Chana Masala

Being on vacation makes me hungry. I don't know why, but I feel like I can never wait for the next meal, and since I have plenty of time to cook on my hands, I hunt down new ideas and new recipes that I can play with at my leisure. That's my favorite way to cook: glass of wine in hand, with Gogol Bordello blasting in the background. THAT is the good life!

One of the recipes I couldn't wait to try was some chana masala. I love chickpeas: they are so cute, tasty and versatile! I also love Indian cuisine, so when I found some recipes for chickpea curry, I started to drool. My beloved beans in a spicy stew with ginger and tomatoes?! Heaven!

I combined elements from a couple of recipes I found. It's a bit of a lazy version: I used canned beans and tomatoes, because I am not nearly patient enough to soak and cook dry chickpeas, and because I was fresh out of local tomatoes. Damn. If you have the time and the tomatoes, by all means, use them! Also, some traditionalists call for the tomatoes, onions, ginger and garlic to be pureed together before being cooked. I personally like my curries to be chunky and rustic, so I simply cut everything really small, so that it would still be saucy, but I would get the lovely tasty bits of onion and ginger...

With dishes like this one, that require the adding of a large variety of spices at the same time, I like to measure all my spices and mix them together in a small bowl so that I can literally add them all to the pot of a flick of the wrist. No time wasted scrambling about with measuring spoons while the onions burn and stick to the bottom of the pan!

One last note! If you can find amchoor powder (dry mango powder), you need to do 2 things:
1- tell me where you bought it: I couldn't find any at my usual bulk spices haunts...
2- use 1 tablespoon of it in your spice mix, and only use the juice of 1/2 lemon: amchoor powder adds a citrusy taste so will you need less lemon juice if you use it.

Without further ado, here is the recipe I came up with (with a little help from Madhur Jaffrey and Smitten Kitchen)!

1 tablespoon peanut oil
2 medium onions, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 fresh chile, chopped small
1 tablespoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 (15-ounce) can of diced tomatoes, with their juice (or 2 cups of fresh tomatoes, cut small)
2/3 cup water
2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or 4 cups of soaked and cooked chickpeas)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon yoghurt, preferably Balkan-style (optional)
Lemon quarters, for garnish
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped, for garnish

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion, garlic, ginger and chili pepper and sauté over medium heat until the onion begins to brown, about 5 minutes.

Turn heat down to medium-low and add the coriander, cumin, cayenne, turmeric, paprika and garam masala.

Cook the onion mixture with the spices for a minute or two, then add the tomatoes.

Add the chickpeas and carefully pour the water in so it just covers the other ingredients.

Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, then stir in the salt, lemon juice and yoghurt (if using). Serve with basmati rice, lemon wedges and a sprinkling of chopped cilantro.

The smell of this curry is amazing! And it comes together in a snap; the hardest part if definitely the chopping. Though I admit that not sneaking spoonfuls of the stuff out of the pot while it was cooking was a challenge. It just smelled so damn good...

And it tasted as good as it smelled! Hot and spicy, but not too much, with the lovely sour kick of the lemon. A good balance between the heat and the sourness is often the make-or-break factor of a good curry, and the proportions in this recipe are really flawless.

I enjoyed a nice glass of C'est La Vie rose wine with my plate, and it was a perfect refreshing match for the sharp flavors of the curry.

There is a Pakistani version of chana masala called aloo chole, which is essentially the same recipe, with the addition of 2 medium potatoes, peeled, boiled and diced, and added to the curry along with the chickpeas (some people fry the potatoes instead of boiling them... how naughty!). Who doesn't love potatoes? You can certainly add them if you want to, but personally, I prefer chana masala in the summer, and aloo chole in the winter, when a nice starchy root veg adds a "comfort food" vibe to a simmered dish.

This curry reheats very well, so the leftovers are perfect for the next day's lunch. If anything, waiting a bit makes the taste of the spices more defined and delicious!

Broccoli, Ginger and White Bean Soup

I know what you are thinking. You are thinking: "This chick is addicted to broccoli and ginger".

