cook: chorizo black bean vegetable chili

I had intended to cook chili the night before my slow sewing meetup because it was going to be a busy Thursday afternoon of a retirement decisions webinar followed by hosting my quilting and embroidery group. Nope! I ended taking off from work an hour and a half early to run to the grocery store for other ingredients and a dessert and then getting the chili started to simmer and finish cooking while on my Zoom meeting. Luckily I had already soaked and boiled black beans earlier in the week. Once I got home I fried the chorizo and for added measure, ground pork I hadn't all used in my white bean and fennel soup. Next chopped onions and garlic went into the frying meat.

 

Next into the pot, the chopped bell peppers and pre-cooked black beans and a jar of chicken bone broth. I also added chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, forgot the cumin but did add this spice from Trader Joe's which had the cumin as well as more chili powder and salt and ground corn.

So much liquid in the pot! And so I added tablespoons of tomato paste to thicken it and as it furiously boiled, I peeled and cut and cubed sweet potatoes and brought out a bag of kale. Once the liquid reduced, I added the sweet potatoes and kale and let it simmer some more in the pot.

By the end of my meeting, the chili looked done. My chorizo, black bean and vegetable chili tasted marvelous though I did add sugar to cut the heat and the bitterness of the peppers.

Even though there were only 3 of us sewists, we each crushed tortilla chips and garnished our chili with cheese and sour cream and cilantro and ate 2 bowls in my condo's club house. AND stitched and talked politics and savored tiramisu. I had also left a couple bowls for Patrick to eat at home for dinner though now there is enough leftover chili for the couple meals before Thanksgiving. But last night, I wanted to Hoover more leftovers and ate again leftover carne asada tacos and nachos with more of those wonderful pickled jalapenos.

I honestly do love to cook and feed people. It's just so much less stressful for smaller groups of people, and so that'll be my December: to entertain very small suppers to make hosting very less annoying.