soak the beans for at least 8 hours to activate them. If you drain them and leave them to sit for a while (maybe a day or two) they will begin to sprout. When you activate or sprout the beans, it removes over 90% of the anti-nutrients that protect and preserve the beans for long-term storage. What a fantastic system.
What kinds of beans should you use? Anything that makes sense. Pinto beans are great for their creaminess and flavor. They are also often very affordable. Kidney beans and black beans are also favorites of mine, but there are so many others you can try.
Once activated or sprouted, cook them. I just pressure cook them separately for 5-20 min depending on the desired softness. Just get them soft somehow. Drain them and add them to the pot near the end when everything else is cooked, so as to not smash up the soft beans too much. You’re making chili, not refried beans.
For a pot of chili, use a couple of dry cups, which makes about 5-6 cooked cups – a pot.
Tomato or Pasta Sauce
The base of your chili is often tomato based. You can use tomato sauce, tomato paste, or pasta sauce. I prefer to use a simple and basic pasta sauce that doesn’t have a strong personality of its own. We’re going to define the chili ourselves. A chunky pasta sauce includes many more plants (vegetables) than just tomatoes. And it can be used in so many other recipes: spaghetti, pasta, pizza sauce, soups, and much more.
I like the Tomato & Basil Classico brand from Walmart. Why? It’s hard to find a pasta sauce without different forms of sugar in it. I try to never buy anything with with sugar added as an ingredient. This is also the best value for a sugarless pasta sauce price per ounce. You can get a whole case of these for storage, too.
I like to start the sauce warming while I prepare the other ingredients.
For a pot of chili, I use about two 24oz bottles.
Salsa
You can increase the sweetness, chunkiness, vegetable variety, and spiciness of your chili if you add some salsa.
I use the Great Value salsa picante sauce from Walmart because it has no added sugar and it is the best value price per ounce. I keep lots of bottles of these long-term storage stuff on hand.
For a pot of chili, add 1/4 cup to 1 cup.
Onion
Onions add huge amounts of flavor. And although it’s true that the salsa or pasta sauce may have onions in it, the flavor hasn’t been unlocked. Adding a couple onions not only bring flavor, but they also add volume.
Next, you have an opportunity to unlock massive flavor. If you just chop and dump the onions in, you miss a great opportunity. If you caramelize your onions, your end product is so much better. You can caramelize almost anything you cook, and I think you should. Caramelizing not only cooks, but it also chemically changes the the sugars in the food to bring a rich brown texture and add a sweet nutty flavor. When Fructose, Galactose, Glucose, Sucrose, and Maltose reach temperatures from 110°C (230°F) to 180°C (360°C), they change into one of three groups of polymers: caramelans (C24H36O18), caramelens (C36H50O25), and caramelins (C125H188O80). And, viola, yummy flavor.1 Some also believe that caramelized onions also have health benefits.2 So, whenever you can caramelize, take advantage of it.
When caramelizing your onions, get them dark brown with a few bits blackened before adding them to your pot. I like to fry them in a few tablespoons of olive oil (more on that below).
For a pot of chili, I usually add a 2 onions.
Garlic
Garlic, like onions, is a powerful and natural flavor booster. It always provides a bit of a bite to whatever savory dish you are cooking. It doesn’t work in everything, but does in most. It also has many health benefits. I like to use fresh garlic. You can usually get a bag of garlic bulbs for just a few dollars and they last for weeks and weeks. Each bulb contains about 12 garlic cloves.
Just take an entire bulb and smash the whole thing (you can use the broad side of the knife). Smashing it down opens the bulb and releases the cloves. You can do the same on the clove level by smashing the clove with the broad side of a knife and breaking it out of its protective shell. When you remove the unpalatable skin, chop off the small root nib at the top to remove any undesirable flavor or dirt. Then chop all your cloves into mince with a knife, and then use the tines of a fork to crush the remaining bits into a paste.
Put the minced garlic in a pan and cover it with olive oil and fry it all until brown and crunchy. Don’t fry it too much. If it goes black, you’ve charcoal-ized it and lost most of its benefits. This step is easy to mess up, so watch it carefully.
Once the garlic is fried and crunchy add it to the growing pot of ingredients.
For a pot of chili, you can easily use a whole bulb of garlic. I would at least use a half bulb (about 4-6 cloves).
Carrots
Adding carrots to your chili do two things: they add natural sweetness and they reduce the flatulence (farting) usually associated with eating un-activated legumes such as beans. You can usually sweeten all your foods with other natural foods such as cooked vegetables. Indeed, this is what humanity did before processed or refined sugars.
Carrots also add something else to your chili: volume. You’re making a pot full of yummy food. The most volume should be nutritious as well as delicious. Carrots are healthy for you, and like any vegetables, anytime you can prepare them in your food the better. I think you’re better off making the most of the volume of the food you consume vegetables. Carrots are a roots with a whole ton of health benefits.
I use the whole, unpeeled carrot, but I do chop off the little bit of end that may have bitterness or dirt embedded in it. Dice it into small bits.
