Very Healthy Home Made Chili - Texas Style

Here is a simple recipe for chili.  It is healthy and has all natural ingredients.  You can substitute red meat for any meat or even egg plant if you are vegetarian.  Also if you hold the meat completely until the end you can add soy burger to the mixture just before serving. 

Ingredients:


1 pound round steak. You can spend more but it is not necessary. Read on

2 - 8 ounce cans tomato paste

½ large onion diced to about ½ inch pieces

5 garlic cloves diced very fine

4 tomatoes about the size of a roma diced to tiny pieces or run through a food processor.

2 cups cooked kidney beans

2 cups cooked pinto beans

You can buy canned beans but you can cook them from scratch in about 2 hours – same time it takes to simmer the chili.

1 tbsp coarse sea salt

2 heaping tbsp chili powder

1 tsp ground black pepper

½ tsp cayenne pepper

1 qt water

If you want to cook beans from scratch it is so easy. Pour pinto beans in a large sauce pan up to your first knuckle on your index finger. Add equal amount of kidney beans. Fill with water to about 1 inch below the top. Bring to a boil. When it reaches a boil reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer for 2 hours. Simple. The skin should just be ready to start falling off the beans. Add about a tbsp of salt after they are cooked.

In a large stock pot brown the onion and garlic in a dollop of virgin olive oil. Remove from pan. Here is a trick. If you cube the steak after it is browned it will hold all its juices inside until you cut it. If you cook it cubed then you are fighting the juices that run out and make it hard to brown your meat. I cooked the meat for 3 minutes a side in a very hot iron skillet and cubed it after it had sat for about 5 minutes. The meat got seared and all those wonderful juices ran out when I cut it which I saved and put back into the recipe.

Add the browned meat , onion and garlic to the stock pot. Add the water. Add the tomato paste. (note: tomato sauce is a processed food. Try to avoid it). Add the diced tomatoes. Stir mixture until the liquid is homogenous through out. Stir in chili powder. Stir in cayenne pepper. Add salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered for about 2 hours or until your beans are cooked. This lets all the spices have a chance to cook in. If you have a large enough stock pot you can double the recipe and feed a small army. After about 2 hours add the beans, strained from their water. Stir occasionally for about 10 to 15 minutes. If your chili is too watery you can add flour or cornstarch to thicken it up. Corn meal is ideal for thickening the chili.

Garnish. We like to add chopped onion and shredded cheddar cheese to our individual bowls. Of course fresh corn bread is the ideal side.