Chili With Spinach

Summary

Yield6
Prep Time20 minutes
Eatingrecipe

Description

Winter is here. What better way to warm up body and soul than with a bowl of chili. Ever in search of ways of making food more nutritious, I got this idea that chili would do well with spinach. I didn't like the idea of sad looking spinach leaves and stems floating in my chili, so I cooked the spinach and put it through a food processor. It had two effects.

First, it thickend the chili. That's not a bad thing.

Second, it changed the color from a nice red to a dark, grayish brown. I didn't find the color appealing, but that didn't stop me from eating it. It was delicious.

If you don't like the heat of the chipotl peppers, try two or three teaspoons of chili powder instead.

If you are a vegetarian, try textured vegetable protein in place of the beef and liquid smoke in place of the bacon. 

Ingredients

  • 1 lb very lean ground beef
  • 1 large onion
  • 5 clv garlic
  • 2 T chopped chipotle peppers
  • 2 c beef broth
  • 2 sli bacon
  • 3 T flax seeds
  • 1 lb frozen spinach
  • 1 cn black beans (15 oz.)
  • 2 T canola oil

Instructions

In a separate pot, brown the beef.

In your large pot, chop the onion and garlic and saute gently in the canola oil until the onions are beginning to clear. Add the bacon, tomatoes and chipotle peppers.

When the meat has browned, spoon it out of the pot with a slotted spoon, leaving most of the grease out of the chile. Simmer the chili.

Wash the pot and in it boil two cups of beef stock. Add the spinach and cook until soft. Turn off the heat and allow to cool enough for handling. Run the spinach in a food processor with the stock and completely liquify. Poor the liquified spinach and remaining broth into the pot of chili.

Finally, add the can of black beans.

Notes

This is excellent with grated cheddar or low fat sour cream on the top. A teaspoon of yellow mustard per serving contributes a nice tang.