I love one-pot meals. This is one I have cooked several times since we returned from our trip last week. It makes a lot -- over 10 cups. And it's easy. It combines canned beans and tomatoes with spices and frozen vegetables. It started with a recipe for chili from Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live -- but I like spicy food and the original recipe was toned down to a lowest-common-denominator level of spiciness. It also can be spiced different ways for infinite possibilities for meals.
Here's the basic template.
Start with a large pot. As I said, this makes a large quantity.
The first layer is 2 cans of diced tomatoes with a small can of tomato sauce. All the cans in this recipe are the regular size -- about 15 ounces -- and the small can is about 8 ounces. You can play around here with the different types of tomatoes. Some have Italian spices. Others have Mexican flavors. Or you can just use plain ol' tomatoes and sauce.
The second layer is the spices. I'll get to that in a minute.
The third layer is 3 or 4 cans of beans, rinsed well. I use 3 or 4 different cans of beans, but you can use all the same kind or half-and-half. Really, whatever you feel like. I've used black beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, black-eyed peas, white beans, just to name a few.
The fourth and last layer are the frozen vegetables. Include one 8 to 10 ounce bag of chopped onion (or onion with garlic) plus 3 or 4 other kinds. After the onions, you are aiming for about 3 cups of each vegetable, but just add as much as you want, particularly if you don't want a partial bag or box of veggies left over. I've used corn, chopped broccoli, lima beans, summer squash, cauliflower, etc. I haven't used greens yet, but why not?
Heat up the pot until the bottom (wet) layer is bubbling, then turn the heat down to medium-low. Turn it lower still when things really get going. It'll take a while -- maybe as long as 30 to 45 minutes -- for the frozen top layer to thaw, but once it does and everything is bubbling, you can turn it to very low and let it simmer. Simmer for at least an hour -- I simmer this for 2 or 3 hours until everything is well melded together. The vegetables release their juices to add to the liquid and you end up with a nice vegetable stew mixture.
Now, as for the spices, the two versions I've tried so far have been chili and curry.
For the chili, I use 3 tablespoons of chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, and 2 teaspoons of ground cumin. I also add 3 of those small cans of mild chopped green chilis. A little oregano would be a nice addition, too, and I plan to try that next time I make the chili version.
For the curry, I use 3 tablespoons of curry powder, plus about a teaspoon each of extra turmeric, ground cumin, and ground coriander. I think a couple of tablespoons of grated or finely chopped ginger (if you have a piece of ginger root in your fridge) would be a good addition and I plan to try that next time I make the curry version. I also think cumin seed, rather than ground cumin, would be an interesting addition.
Other possible spice variations I want to try are Italian (dried basil and oregano with extra garlic and maybe some dried red pepper flakes) and Herbes de Provence.
If you have fresh veggies on hand that you want to use up, there's no reason not to chop them up and throw them in -- with or instead of the frozen ones. Likewise, if you have beans that you've cooked yourself, there's no reason not to use them. In fact, I plan to cook up different batches of beans and keep them in the freezer for just such uses.
I like this dish so much that I've taken to keeping the fixings for it on hand -- the cans of diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and beans, and boxes and bags of the frozen vegetables, so I can throw this together when I don't feel like going to the store and want a hot meal.
As the weather gets cooler, have fun playing around with this template for a filling one-pot meal and make it just the way you like it.
No comments:
Post a Comment