Welcoming Fall with Versatile Chili

All pumpkin spice hype aside, nothing says fall to me like a warm vat of chili. (Confession: I threw some frozen pumpkin into a batch of chili last week to use it up. But not today).

I love how the onset of fall also happens to yield a plethora of chili ingredients from the garden. 

Coincidence? I think not.

Today, I needed to use up a bunch of produce before leaving for our vacation in a few days. I came up with a great fuel pull chili that you can easily make into an E or S meal, as described below, following the main recipe.

This recipe is flexible depending on what you have on hand. What follows is what I threw into my electric pressure cooker.

Garden Veggie Chili
1onion, chopped

6-8 assorted peppers, chopped (you choose the heat)

4-6 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped 

2-3 garlic cloves, minced

1 6-oz can tomato paste

1 pound lean venison or turkey (ground or cut into small stew meat)

1-2 T. chili powder

2 t. cumin

1 t. mineral salt

1/2 t. black pepper 

*1 cup kombucha (optional)

*1 cup water (or 2 if not using kombucha)
*See note below

Ready to zap!

Cook in your pressure cooker using the stew setting. Allow to de-pressurize naturally. Taste and adjust seasonings.  I added a doonk of stevia at the end to balance the acidity.

Enjoy as is, or add a nice dollop of nonfat Greek yogurt and some chopped jalapeños. At this point, the chili is still in fuel pull mode.

*Note:  My chili turned out a bit runny, but I was ok with it.  For a thicker chili, reduce liquid to 1 to 1 1/2 cups.

You can keep this fuel pull chili in your fridge, and doctor it up depending on your mood.

For a yummy E chili, add black beans and/or frozen corn to the above and heat through.

For a rich S chili, use beef instead of turkey or venison if desired, and top with sour cream (or stick with the yogurt) and shredded cheddar. 

My second bowl of S chili

If you don’t have a pressure cooker, this can easily simmer in your crock pot all day.

Happy fall!