White Bean And Kale Chili

If you are used to eating mild foods, you should consider adding spicy foods to your diet. Research shows spicy (hot) foods:

• Increases your metabolism
• Reduces appetite
• Are antimicrobial
• Are anti-inflammatory

Being anti-anti-inflamatory may seem counterintuitive when you consider how miserable you can feel eating extremely hot foods. But, you do not have to add a lot of chili peppers to reap some of the health benefits.

Salsa’s and many Asian foods are classified as mild, medium or hot. What’s mild to one person can be uneatable to another. I have experienced this first hand.

As you add spicy foods to your diet, you can increase the heat level to your taste. It is OK if you never venture beyond mildly spicy.

Chili or Soup

The difference between chili and soup can be very small, and is mainly due to the thickness. There are thin chilis and thick soups. For this recipe, adding 1 or 2 cups of broth or water will result in a soupier consistency. The bottom line, is adjusting the amount of liquid to achieve the consistency you desire.

Cook’s Tips

• Presoaking the beans overnight and changing out the soak water several times reduces the gas producing chemicals in the beans.
• To reduce prep time, use any canned mushrooms for fresh mushrooms. Rinsing canned mushrooms reduces sodium.
• Omit cheese for a strict vegetarian chili and save 75 calories per serving.

Click here for more information about cooking dry beans.

Substitutions

• For a vegetarian chili, omit Andouille sausage.
• An leafy green can be substituted for kale.

Nutrition Information

Nutrition information includes sausage and yogurt. The sausage and yogurt add about 2 grams of protein each. Subtract 4 grams of protein if you omit the cheese. 

Related Recipes

Spicy White Bean and Chicken Chili

Spicy Vegetarian White Bean Chili

Ingredients

• 8 oz. (225 g) dry navy or great northern beans
• 1 (150 g) small onion diced
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil
• 3 oz. (85 g) Andouille or other spicy sausage
• 1 (110 g) small tomato, diced
• 2 oz. (56 g) roasted Hatch chilies or 4 oz. (113 g) canned green chiles, diced
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 1 teaspoon ( 5 ml) ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) dried oregano
• 4 cups (960 ml) low sodium vegetable broth
• 3 oz. (85 g) Monterey Jack, Colby Jack, or Cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) Kosher salt or to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) Fresh ground black pepper or to taste
• 4 cups (115 g) kale, chopped
• 6 oz. (170 g) low or zero fat Greek yogurt

Method of Preparation