What's black and white and red all over? Chili, of course
I had found some white beans on exceptional discount so I started with those and added some black beans to give it a bit of contrast.
The great thing about starting with white beans is that they appear to be cooler than the darker beans, but you can spice them up any way you'd like. For myself, I like it really spicy, but I usually make a medium chili and then make mine a little hotter, but increase or decrease the spices to your comfort level. It's kind of fun to make this white bean chili a little hotter, just for that element of surprise.
I think people expect chili to be dark and mysterious, but once they taste this recipe with a slightly different taste, texture and look, they're hooked.
For those of you cooking for carnivores, I'm told that this version of chili tastes great with chicken so make your meat-eater a little bird as a side dish and they'll love it.
Black, White and Red Chili
1 pound of dried white (canellini, mayocabo, etc.) beans 1 can of black beans
1 can of diced tomatoes, NOT drained
3 cups water
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) of butter
1 tablespoon of minced garlic 3/4 cup of diced onion
1 1/2 cups of chopped red green chiles
1 can of corn, drained
1 tablespoon of ground cumin
1 tablespoon of dried oregano 1 to 2 teaspoons of ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of white pepper
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1/2 bunch of chopped cilantro leaves
1 red pepper, sliced
- Rinse the white beans well, cover with cool water, and soak for 8 hours (You can use canned beans -I found a great sale on the dried beans so I used them.) Drain. Put the beans in large pot with the water and bring to a boil over high heat. Stur in the
- In a saucepan, heat the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic, the onion, and the chiles and saute for 5 minutes. Add the chile mixture to the pot with beans. Add the corn and the diced tomatoes. Add the cumin, the oregano, the pepper, the white pepper,the red pepper flakes, and the cilantro.
- Lower the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for approximately 1 1/2 hours.
- Right before it's done, add the red pepper.
Vegan.
