Posts Tagged beans
Friday Feast: Spicy Bean Chili Stew
I found the original recipe online at epicurious here. It’s a tasty, if somewhat runny, chili with beans, spinach and butternut pumpkin (squash, for Americans). Yankee Elv tweaked it and made it for me.
Now, the original recipe calls for 2 tabs chili powder. I didn’t trust this, because the recipe was on an American site, and chile powder in the USA is way different to chili powder here. Chili powder in Australia is ground chili peppers. Chile powder in the USA is usually Texan or Mexican chile powder, and it’s a combination of ground chili peppers, ground cumin, majoram, mexican oregano, cayenne pepper sometimes… all kinds of things. My point is, it’s nowhere near as spicy. So I told Yankee Elv I thought it would be best to reduce the amount of chili powder. She did so – by half, the first time she made this dish.
That stuff still burned me to death. I was literally crying, I had to eat with a box of tissues beside me, blowing my nose every other bite. Now, I’m wimpy with spiciness, but not THAT wimpy. This was hardcore. Even Yankee Elv (who I think has a mouth made of teflon or something) thought it was spicy, although she was less affected than me. It was also more liquidy than a chili normally is, so every breath I took, a little of the liquid went to the back of my throat and threatened to go up my nose… so even that part of me was burning.
We drained it and tried it as a pasta sauce. I stirred sour cream into it (I was still eating that back then, but I’m not now). I ate it with cornbread. These things helped, and they tasted good too. My mouth, however, still felt like it was on fire.
But oh, if you could get past the burn, it tasted SO GOOD!
So next time, Yankee Elv reduced the amount of chili powder to about 1 tsp. That was still pretty spicy for me – but yummy spicy, instead of crying spicy.
Try it if you dare!
Spicy Bean Chili Stew

Spicy Bean Chili Stew with Cornbread
Ingredients
- 2 tab olive oil
- 2.5 cups onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2.5 cups butternut pumpkin (butternut squash if you’re American), peeled and chopped into 1/2″ cubes
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 3 x 400g cans beans, drained (black beans if you can get them, but we used kidney beans, butter beans or cannellini beans and mixed beans)
- 2.5 cups liquid vegetable broth (don’t make this up using dry stock and water because it turns out too salty)
- 400g can diced tomatoes, with juice
- 3 cups fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.
- Saute onions and garlic until tender and golden (about 10 mins).
- Stir in pumpkin pieces and cook for about 2 mins.
- Stir in the chili powder and cumin and cook for about 1 min.
- Stir in the beans, vegetable broth and tomatoes. Bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for about 15 mins, until the pumpkin is tender.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Add spinach and combine. Cook for another 5 mins. (Don’t allow the spinach to get too wilted).
- Serve with rice, pasta, toast, cornbread , tortillas, corn chips, guacamole or whatever else takes your fancy.
Note: This dish freezes well, although the pumpkin gets a bit mushy.
Add comment January 23, 2009
Friday Feast: Chana Masala
This is the first Friday Feast post. Basically, on a Friday after a long week at work, I anticipate needing a break. A vegan recipe is a helpful, yet quick and easy post. And reducing your meat, dairy, poultry and seafood consumption helps the planet!
So here’s the first one: Chana Masala.
Yankee Elv found this recipe on Vegweb, but modified ages ago it so it suited us better. She’s made it lots of times now, and it always works well (unless you get a dodgy can of chickpeas, so they don’t soften up properly, but that’s not her fault and besides… it still tastes good, just the texture is a little weird).
This is a totally vegan recipe.
Chana Masala
Ingredients
2 tabs olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 – 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 tab curry powder (we use Keen’s)
1 tab tomato paste
400g can chickpeas, drained
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
black pepper to taste
1 tab vegan margarine
1/3 cup coconut milk (approximately – it’s 3 tabs at one point, and 5 tabs later)
Method
1. Heat oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat.
2. Fry onions until slightly brown.
3. Reduce the heat to medium and add garlic, curry powder and tomato paste. Combine and simmer for about 2 mins.
4. Add chickpeas, 3 tabs of the coconut milk, lemon juice, salt and pepper to the pan. Simmer for 5 -6 mins, stirring occasionally.
5. Add margarine and stir to melt and combine.
6. Add the other 5 tabs of coconut milk and stir to combine. (Add more or less coconut milk than this depending upon how creamy you would like the dish to be).
7. Simmer for about 5 more mins, or until the chickpeas are softened.
8. Serve with basmati rice (and enjoy the yummy goodness, according to Yankee Elv).
FYI: tabs means tablespoons. tsps means teaspoons.
3 comments January 9, 2009

