So what do you do when you will be moving in two weeks and don’t want to buy a ton of food to make an elaborate meal, or any meals really? Rifle through the cupboards and find enough stuff to make your meals for the week without too much hassle. Here is my Cupboard Chili Remake.
This is just a simple cleaning of the cupboards and tossing in what is available…something I am sure I will regret when I move in to the new place and have nothing to eat, or no basics left. But…oh well. I needed something good, nutritious and healthy for lunches so I wouldn’t go spend money elsewhere-very important since a move is expensive and would defeat the purpose of saving money.
I have had this bag of Fartless Chili, a gag Christmas gift, for about two years and figured what a better time like the present to use and remake it. Especially since I didn’t have a lot going on in the cupboards to begin with and with a pre-made chili package I didn’t need a lot else to go in it. The bag of chili consisted of beans and a spice blend-I lucked out on this one-the spice package didn’t have any meaty ingredients. Perfect! I found a couple of cans of mixed veggies in the cupboard, a can of crushed tomatoes, used the last of a box of rice and the last few halves of red peppers.
mm
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But I didn’t have any soy meat in the apartment….I mean can it be called chili without a “meat”? I have never had one without meaty goodness going along with my beans. Quite a conundrum, but I will survive. All those beans, 16 different kinds, will take my mind off of the no meat. And really, while I was last-minute rinsing and soaking and boiling/simmering the beans, meat was the farthest thing from my mind because I was trying to figure out what each bean was!
I unfortunately didn’t read the package for how to make the chili until Sunday morning…like at 6am. And the bag said to soak for 12-24 hours…uh, not happening. So I quickly poured the dried beans into a large pot and poured water over them. I let them sit for about 4 hours then drained and rinsed them. Before I dumped the water out I sifted my hands through the water and fished out any skins or yucky looking beans. I then boiled the beans for about 90 minutes on the medium-high setting. Then I rinsed the beans and let them sit in the colander while the sauce got going.
The sauce was just the can of tomatoes and veggie stock along with some of my spices and the spice package. I also added the canned veggies (canned liquid also) , peppers and the rice and let it all boil together for about an hour to make sure everything was came alive. I added the beans carefully to the sauce and let simmer for another hour.
The chili turned out really good and was the right consistency: not to thick or thin. I didn’t miss the meat, and the rice actually added a really good texture to it. All those different beans were awesome. I will give a shout out to the black-eyed pea. My dad is the only one in our family who loves them, or will eat them, but seriously-put it in a chili and I will go to town. So good that way! Also, this was one of the easiest meals I have made and the least labor intensive.
Cupboard Chili Remake, 8 servings
Fitting Into Vegan 