Could be. I can't go very long without ginger: the fresh stuff in a curry or stir-fry, ginger candies, ginger tea... (for the record, I may also be addicted to scarves, Doc Martens, tattoos and a few records, but that's a whole other ball game). Broccoli is one of my favorite veggies: it's cute, tasty, packed with iron and vitamin C, and it is one of those cancer-fighting veggies. Honestly, broccoli deserves a super-hero suit.

Combine the two ingredients together and you have one immune-boosting combo that can beat the pants off any insipid supplement. Add beans to the mix and your proteins are taken care of. Is this the perfect, healthly, nourishing and tasty soup, or what?!

Spring is almost on our doorstep, but this being Canada, the weather is rather unpredictable and schizophrenic: 10 degrees Celsius one day, minus 7 the next, sunshine and snowfall simultaneously... That never stopped us Montreal girls from getting our short skirts good and ready, but a bit of warm, comforting food can't hurt when spring is having repeated false starts. This soup seems to me like the perfect compromise between a bright summery soup and a warming winter comfort. Ideal for this seasonal limbo we found ourselves in!

1 large head of broccoli (a bit more than 1 pound), stalks and florets chopped roughly
2 large onions, roughly chopped
5 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon of olive oil oil
4 tablespoons fresh ginger, chopped
2 limes, juiced
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 cups vegetable broth
3 tablespoons tamari
1 large pinch of black pepper
1 small bunch fresh coriander, roughly chopped

1 (28 ounces) can of cannellini (or other white beans), drained and rinsed
1 large handful of toasted pine nuts

In a large saucepan, gently fry the onions, garlic, ginger and cayenne pepper in the olive oil for 5 minutes.

Add the broccoli stalks and the vegetable broth. Bring to a boil then cover and simmer over medium heat for 8 minutes. Add the broccoli heads, the beans and the coriander. Add enough water to just cover everything.

After 5 minutes, use a knife to pierce the broccoli: when it’s tender, turn the heat off and allow to cool slightly before you start blending. If you want to keep some whole broccoli florets for serving on top of your soup, remove them now. Add the fresh lime juice, the tamari, pepper and puree with an immersion blender. Taste and check for seasoning. Put back on low heat and make sure the soup is heated through. Serve immediately.

This soup's flavor is very surprising: exotic, hot and... well, green! It's miles away from the boring old cream of broccoli or broccoli and cheddar soups you may be used to. The green vegetable's flavor and the fresh coriander come out the stars of the show, along with the lovely heat of ginger and cayenne. You could garnish it with a scattering of pine nuts, a touch of plain yoghurt or sour cream, and a lovely piece of fresh nan bread to dip! It's a bit thin to be a meal-soup, but it is the perfect appetizer for a Middle Eastern or Indian themed meal. Actually, any meal with bold flavors could second a bowlful of this wonderful soup!

The Red and the Black... Beet, Barley and Soy Bean Soup

Whew! The past few months have been intense! I will not bore you with work and health related details (this is, after all, a food blog), but let's just say there is a reason comfort food has been the culinary theme in my kitchen for the past little while. Luckily for my sanity, things are finally simmering down. I've also been reading a lot, which is always a good way to keep me sane and happy.

I don't remember mentioning it before, but I am what you may call a book junkie: I love reading all kinds of books and I have an actual library in my apartment, where I spend as much time as possible, away from electronic devices. Books (along with music) have been my escape and pleasure for as long as I can remember, and I tend to get them by the cart-load. I recently stocked up from my Amazon wish list, using the excuse that colder weather means I'll spend more time inside, reading (though when it's warm, I spend a lot of time outside, reading).

For some reason, I am on a classic literature kick lately: Dickens, Austen, Wharton, Fitzgerald, Thackeray, Tolstoy... These guys treated language with incredible respect, as something truly beautiful, and made prose that you can read out loud and it just... flows. I'll grab one of their books, make myself a nice pot of oolong tea, sit in my big reading chair, and off I am! But I do get hungry every so often, and while the books feed my soul, my stomach needs more substantial sustenance.

