Italian Chili

Let’s talk cooking styles, shall we? Are you one who one follows recipes faithfully? You decide what you are going to make, gather your ingredients, and make a mad dash to the grocery store for any items you still need. You measure ingredients and your food is predictably wonderful? That was me a long time ago.

The joke at our house is that if whatever I make, you’ll only have once. That’s because my cooking style has morphed into opening cupboards, seeing what I have, and then throwing something together and it will either be amazing or awful! Then if my family really likes one of my “thrown together” meals, I quickly make notes and then try to recreate it. Once successful, I share my recipe here with you! So today’s recipe is brought to you by….Mad Scientist Cooking!

Italian Chili

I was at the grocery store and picked up 2 cans of Grillin’ Beans from Bush. The “chipotle sauce” intrigued me. So, it was these two cans that started that night’s experimental dinner. Now, you may say, “so what?” chili is easy. That’s true, but I didn’t have any ground beef, turkey or chicken and my guys didn’t want vegetarian chili. The only meat I had in the house was some Italian sausage and Italian meatballs!

Well, oregano is a spice that is used in both Mexican and Italian cooking so I thought, “I think we should give chili an Italian twist”. Are you ready to make some with me?

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of Black Bean Fiesta Grillin’ Beans
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 large onion chopped
• 1 large poblano (or green bell) pepper chopped
• 1 stalk celery chopped
• 4 clove garlic minced
• 1 pound Italian sausage
• 1 pound Italian meatballs
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can diced tomatoes with chili peppers
• 2 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 Tbsp oregano
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 Tbsp oil (I use coconut oil)

Now, I’ve learned (the hard way) that it really makes cooking go much more smoothly if you prep all your ingredients before you begin cooking. Here’s all my goodies prepped and ready to go.

Okay, now it’s time to get cooking!

Directions:

• In a large pot, cook the onions, celery, and peppers in oil until they are softened, about 5 min.
• Add the garlic and Italian sausage. Cook, breaking up the sausage, about 5 min or until the sausage is cooked.
• Add the remaining ingredients and cook covered for 30 minutes, stirring about every 5 minutes to makes sure your chili doesn’t stick. (Note, it will look like you need to add water but wait to add some. The tomatoes will release a lot of water.)
• After 30 minutes, your chili is ready to serve!

I love my chili with cornbread, don’t you? Anyway, here’s a bowl! I wish you were here ’cause this really is delicious. My youngest has asked for this 3 times since my original experiment and I bet your family will love it too!

This makes a huge batch, enough for a few meals. It will keep in the refrigerator for a few days or freeze for later. Also, this is a soup that improves with time so your family won’t be saying, “Ugh, leftovers.” Nope, they’ll be saying, “Yay, Italian chili!”

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