three-bean chili
In my fantasy recipe-writing league, I’d cover everything, a million questions you hadn’t even thought to ask yet. Every recipe would work on a stove, slowly braised in the oven, on a grill, in a slow-cooker, a pressure-cooker, on a train, in a car, or in a tree. You could make the vegetarian carnivorous, the carnivorous paleo, the gluten-full gluten-free, the sour cream could always be swapped yogurt which could always be swapped with buttermilk, or milk and lemon, or soy milk and vinegar. We’d find a way to put kale in . You could use flat-leaf parsley instead of cilantro (because cilantro is the devil’s herb, naturally) or none of the above, because green flecks = grounds for dinnertime dismissal. We’d make food that your picky spouse, your pasta-eating , and your pesky fad-dieting house guests would applaud at every meal, and all of those promises made by food writers greater than myself in tomes more epic than this blog of food bringing people together for the happiest part of everyone’s day would be made good on at last.
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 10 of 12 ingredients — the other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 10 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Beer | 1/4 cup (60ml) for cooking | 43 |
| Tomato | 1 medium (123g) | 22 |
| Chili | 1 tsp (2.7g) | 8 |
| Cumin | 1 tsp ground (2.1g) | 8 |
| Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Oregano | 1 tsp dried (1.8g) | 5 |
| Garlic | 1 clove (3g) | 4 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Beans | not in our table | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped small
- 1 to 2 peppers of your choice (see Notes, below), finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt or 2 1/2 teaspoons kosher or coarse salt
- 1 12-ounce bottle beer
- 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes, fire-roasted if you can find them
- 1 1/2 cups mixed dried beans (see Note)
- 3 1/2 to 4 cups water