Chili con Carne | A family staple

Prep time: 10 mins. Cooking time: 1.5 hours

When we were still working in the office, the Chili con Carne – in its many variations – was one of the staple recipes that we made to meal prep. It is easy to make in bigger batches, enough to feed 2, 3 or how many people you want. It is a heartwarming comfort dish that you can serve with rice, flat breads, a good slice of sourdough bread, quinoa or even a salad (pun intended).

The basic recipe for chili is quite simple: you need ground meat ( I usually go for a mix of pork and beef), beans, tomato pulp, and a few veggies. Why do I say this? Because I want you to see the versatility of this dish, that you can easily adapt to what you have in your cupboard. I will obviously start lining up everything that I used, and also the technique, but feel free to switch it up a tad, to fit your preferences and your cupboard.

Now that you have the ingredients, let’s start preparing this chili.

Method:

1. Dice the onion and the bell pepper. Add the olive oil in a big pot and once it’s hot, add the onion and the pepper. Stir periodically, until the onions are nice and translucent and the pepper is soft.
2. Add the meat on top of the onions. Do not add salt at this point, save it for the end of the dish, as the volume will change a lot, and you don’t want to add too much. Stir and let the meat cook until it gets brown in color.
3. Dice the tomatoes and add them on top.
4. Now you can start adding the beans. You can use canned ones, like I do, to save time, or you can boil it yourself. You don’t have to add exactly the same beans that I do, but I find this ratio of beans to be our favorite. They have quite different sizes and textures, and the adzuki beans bring a bit of sweetness to the dish. You can also mix and match with lentils or chickpeas.
5. Make sure to drain the beans (and wash them) if you are not using beans that already have a tomato sauce. In my case, the black beans had a chili and tomato sauce and I added it in.
6. After that, you add the tomato pulp and a bit of water.
7. Add the spices and stir to mix everything together.
8. Lower down the heat to minimum, put the lid on the pot, and let it simmer for about an hour, or even an hour and a half, stirring occasionally.
9. After the chili has reduced, and the sauce is a bit thicker, add salt, as much as you consider.

This recipe, with these quantities, will make enough food for about 6 to 8 portions, which makes this dish amazing for meal prepping. Our favorite pairings for it are rice, just simply boiled fluffy rice, homemade bread, quinoa, but I can see it paired with a lot of things.

How can you switch it up and what can you replace?

• in terms of meat, the favorite is the mix of beef and pork. You can also use use just ground beef, or I even went with ground turkey for a lighter version. It will not taste exactly the same with a leaner meat like turkey, but it will still be delish.
• the beans – I usually switch them up depending on what I have at home. I usually have the red beans on hand at all times. In the recipe I mentioned also black beans and adzuki beans; if you don’t have these, you can easily replace with other beans that you like, maybe add some lentils for a switch of texture, and a bit of sweetness. I have also used chickpeas as an addition to the beans, it was good, but not my favorite combination.
• You can skip the black cardamom if you don’t have it, the flavor is similar to the coriander seeds, just a bit fresher.

I hope you will try this recipe, as it is delicious and so cozy for fall and winter. Let me know in the comments if you tried and, and if so, how you liked and what you switched up to make it your own.