Diet Chili

This is a recipe for folks who are dieting, who want portion control, yet want a hearty healthy meal with or without meat. Be prepared to spend a little time and effort preparing it. Chili prepared in this way will not contribute to the reason you're dieting.

Did I mention that this recipe is delicious? You will not know you're dieting while consuming this dish nor will it expand your middle after you're done. And the biggest delight is that you pull it out of the freezer at a moment's notice in that rare moment when you didn't think to think ahead about food.

To do ahead

Have at least 7 plastic 2-cup food storage containers handy for freezing, because the recipe makes a lot. You will have 14 one-cup servings of chili con carne, OR 7 portion-controlled meals for yourself and your spouse, OR 4 meals for a family of four when you add rice and a salad at serving time.

Start today by separately soaking dried black beans and dried red kidney beans overnight. (You can soak them together but the black beans will darken the red kidney beans to black.) Soaking a full day is better. In other words, it doesn't matter, but soak them some you must.

Use only half of a 16-ounce bag of each of the dried beans (or you'll have more beans than you can deal with). Rinse often and until the discarded water is clear. That gets rid of the flatulence-causing stuff in the beans.

On to cooking

Tomorrow, put all of the hydrated beans into a big pot, cover with water so the level is at least half an inch above the beans. Add a teaspoon of salt and cook for an hour on simmer, covered.

After that hour is when you add all of the following ingredients. Do not drain the beans; use the water they cooked in. Make sure the ingredients are fresh from your local farmers market and don't worry about measuring. Quantities don't really matter, and if you don't have an ingredient, skip it; it won't matter that much. But cut the stuff up with care and love.

1 28-ounce can of diced or crushed tomatoes

2 or 3 red onions, peeled and cut up

3 peppers, any combination of green, red, orange or yellow ones, cut up

2 jalapeno peppers, cut up

3 garlic cloves, cut up

at least three tablespoons EACH of chili powder and cumin, but who's measuring?

one big bunch each of cilantro and parsley, stems removed, don't bother chopping

add Tabasco and/or black pepper if you like it hot

Cook the whole pot of this stuff for at least an hour. Two is better. Sometime between Hours 1 and 2, ladle out about half of the mixture and puree it in a blender on low. Take care, it's hot. Restore the puree to the pot and you're done.

Well, you're done if you want chili sans carne. If you want chili con carne, you'll need to cook a pound of low-fat ground beef now. Add the thoroughly browned beef to the pot and NOW you're done with your chili con carne.

Ladle your chili into the plastic containers and freeze. Pull out a container when you're hungry, heating the frozen chili in a small pot slowly. Eat half if you're alone, add some rice if the man eats with you, add rice and a salad if the kids are there too. You will have 4 more full-family portion-controlled meals for the future...much more if you're going your diet alone.