Winter Comforts:Soup 004: Five Spice Chili

Well, well, well meet my favorite comfort meal, Mista Chili. He is so hot and spicy and always filling to the my tummy. If your mind went else where shame on you, but then again this blog is about food porn right?!

Necessary Ingredients:
1 lb of ground meat
1 15 oz can of Tomato Sauce
1 15 oz can of Red Kidney Beans, strained and rinsed off
1 tbsp Cumin
1/4 cup Chili Powder
2 Bay Leaves
Pinch Crushed Red Pepper
1 tbsp Paprika
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup of chopped white/spanish onion
1/2 cup of chopped green pepper
1/2 of jalapeno, diced
 Salt and Pepper

In one pot add about two table spoons of EVOO, to coat the bottom, over medium-high heat. Add in garlic, green pepper, and onion. Let saute until soften, add in jalapeno, let simmer for another two minutes. After the vegetables have softened and sent your sensory nerves into overload, add in the ground meat. I prefer ground turkey but you can opt to use ground beef (chuck) if that is your preference.

 Cook meat until it is brown and done, it will chunk up so breaking it up with a wooden a spoon or whatever cooking utensil you are using. While cooking the meat I like to season it with salt and pepper. Once the meat is done I add in the tomato sauce and kidney beans. 

After adding the tomato sauce and kidney beans, I then add in  all of the dry spices. Note the spice level in this recipe is rather high, but I like it that way. To scale back the heat, eliminate the jalepeno pepper and or the crushed red pepper. Turn the eye to low-medium heat and simmer for about 45 minutes. I stir the pot every 15-20 minutes to ensure that it is not sticking to the pot and all the flavors get a chance to fold together. 

Spoon into bowls.

 Garnished with avocado slices, dollop of plain greek yogurt (great substitute for sour cream) and red onion.