30-Minute Chili Con Carne (low-fat)
Spring is approaching and normally markets should start to feature all sorts of asparagus. Since I absolutely love this vegetable I was looking for it a few days ago when I went to the supermarket, with a specific recipe in mind that I’ve always wanted to try. So while perusing the selection, I stumbled upon the most amazing jalapeños I had ever seen - a full basket of shiny chili peppers that simply begged to be taken home and cooked. But no, I told myself, I was there for the stunning, fresh asparagus they were supposed to have!
After searching for it for what must have been five minutes, I finally found five lots of it, tucked away behind all the potato-baskets where no one could possibly find them. Actually that was quite fortunate for the asparagus as it was so dried out and shabby that it looked like little bundles of straw. Quite amazing actually when you think about it. You set out to cook seasonal/local vegetables that should be available in abundance right now but instead, in this little supermarket in one of the most remote places of Provence, we had the choice between jalapenos, shiitake mushrooms and flown-in papayas :p
Anyway Mexican food is great and we weren’t going to complain. When we came home from University today we started cooking right away and whilst my husband loves to taste everything I’m chopping on the cutting board, he glanced at me rather dubiously when I asked him to taste how hot the jalapenos were. But you see, the great thing about men is that they’d never openly admit that something is too hot for them (lucky for me :p). So when he finally took a bite he told me it was quite hot but said that I should go ahead and put in two of them! And that’s what I did.
Suffice to say that the chili completely owned us. But still, with our eyes and noses running and our mouths literally burning we still chomped our way through the bowl because it was simply too good.
This is a quick recipe for a low-fat chili - something you can make for your whole family when you come home from work as it really only requires a little chopping in the beginning. The short cooking time is also one of the reasons why we chose ground beef, which doesn’t need to stew as long as chunks to be tender.
30-Minute Chili Con Carne (low-fat)
- 350g low-fat ground beef
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 pepper of each color (red, yellow, green)
- 2 tomatoes
- 1-2 green chili peppers
- 3 Tbsp tomato paste
- 200 ml tomato purée
- 250 ml quality stock, either beef or chicken
- a pinch of sugar
- 1 can red beans
- pepper, salt, thyme, sweet paprika
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
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Finely chop the onion and the garlic and heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onions and the garlic and cook them for several minutes until they become transparent.
In the meantime dice the peppers and the tomatoes and finely chop the chili peppers.
Once the onions have cooked long enough, add the ground beef and use a wooden spatula to break it up while cooking it. After about 3 minutes add all the vegetables you’ve chopped before as well as the spices (minus the salt).
Add the chicken stock, the tomato purée and the tomato paste and let everything simmer for 30 minutes, uncovered, over medium-low heat. Stir occasionally.
Season to taste with salt and pepper and add the sugar to cut the acidity of the tomato. Also fold in the red beans, then take off the heat.
Serves 4. Serve with grated cheese, onions, tortilla chips, corn bread etc.
