Chili With Cornbread (recipe)

Our November has been absolutely crazy. And by that, I mean the weather. Last weekend we had the most beautiful sunshine and temperatures in the 70s F / mid 25ish C and then it got cold. At night it was close to freezing and not much more during the daytime.

I guess it was this drop to the cold that inspired me to make this typical winter dish one night last week. At least in Germany, it is mostly eaten during winter, yet, if you think about it, eating something spicy hot when (e.g. in summer) or where (e.g. India, Asia) it is hot is the thing to do. Anyways, after a long day at work on Tuesday

I was inspired to cook dinner - 🌶 CHILI 🌶

This is the end result that landed quite quickly in our tummies 😁

This is how it all started. We still had minced chicken meat in the fridge that we wanted to use for a pasta sauce but, alas, it became an ingredient of this chili.

• minced meat, chicken optional
• • I have made this many times without meat = chili sin carne
• beans
• • I used white and red kidney beans, black beans, and chick peas a.k.a. garbanzo beans
• bell peppers
• potatoes
• celery
• garlic
• chili peppers, jalapenos
• • in the photo are only 2 but I added a 3rd one for a bit more heat 🌶
• spices
• • salt, pepper, paprika, cumin, coriander

What's missing? What did I forget but not really miss in the end?

• onion
• carrots

Things I didn't have but would definitely recommend:

• fresh cilantro, also to decorate at the end
  
  

No photo evidence but I spiced the minced meat with the aforementioned spices before I shaped it with a spoon into elongated balls. These went into the pot with hot coconut oil to get brown. Once that was achieved I added the chopped garlic and potatoes to roast a little before adding the chopped celery, chilis, and a little later the cubed bell peppers. These will add a bit of fluid to the whole.

After roasting and turning this mix for maybe ten minutes to coat and brown everything on all sides the fluid was gone. So I added a couple of dashes of red wine, mixed everything, and finally added the diced tomatoes and - beans. My philosophy with beans in a chili is: The more colors the better! Hence I have white, yellowish, red, and black beans in there. Naturally, you can make this also with kidney beans only.

There was so much in my pot that it was almost too full and definitely had too little fluid. What did I add? Tomato juice, and a few more spices, of course. Then it is simmering time, not sure how long I let it sit (while playing a game or two of Splinterlands 😉), maybe half an hour? But this is flexible, it is a stew of sorts after all.

While at my computer I thought hmm, why not have a little cornbread with it? Have you ever had cornbread? It is so very yummy we're now even having ratatouille with it instead of baguette.

1:0 for cornbread!

Problem was - we didn't have eggs. I knew that you can substitute them with yogurt in baking but I didn't have a recipe. Off I went googling 'cornbread recipe without egg' and found a bunch, selected one, and snapped a picture with my phone - LOL and went back into the kitchen.

Is anyone else doing this? LOL

As I almost always do I modified the cornbread recipe a little by using more cornmeal vs. normal flour, almond milk instead of whole milk, and no vanilla. The cornbread only needed about half an hour in the oven so once it was done I added a little cornflour to the stew to thicken the fluid and then served it in a bowl with a spoonful of greek yogurt you can, of course, also use sour creme or creme fraiche. And then it was time to dig in!

Do you make chili in winter only or also in summer? BTW I always compare chili in the US to potato salad in Germany:

Every family has their own hand-me-down recipe 🤣

Do you have one? Let me know, I'm always looking for cooking ideas to gain inspiration from.

Have a great rest of your day!

Cheers,
(Ocean)Bee

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