I think you can really multiply the flavor of your chili and benefits of adding carrots by caramelizing the carrots before you add them.
Just dice your carrots into small dice and add to a hot pan with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Deep fry these until they are brown and cooked on the outside. Just get them to the point right before overcooked. Then add the carrots to your pot.
I use about 4-6 long carrots for a pot of chili.
Tomatos
Fresh tomatoes make your chili more flavorful. Just dice a couple of tomatoes and add to your chili AFTER you cook it. Best if you can add them right before you serve it. They will warm up and add a bit of sweetness, chunkiness, and unmolested acid to your end product.
Olive Oil
I love to use olive oil in the kitchen. As a rule, I try to avoid any kind of oil that comes from heavy processing such as corn or vegetable oil. I haven’t had those in my kitchen for years. Olive oil has been used for centuries and has so many health benefits, you can just drink a cup full of it. Take care when working with olive oil; however, it burns at a lower temperature compared to other oils, so don’t get it too hot.
Oil, along with salt, creates a savory flavor which adds depth and creaminess to the overall flavor of the end product.
There are many kinds of olive oil to use. Try not to get something too cheap as it doesn’t have much flavor and may be over processed which removes some of the nutrients. I like the Organic Great Value brand because it’s still a rich green color, tastes great, and you can get a good value for your money.
You don’t add the olive oil to your chili directly, it’s added a bit at a time as you caramelize the onions, garlic, and carrots (or even the meat).
In the end, you will probably add about 3-4 tablespoons in the chili pot.
Meat
You don’t really need meat. A simple plant-based chili is just as satisfying if you have added enough oil and have well seasoned your dish. But you can add some if you like. The dish has plenty of protein. Any meat will do. You can use beef (ground, shredded, or cubed), chicken, or anything else.
For flavor purposes, caramelize the meat before adding it. There is a HUGE flavor difference between boiled meat and caramelized grilled meat. Huge.
In our family, we eat meat sparingly. Most of the dishes in our home are plant-based, but we’ll add meat when the urge comes. In this batch, I just grilled and fried some left-over BBQ form a party with friends. Get it nice and browned and put it in the pot.
Spices
Spices are what makes the chili taste like chili. Although each ingredient has its own value and personality, everything added up to now mostly adds volume and texture. Now to add rich flavor and seasoning. Each spice added has a purpose.
- Cumin – This spice will be the main personality of your chili. To me, this is so very important to your chili. Otherwise with all the other ingredients, it will taste like spaghetti or pasta sauce. Use it liberally. Like lots. I put one and a half to two tablespoons in a pot, but sometimes more.
- Mixed Herbs (Like Italian) – I love green herbs. Adding these liberally will enhance flavor. I use a mix of green herbs like Italian for variety. Add about between a couple of teaspoons to a full tablespoon. Flavor to taste.
- Oregano – Oregano adds something special to a dish that supposed to have a bite. Your Italian herbs will already have this in it, but I like to add a bit more to this dish. Add a tablespoon or two to your pot.
- Chili Powder – This is chili, right. Chili powder is just dried and ground chilies. Be careful with this as it can easily make the chili too … chili.
- Black Pepper – I love pepper. Pepper has a terrific flavor and enhances so many dishes with a bit of spice and flavor enhancement. I add about a teaspoon or a bit in a pot.
- Salt (optional) – I usually don’t need to add any of this to this recipe. But, if according to taste, it was too bland, adding a bit of a good quality salt brings out and raises the level of flavor in your food.
- Garlic Powder (optional) – If you don’t have enough garlic, or want some additional flavor, this is a simple way of doing that. If you’ve already added garlic, I would only add about a half teaspoon, if any.
- Onion Powder (optional) – Same with onions. Any dried onion can add some depth of flavor to your dish. I usually don’t need to add this, but add like a half a teaspoon.
- Cumin Essential oil – you can add Cumin essential oil to your chili to give it a stronger, sharper taste and add therapeutic benefits as well. Cumin essential oil supports healthy blood pressure, blood sugar, and liver and kidney cleansing.
Putting it all together
Once you have all your ingredients, you can add them in any order. Just put them in.
The only exceptions would to adding the ingredients in any order would be
- to add fresh tomatoes just before you serve them,
- and to add your softened, cooked beans after the rest of the ingredients are heated or cooked properly. Thus, your soft beans won’t turn to mush.
Last Step
Eat it. Share it. Enjoy.
Footnotes and References
- Caramelization or Caramelisation is the browning of sugar, a process used extensively in cooking for the resulting sweet nutty flavor and brown colour. The brown colours are produced by three groups of polymers: caramelans (C24H36O18), caramelens (C36H50O25), and caramelins (C125H188O80). As the process occurs, volatile chemicals such as diacetyl are released, producing the characteristic caramel flavor. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caramelization
- See http://www.bensonsgourmetseasonings.com/Caramelized%20Onions%20-%20So%20Flavorful%20&%20All%20Onions%20Have%20Health%20Benefits
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