The four day New Year’s weekend has come to a close and sadly another holiday isn’t coming for awhile, but, winter isn’t so bad, at least not yet. I made chili this weekend, the base of the recipe coming from my Aunt Mary. Her chili may be her only culinary claim to fame as she “hates cooking.” It is one of the first recipes I headed off to college with in my, now full, recipe book.
I have added a ton of veggies to her classic beef chili, but the flavors are hers, just hidden with the help of my food processor. You can feed a crowd or freeze a bunch for later. I like to freeze extras in different size containers and jars, larger for another chili night but smaller for easy weeknight dinners like chili dogs and chili topped baked potatoes with all the chili fixings. So here is Mar Mar’s famous chili, the healthier version…
Veggie Beef Chili
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 onion
- 2 carrots
- 2 ribs celery
- 1 bell pepper any color
- 1 t salt
- 10 grinds fresh pepper
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2-3 cans beans any combination of kidney, black, red, pinto
- 2 T Worcestershire
- 2 T red wine vinegar
- 1 T paprika
- 2 T chili powder
- 2 t cumin
- 2 T brown sugar
- 1 can tomato paste plus rinsed with 1 can of water
- 2 28 oz cans tomatoes crushed, diced, or whole are fine
- Serve with shredded cheese plain yogurt, avocado or guacamole, lime wedges and tortilla chips or crackers
Instructions
- Set a large soup pot over medium heat and begin browning beef (I did not add any oil, just used the fat from the beef to saute the veggies)
- While the beef is browning, process all veggies in a food processor (not garlic) until finely diced
- Move the beef to one side of the pot and add your veggies to the other side, letting the beef finish browning and the veggies saute
- When beef is browned, add garlic, tomatoes (can also be done in the food processor) and all other ingredients and simmer at least 1 to 2 hours on low, stirring occasionally
- Garnish and serve
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