I got inspired by "Anna Karenina" (and by "Vegan with a Vengeance"), and I whipped up a big pot of this lovely soup. Filling, comforting, nourishing. Just the thing to keep me reading until the wee morning hours! It also feels great with the chilly weather we have been having lately.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons dry tarragon
Freshly ground black pepper
8 cups water
6 medium-sized beets, cut in half, sliced 1/4-inch thick
3/4 cup pearl barley
1/4 cup tamari
1 (15-ounce) can black soy beans, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup chopped fresh dill

In a stockpot over medium heat, sauté the onion in the olive oil for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, tarragon and a few dashes of black pepper; sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add the water, beets, barley and tamari, cover and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the beans and simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent the barley from sticking together, or until the barley is tender.

Add the balsamic vinegar and the dill. Serve hot, with croutons and extra fresh dill for garnish.

OK, I cheated: I used regular black beans, because I couldn't find black soy beans... and I had no croutons, but my boyfriend found a wonderful Russian bread (rye, molasses and malt give traditional Russian bread a rich, dark color, which my boyfriend equates with the darkness of the Russian soul... but mostly, it just tastes really good) that tasted so awesome with a big bowl of this soup.

While my boyfriend and I are enamored with more traditional, minimalist borscht, this soup is more filling, and make a perfect lunch, with enough nutritious goodness to keep you going until dinner! The color is simply gorgeous, and it tastes great reheated (perhaps even better than fresh, to be honest).

The wonderfully comforting smell of beets is something thrilling when the days get shorter and colder. For some reason, it really reminds me of my grandmother's kitchen (even if she seldom cooked with beets): homey and safe. Enjoy this soup whenever you want an escape from this crazy world, into a warm and fuzzy place.

Niçoise Salad

The nice weather is sticking around, and so is my insatiable appetite for fresh stuff! At the risk of being redundant, here is another salad recipe, but this one is way more bulky: a real meal-salad, the famous Niçoise! My coworker mentioned making some last week, and I have been craving it ever since. The Niçoise is a salad that became strangely fashionable in recent years, which amuses me very much, as it was originally meant as a cheap, filling salad. Just like when jeans (which used to be a strictly lower-class garments) ascended to haute couture, the working-class meal transcended to fine cuisine!

The recipe was first introduced to North America by none other than Julia Child, and some of the ingredients are still hotly debated by purists, particularly in the Nice region, where they don't like the addition of steamed potatoes (as this salad originally contained no cooked vegetables of any kind). Personally, it reminds me very much of puttanesca sauce, because a lot of the ingredients are preserves. In fashionable restaurants, the canned tuna is often replaced with fresh pan-seared tuna. Though very elegant, this luxurious twist on the original recipe seems a bit odd to me, as a salad made mostly of preserves ought to be a fairly inexpensive, yet elegant and nourishing meal. If you have the budget to afford fresh tuna, feel free to indulge, but there is nothing wrong with the canned stuff (as long as it's dolphin-safe, of course!).

A word about hard-boiled eggs: I know it can seem a bit scary if you've never hard-boiled an egg before. How do you know it's done? That's when a kitchen timer comes in very handy, because there are no external signs that the egg is done. Get a small sauce pan, fill it halfway with water, add a pinch of salt (this helps prevent the egg from cracking) and bring to a boil. When the water is boiling, dip your egg in the water with a spoon a couple of times (again, to prevent the abrupt temperature change-related cracks), then lower the egg so it is submerged. You may have to experiment a bit, but the general rule of thumb is that it takes 10 minutes to hard-boil a large egg. Take it out of the saucepan with a spoon, and when it's cool enough to handle, gently knock it with the back of that same spoon until the shell cracks, and peel it off.

Kill two birds with one stone and marathon-steam your potatoes and green beans! Get your steaming apparatus ready and steam the potatoes for 10 to 15 minutes (depending on the size), until they are easily pierced with a fork. Add the beans to the steamer and steam for 2 minutes, until they are bright green. Fill a bowl halfway with ice water while everything steams. As soon as the veggies are done, transfer them to the ice water bowl and let them cool while you get everything else ready.

Yes, I know, it's an awful lot of prep for a salad. But trust me, it's worth all the fussing!

