The temperatures have suddenly fallen, my partner donated blood this week, and I am enduring my monthly visit from the University of Alabama football team (ie: The Crimson Tide.) As a result I made a big pot of beef chili today, with extra peppers to punch up vitamin C and increase iron absorption. Another thing you can see in the pot is slices of rehydrated shiitake mushrooms. They go really well with beef, but are also high in Vitamin B6 which helps with iron absorption too.
Here are some other things I do when making my chili:
- blitz up garlic, onions, carrots and celery in a food processor and sweat that in the pan till it's soft, as if I'm about to make a bolognase
- spices are cumin, cinnamon, chipotle chili flakes, chili powder, back pepper, sweet smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, bay leaves, some diced up fresh coriander stalks
- use 1 tin of chopped tomatoes, and 1 tin of chopped up plum tomatoes
- add a teaspoon of decaf coffee powder for a slightly bitter note; this deepens the "base" flavour of the chili
- add a dash of Worcestershire sauce
- add a little balsamic vinegar
- add the juice of a lime towards the end of the cooking process; lime juice punches up the "top" notes of the chili so I don't need to add a ton of salt, and also it's extra Vitamin C for that iron absorption
I serve the chili on top of rice, or a baked potato, or a baked sweet potato, or sometimes on top of pasta. To serve it, I will top it with some cheese, crispy fried onions, coriander leaves, chopped up flat parsley leaves if I have any, and then with more lime juice squeezed over everything.
