Start a mini revolution!

About a year and a half ago, I wrote a post about my first experience making a chilli. Chilli is one of those things that I always thought about as being complicated and hard to make, and honestly, I never went looking for a recipe... Until I watched a TV show and then bought a recipe book by Jamie Oliver (aka the Naked Chef) called The Food Revolution. For those of you who haven't seen it - it was a reality show with a premise of making over the eating habits of one of the unhealthiest cities in the USA, Huntington, WV. The show was great and his book is just as good.

I have to say that I love this chilli recipe. But more importantly - my very picky husband AND my daughter do as well. This recipe makes quite a bit of quantity, so after eating the chilli for 3 days (that's right, they didn't mind having it for supper 3 days in the row!), we froze the rest :)

Here's how it goes:

You can barely see the rice - cause chilli is SO good! he-he :)

... and that's how much chilli is made from this recipe (something like 8 servings +)

Ingredients:
THE MEAT:
* About 1 lb of lean/extra lean ground beef (I ended up using about 1.75 lbs or 800 g to make the chilli more meaty)

THE VEGGIES:
* 2 medium onions
* 2 medium carrots (thank you Ana for pointing out this omission!) :)
* 2 celery stalks
* 2 clover of garlic (I cheated and used chopped dried garlic)
* 2 medium sweet red peppers

THE CANNED STUFF:
* 15 oz. of canned chickpeas
* 15 oz. of canned red kidney beans
* 28 oz. of canned diced tomatoes
(the chickpeas and the kidney beans are sold in 19 oz. cans here, but I weighted the contents... under 15 oz., so a regular 19 oz. can wouldn't be too much)

THE SPICES & SUCH:
* 1 heaped tsp of chilli powder
* 1 heaped tsp of ground cumin
* 1 heaped tsp of ground cinnamon
* salt & freshly ground black pepper
* olive oil (I ran out, so I just used canola oil)
* 2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
* cilantro (I used dried)

Directions:

1. Peel and finely chop the onions, garlic, carrots and celery - don't worry about the technique, just chop away until fine. Halve the red peppers, remove the stalks and seeds and roughly chop. Place your largest casserole-type pan on a medium high heat. Add 2 lugs of olive oil and all your chopped vegetables.

2. Add the chilli powder, cumin and cinnamon with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Stir every 30 seconds for around 7 minutes until softened and lightly coloured (like on this photo).

3. Add the drained chickpeas, drained kidney beans and the diced tomatoes (I drained some water out of the can of tomatoes because it seemed like too much).

4. Add the minced beef, breaking any larger chunks up with a wooden spoon.

5. Fill half-way the empty tomato can with water and pour this into the pan (I added only 1/4 of a can and even then, I think it might be a little bit too much liquid, but it's a personal choice). Stir in the cilantro. Add the balsamic vinegar and season with a good pinch of salt and pepper.

6. Bring to the boil and turn the heat down to a simmer with a lid slightly askew for about an hour, stirring every now and again to stop it catching.









I served it over regular rice :)
Jamie's recommendation on serving this chilli:

1. This is fantastic served with fluffy rice.
 
2. Just divide the rice and chilli into big bowls or serve in the middle of the table and let everyone help themselves.
 
3. If you don't fancy rice it's equally good with a nice hunk of fresh crusty bread, over a jacket potato or with couscous.
 
4. Put a small bowl of natural yoghurt, some guacamole and a few wedges of lime on the table, and sprinkle the chilli with the coriander leaves.
 
5. Great to add a nice green salad to round it off.