Beet Chili

Vegetarian and vegan.

We have a ton of beets and some canned tomatoes, so I decided to whip up a beet chili last night for dinner. I was concerned the beets would make it too sweet, but this concern was entirely unfounded; in fact, I found quite a few beet chili recipes, and a few of them used very dull-tasting meats like chicken, which made me pretty confident the chili taste would overwhelm any sweetness the beets added. I Googled a few different beet chili recipes, and one that included wild rice, to get a general idea of the cooking process and ended up improving my own recipe.

olive oil
garlic (a ton)
peppers (I used pablano, habanero*, and chipotle)
carrots
1 cup wild rice
2 cups water
1 cup beer (I used a brown ale)
Italian spices (oregano, etc...I have a tin of "Italian Seasonings")
1 large glass bell jar of canned tomatoes
beets (about a pound or so)
1 can black beans

Cover the bottom of a large chili pot with olive oil and heat up the oil on medium heat (you want it to heat up pretty slow). Put in the carrots first, then the fresh peppers (save that chipotle for later), and finally the garlic. Saute that up for a bit until everything is starting to get soft, but not too soft. Add the water, beer, rice, spice, canned tomatoes, and beets. Turn the heat up just a little, get it to boiling, then take it back down to medium heat. After about 30 minutes, once the beets are getting soft, toss in the black beans and let it cook for another 10 minutes or so.



I served mine with a dollup of plain yogurt and a pretty good amount of hard cheese (Gouda and Farmhouse Chedder) to cut the heat. Paired it with a mild IPA; again, great for hot food. I only used one habanero (the only really spicy pepper), and that was about the perfect amount of heat. Even though I felt the rice was slightly underdone, overall this chili had a fantastic texture and a much "meatier" taste than I expected. I'm going to be adding this to my regular recipe rotation for sure.


Helping!

* If you do end up using habaneros (which I highly recommend), WEAR GLOVES WHILE YOU CUT THEM. Seriously. My fingers burned like crazy all night, and were still burning the next morning, even after washing my hands multiple times.