Older recipes for Niçoise salad contain raw red bell pepper and anchovies, two things that I am not especially fond of even if they are prevalent in southern French cuisine, so my version omits them (I decided to replace anchovies with artichoke hearts), but I kept the spirit of the salad alive with tuna, green beans and black olives. At the risk of shocking purists, I decided to add some steamed baby potatoes. Just because I love potatoes.

8 cups Romaine lettuce, washed, drained and dried, chopped
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 pound green beans, steamed, stalks trimmed
1/2 pound red-skin baby potatoes, steamed and quartered
3 hard boiled eggs, sliced
1/2 cup Niçoise or Kalamata olives
1 can flaked white tuna, drained
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
Chopped parsley, for garnish

In French cuisine, presentation is almost as important as composition, and Niçoise is no exception. Of course, you can toss everything together in a big bowl (it's what I do most of the time if I am not entertaining), but to create an traditionally elegant plate like what you'd be served if you wandered in a fancy café, here is what you do! Create a bed of lettuce in 4 serving plates. Then divide the tomatoes, potatoes, eggs, artichoke and green beans between the plates, keeping the ingredients together (e.g. a small pile of tomatoes, a small pile of potatoes, etc.), scoop some tuna in the middle of the place and sprinkle with black olives. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve the dressing on the side so your guests can add it to their taste.

Obviously, it's not a vegetarian-friendly salad, but there is a vegan version "Appetite for Reduction" which, although highly inauthentic, makes a very decent substitution for veg-heads, or for people like my boyfriend, who simply don't like canned tuna. It's also a lighter version, because as yummy as it is, classic Niçoise salad is not exactly diet food. Try the following version if you are watching your waistline:

1 (16 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 tablespoons capers

1/2 pound baby red potatoes, steamed

1/2 pound green beans, stalks trimmed, steamed

1/2 small red onion, cut into thin strips

1/3 cup of Niçoise or Kalamata olives

8 cups chopped red leaf lettuce

1 cup cherry tomatoes

Fresh parsley and chopped chives, for garnish

Place the chickpeas in a mixing bowl, and mash them with a fork or small potato masher. There should be no whole chickpeas left, but it shouldn't be completely smooth either. Add the capers and 2 tablespoons of whichever dressing you decided to use (dressing recipes are just below). Mix well and set aside. Place the lettuce in wide bowls or plates. Place a handful each of potatoes and green beans in piles on the lettuce, along with a wedge of sliced onion and a handful of tomatoes. Place a scoop of the chickpea mixture in the center and top with the olives. Garnish with fresh herbs and serve the dressing on the side.

You could also use a ripe avocado, thinly sliced, to replace the eggs, instead of the red onion.

Here are a few great dressings that go well with this French classic. There require the use of a food processor; when I make dressings, I like to use the blender attachment of my little Cusinart Smart Stick immersion blender. That gizmo was worth every penny!

This one is from Nadia G.'s "Cookin' for Trouble", and I have to confess that it's my one of my favorite salad dressings. Ever. It's sweet, with just enough tang from the garlic and mustard, and if you use walnut oil, the nutty finish is to die for:

2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons honey
2 garlic cloves
1/3 cup cider vinegar
2/3 cup walnut (or olive) oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

Combine the ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth, thick and emulsified.

The following two are from the aforementioned "Appetite for Reduction".

Balsamic Vinaigrette:

1/4 cup cashews

2 tablespoons scallions, chopped

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon agave nectar

3/4 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Put the cashews in a food processor and pulse. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend for at least 5 minutes, using a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides often, until completely smooth. Transfer to a sealable container and refrigerate until ready to use.

Green Goddess Garlic Dressing:

2 to 3 garlic cloves, peeled

1/2 cup fresh chives

1/2 cup fresh parsley

2 tablespoons tahini

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1 tablespoon miso

1/3 cup water

2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

Pulse the garlic, chives and parsley in a food processor until chopped up. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides a few times. Transfer to a sealable container and refrigerate until ready to use. It will thicken a bit when chilled, so don't be temped to thin it with more water!

Whichever version you decided to make, Niçoise is really a full meal of a salad, and is a perfect lunch or light summer dinner. A crisp, slightly sweet white wine or rosé is de rigueur here; C'est La Vie would be my pick.

