On the healthy lunch train for the next couple weeks and I’ve been battling to come up with some delicious one week meals that I’m not going to get bored of too quickly. Eating the same thing everyday can get a bit tedious but with my work schedule it’s such a mission to be making fresh lunches everyday. I’ve made everything from curries to soups and needed a fresh challenge. Recently I’ve been reading a lot of posts on friends walls about Chilli. Now when I first heard about chilli I imagined those little green or red peppers that can cause a hell of a lot of pain if u eat too many. I didn’t realize that “Chilli con carne” or other versions of chilli contain a healthy mix of ground beef, beans, veggies and tomatoes in a spicy/Mexican inspired sauce.
My first bowl of Chilli with Ronnie 😀
I had my first bowl of Chilli on top of Mount Lemon in Tucson Arizona with my uncle Deon’s very good friend Ron Osland. I had no idea what to expect but Ron explained it all for me. It was just a nice big Moorish bowl of delicious meat and sauce topped with cheese and onions. The smell was amazing and the setting of the restaurant was too stunning for words and to compliment the meal I also had my first Root beer. It was the perfect meal for the perfect day. Thanks Ronnie 😀
I chose to recreate this recipe/moment after looking through some old pics. The original recipe calls for ground beef (insanely expensive in Korea) and lots of cheddar (Damn u diet!!) But I wanted to give it a healthy twist. Vegetarian style Chilli with Quinoa is quite a popular winter meal so I decided to make my own.
Ingredients
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (I love everything garlicky)
1 tin corn kernels
2 green bell peppers, chopped
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
4 Tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup veggie stock
1-2 tablespoons hot pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Wash quinoa and set aside.
In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Add the onion and garlic and cook until translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, corn and peppers and cook about 3-4 minutes.
Add the quinoa, kidney beans, tomato sauce and veggie stock. Season with hot pepper flakes. Simmer for about 10 minutes and add 1 cup of water if it gets dry. Serve warm.
Garnish with avocado slices and cheese if you’re feeling naughty. I had this bowl of chilli for dinner but the rest of the lunches for the week will have no fun toppings.
CHEFS NOTES:
One problem I had with adding the quinoa straight into the sauce was that it didn’t really cook/sprout as fast as I wanted it to. I kept adding water and boiling and simmering a couple times before I got it right. What I would do next time is cook the Quinoa separately and then add it to the sauce once both components were semi-cooked.
I wanted to add some different beans such as black beans or even lima beans (butter beans) but due to the sad fact that down in Daegu we can’t find any of those ingredients easily. I just stuck to the usual kidney beans. I guess you could also add lentils to this recipe for something different. Try it your own way and post any recipes here 😀
mybigbiteoflife 