Butternut Squash and Black Bean Chili

I've been wanting to make chili all week.  Yesterday my friend Kel's column TGIF on NutriMirror included a recipe for a great sounding chili.
http://www.nutrimirror.com/people/TGIFwithKel/journal/1289532337/tgif-with-kel-is-it-chili-where-you-live-11122010    Kel's recipe sounds so delicious!  Today I wanted butternut squash and black bean chili, but I've bookmarked Kel's recipe so I can find it again in the future.

Last night, Greg said he's been thinking about chili lately.  That did it.  I know synchronicity when I see it, so today is Chili Day!  I surfed the web for some recipe ideas and ended up on a vegan website, that had a simple recipe.  I printed it out, crossed a bunch of stuff off the recipe and added a few of my own ideas, and went to the grocery store.

Here's what I ended up using:

Black beans, freshly cooked  1057 grams
Butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes  661 grams
Onion  184 grams
Red bell pepper 205 grams
garlic 25 grams (that's 5 cloves)
Olive oil  2T
Canned organic diced tomatoes  794 grams
frozen corn 175 grams
Cumin  2T
Chili powder 2T
Cocoa powder 1T
Cinnamon 1t




I forgot the corn for the picture, and ended up not using the chili pepper in the tube

 I've been having a hard time using NM today; I click, but nothing happens, or it goes really slow.  So I haven't entered this recipe yet, and don't know the stats.  But look at the ingredients - the stats are going to rock!

The first thing to do, because it is such a hassle, is to peel the squash.  I usually cut it in half, then peel each half.  Then scoop out the seeds and chop up the squash.  Peeling a butternut squash can be difficult but it's totally worth the effort.  Hm.  Technically, the first thing to do is cook the black beans.  I did that this morning.



One half peeled



I know lots of people save the seeds and roast them; today I am not one of those people.  By the time I got done peeling the squash I was already over it, and not in the mood to deal with the seeds.  I have heard people say they roast cucumber seeds, for heaven's sake.  What's next - banana seeds?  I am not interested.

After the squash was peeled, I moved on to chopping the onion, garlic, and red pepper, and put them in the pan to start cooking while I chopped the squash.



Cooking the aromatics

 Chopping the garlic, and then the squash, got pretty noisy and woke Greg up from his nap.  I was in the kitchen and he came staggering in, went to the stove, and turned on the oven.  I told him I would be done soon and he could have the kitchen.  He said he was just preheating the oven for the spare ribs he's going to cook.  I wish he wouldn't do that.  It gets really hot when you are standing at the stove and the oven is on.

By the time I was finished chopping the squash, the oven had preheated so it was really hot in the kitchen now. I finally had to open the back door and stand on the porch to cool off a little!  I came back inside, put the squash in with the aromatics, then cooked for about 15 minutes. 

After that, stir in the spices and let them cook until, as it says in the recipe, "the spice aroma fills the kitchen."  I love when the spice aroma fills the kitchen! 



Srsly, you should smell this!

 At this point, I added a can of diced tomatoes and cooked for a few minutes, then added the beans and corn.  While I was puttering around at the stove, Greg said I should put in my blog that if a man doesn't want to eat this chili because there is no meat in it, some ground bison could easily be added.  I told him that men not eating vegan chili was really not my problem, but I would be happy to add that helpful hint.  Then I asked him if he planned on eating any.  He said he will try it, and then he asked me if I remember Jiffy Pop popcorn.  I do remember Jiffy Pop.  He said "remember how happy everyone was when Jiffy Pop came out?"  I laughed and asked him if he remembered how the bottom layer of popcorn always burned when you made Jiffy Pop.  He did remember that. 

Now the chili is simmering away on the stove, waiting for spare ribs to go with them.  Here's what it looks like now:

Greg has spare ribs in the oven now.  He made a sauce for them out of bottled bbq sauce, and the ends of a jar of peach preserves and a jar of currant jelly.  It tastes so good!  He's cooking the ribs in a low oven for a couple of hours, and then he'll make some cornbread to go with everything.   I can't wait for dinner!

I was able to log the recipe on NM and decided it is 10 servings; I'll adjust that after I weigh the batch.  For one serving if the batch makes 10 servings, look at these great stats!