Vegetable Madras Curry

I recently had the urge to go vegetarian when I went to the supermarket and everything in the meat section was overpriced. And I mean even the lousiest imaginable cuts. I am not counting pennies, but I do respect my budget, and these prices were completely absurd. Besides, I can't deny the health and ecological benefits of reducing meat consumption (I may enjoy meat, but I am nowhere near deluded enough to think we can keep eating it at the rate we do without causing serious harm to the planet). And while I am lucky that my boyfriend eats tofu willingly, there is only so much soy curd I can cook in the same week before he'll start asking for a bit of variety, which is perfectly understandable.

I had a lovely eggplant in the fridge and a can of giant fava beans that had been sitting in my pantry for a while, so I improvised a vegetarian curry that contained no tofu whatsoever. A vegetarian curry does not have to contain a meat substitute to be delicious and nutritive. After all, isn't the word "vegetarian" derived from the word "veggie"? Time to make them the star of the show, don't you think?

A Madras curry is a thick, red stew, spiced with chile, tumeric and ginger, and given a sour kick with lemon or lime juice, or vinegar (but not both!). It turns out that although Madras curry was not invented in the south of India, but in the kitchens of England, it respects the culinary traditions of the region it's named after: it's hot! In fact, it seems to me that the further south you go in India, the spiciest the local cuisine gets. That region is also mostly Hindu, so it's safe to say that they would cook vegetarian curries.

I am not sure whether or not they have eggplants in southern India, but a veggie curry generally contains one (for lack of a better word) beefy vegetable, such as sweet potatoes, turnips, etc., that will take well to being slowly cooked in a spicy sauce, and other veggies to complement it. Eggplant is great in curry because it gets very tender and silky, and it absorbs the flavors of the sauce (but if you do not like eggplants, use carrots, or other firm root vegetables, like parsnip). You can either leave the skin on or peel them; if you do peel them, they will break apart and make your curry very saucy.

I added beans because I wanted a bit of protein in this dish. Giant fava beans were what I had on hand, and they are definitely meaty, but red kidney beans would have worked great here as well (though you can skip the beans entirely if you wish: I just loved the toothy-bite in contrast to the eggplant's texture).

1 pound eggplant
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 (19 ounce) can fava or red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 medium yellow onions, diced
1 (18 ounce) can diced or crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup Madras curry paste
3 or 4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger root, finely chopped
1/2 fresh chile, finely chopped
1 lemon or lime, juiced
Peanut oil or ghee

Plain yogurt
1 small bunch fresh cilantro leaves
Lemon wedges

Cube the eggplant and place in a colander. Sprinkle with salt, toss around and let sit for about 30 minutes. Rinse under cold water and set aside. Preheat a large pan over medium-heat. Fry the garlic, ginger and chile in some peanut oil or ghee, until the garlic is lightly colored, about 3 minutes. Add the onions and the bell pepper, and fry until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the curry paste and mix well to get everything coated. Add the eggplant and cook, tossing around, until lightly browned on a few sides, about 5 minutes. Pour in the tomatoes, stir in the beans and add 1 cup of water and the lemon juice. Give a few good stirs to mix and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to simmer, and cook, covered, for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the eggplant is tender. Serve over basmati rice, garnished with cilantro leaves and lemon wedges, dotted with plain yogurt to taste.

I do not usually expect get a success on the first try of a recipe I create in the spur of the moment. But this curry was heavenly! Spicy (but not too hot), tangy, with an awesome mix of textures.

I read that you can also use 1 can of coconut milk instead of the water, if you want a creamier version of the curry; something I shall experiment with as soon as I get a chance. I tried it, and though it makes the curry softer on the palate, it doesn't change much to the overall taste. Personally, I prefer my original version, but adding the coconut milk might be a good idea for those of you who are more sensitive to the spicy heat.

I tried it with tofu and with chicken (both versions were delicious, especially with chickpeas!), but the eggplant was so melt-in-your-mouth tender and tasty that it is still my favorite version. It actually makes me quite curious to try my other curries with this veg!

