I elected to follow my
own recipe for turkey chili, from my personal cook book with some minor adaptations to fit what
I have in my pantry. I did have to purchase ground
turkey, a yellow onion, celery, and dark red kidney beans specifically for this
dish. The other ingredients I already had in my pantry. I chose this recipe
because there was a fair amount of dicing to be done to get all the vegetables
into the pot.
My pantry consists of
three cupboards, two of which hold my canned and dry/boxed goods, and main
ingredients such as sugars, flours, baking items etc., The third cupboard has
all of my oils, and vinegar as well as hot sauces, soy sauce and any other
sauces that don't need refrigeration, and are combined to create other tasty
dressings and marinades. I have a cast iron tower where I keep my breads and
fruits, and a lot of produce that can be left out I put in the refrigerator to
avoid pests and insects. I am living in the house my grandparents lived in for
60 years, and the kitchen is a solid representation of that era. My kitchen
will actually be renovated by mid-terms, so it will be interesting to see how
different my pantry space becomes once I can make it my own design.
Ingredients I used for
this dish: Avocado oil, 2 lbs. of ground turkey, corn, onion, celery, red and green
bell peppers, carrots sweet potatoes, dark and light red kidney beans, black
beans, pinto beans, tomato paste and sauce, and a can of Rotel diced tomatoes
that I have commonly kept in my pantry as a staple item. I also used spices
such as chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper, and a bit of maple syrup for a
little sweet. I garnished the dish with slices of avocado.
First I diced all of the
vegetables so they were ready for each step of the process. I diced the sweet
potatoes and carrots in similar sizes, but I diced the peppers and onions in
much smaller pieces to avoid the identification by my children. Once the
smaller vegetables cook down, the flavor will still be there, but they will be less
visible. I sautéed the onions, celery, peppers and garlic in the bottom of the
stew pot with avocado oil, until translucent. I added the garlic last because
of the tendencies of this ingredient to burn quickly which can ruin flavor very
quickly. After removing the sautéed veggies from the pot, I added the raw
ground turkey to brown in the juices, stirring occasionally to keep some of the
integrity of the structure of the meat to maintain texture of the dish. A
chunky chili is the goal!
While the meat cooked I
opened each can, I strained and rinsed the beans and set them aside. Once the meat
was cooked through I added all of the other ingredients at this step to be
cooked thoroughly through a simmering process. Leaving the pot for about 1 hour
on low, on a gas range, this assured that the sweet potatoes and carrots were
fully cooked and the flavors of the chili powder infused through the other
ingredients. Once the veggies were tender, I served the chili in a soup bowl with a few slices of the avocado. Delicious, even my children had seconds!
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