Like with most curries, I find something cold and slightly fruity is the best kind of drink to wash the spicy bites down with. Try a light beer, or a surprisingly nice Italian white wine I recently discovered: Soave. Awesome funky bottle and it tastes great with almost everything!

Chili Challenged

My first few attempts at making chili (con carne and sin carne) had been rather epic failures. I used a pot that was way too small, I didn't add enough water so it reduced way too much and it was a bit bland. In other words, a mess and a disaster. But it takes more than one failed experiment to get me down! I tried again and again until I found a way to make a chili that looked and tasted exactly the way I wanted it to!

There has always been great controversy among chili purists about ingredients (generally, the argument revolves around the presence of beans and tomatoes). I wanted to keep my chili simple and colorful, because a plate full of festive food is really a necessity when that last leg of winter is so grey and boring.

For the chili pictured below, I only had red bell peppers in the fridge, which is fine, but to make it more festive, I usually mix up the colors, with one green and one orange (the first pic - of one of the failed attempts - captures that burst of color). That's purely aesthetics, so I leave the color scheme to you. However, I find that mixing two different kinds of beans is nice. It adds variety in the meaty bites. I love the red kidney and black turtle beans (so those are the ones that I wrote in the ingredients list below), but use any kind that you like. Pinto beans and chickpeas work very well! On my quest to making the perfect chili, I also discovered that tomato paste is essential to get the thick, saucy texture I wanted. Dose water carefully, mixing as you add until you get to the right consistency, or it will be too runny and more like a chunky soup than like a thick stew.

The spice issue was also challenging, because I do live with a spice-freak. I love spicy, but I don't like to sweat when eating, so it had to be carefully regulated to make sure it was piquant enough... but not so much so that it would kill me. If you don't like your lips to tingle, only use 1/2 a fresh red chile and forget the chili flakes. Don't be shy to taste as you cook and adjust your quantities!

This chili is also ridiculously easy to veganize. Simply use 1 pound extra-firm tofu, drained and pressed. Either cut it into bite-sized piece (like the little tofu triangles in the second set of pictures) or crumble it, if you want it to look like you used ground beef. You can reduce your simmering time to 30 to 40 minutes instead of an hour if using tofu instead of beef.

Enough talking: here is the product of a long and sometimes frustrating experimental cooking labor! It makes a good 6 to 8 servings, so make sure you use the largest pot you have.

2 medium yellow onions, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 fresh chile, finely chopped (I used scotch bonnets, but jalapenos and habaneros are perfect here, too)
2 bell peppers, roughly chopped
1 bunch fresh scallions, sliced (optional)
Olive oil
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon chili flakes
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon cayenne
Sea salt and ground pepper
1 (15 ounce) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 ounce) can black turtle beans, drained and rinsed
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (13 ounce) can tomato paste
1 pound ground beef (or 1 pound extra-firm tofu prepared to your taste)
1 to 2 cups water
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Preheat a large (at least 6-quart) pot on medium-high heat. Add 2 lugs of olive oil and add all the chopped vegetables. Add the spices along with a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir every few seconds for 7 minutes, until softened and lightly colored. Add the beans, diced tomatoes and tomato paste. Mix well. Add the ground beef, breaking up the large chunks with a wooden spoon. Carefully add the water to the pan. Add the balsamic vinegar and season with a bit more salt and pepper. Mix again until all the ingredients are well blended. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to a simmer, and cover with the lid slightly askew for about an hour; stir occasionally to stop it catching. Serve with rice or tortillas, sprinkled with shredded Cheddar cheese and a spoonful of sour cream, to taste.

Chili con carne:

And chili sin carne!

I knew I'd finally hit gold after the first bite from this bowl. Thick, spicy, chewy, filling: the perfect chili! And both beef and tofu versions are equally delicious. Of course, if you make the tofu version, you can omit the cheese and sour cream. It's a lot of chopping, but oh so worth it if you need a big bowl of filling comfort food! The leftovers freeze and reheat very nicely, so don't be afraid to make a full recipe even if you are cooking just for yourself. It's also ideal if you have tons of hungry folks coming over for dinner.