White Bean Chili

Chilly days call for big pots of chili to warm you from the inside out- and that's just what I cooked this weekend. I was in the mood for something a little different from the usual tomato-based red chili, so I tried a white chili instead, inspired by this recipe from The Kitchn.

White chilis generally have green chiles, white beans like Great Northern or cannellini or navy beans and chicken or turkey- which for a vegetarian version can be simply omitted or subbed with some mock meat. This time I used quorn (mycoprotein) mock chicken tenders- stocked up on sale at the grocery store. Here's my version of the recipe, in brief. It is an easy peasy recipe and it was an instant hit. I'll be making this hearty chili again and again. Canned green chiles and white beans (both the dry and canned versions) are easy to find in any US supermarket. For the corn, I used frozen roasted corn from Trader Joe's- I thawed it before using it in the recipe. But any fresh, canned or frozen corn would work.

White Bean Chili

(Adapted from The Kitchn)

1. Soak 3/4 cup of dried white beans overnight. Rinse and pressure cook them. Set aside.
2. Heat 2 tbsp. olive oil in a large pot. 
3. Saute 1 diced onion, 1 diced green pepper, 1 diced carrot, 1 diced yellow squash and 3 cloves of garlic, minced. 
4. Add a can of diced green chiles, cumin, oregano, Mexican chili powder, salt and pepper to taste. Saute for a couple of minutes.
5. Add 1 cup corn, 1 packed mock chicken (I used quorn "chicken" tenders), white beans and 6 cups vegetable stock or water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. 
6. Meanwhile, in a separate saucepan, melt 3 tbsp. butter. Add 3 tbsp. flour and whisk to make a roux. Add 3/4 cup whole milk and whisk well to make a thick lump-free sauce. 
7. Add the white sauce into the soup and mix well. Simmer for 10 more minutes. 
8. Turn off the heat and garnish with juice of 1/2 lemon and a handful of minced cilantro. Taste and adjust salt and seasonings. 
9. Serve with hot sauce on the side, plus a topping of crushed tortilla chips and shredded cheese, if desired. 

As the original recipe says, the flavor and texture of the soup gets better a few hours after it is made. If you're looking for a hearty stew this winter, I highly recommend this recipe.

* * *

Half-way through January, I'm pretty excited about how this month is coming along. The goal for this month was to start cutting down on excess carbohydrates to make my diet more compatible with my body's challenges with managing blood sugars.

The way I am eating now does not feel all that different from the way I ate before. There are only a few tweaks in place to reduce or replace the big carb heavy components. So I have been eating dal and subzi, just with a big pile of koshimbir (shredded raw vegetables) instead of rice. I enjoy Mexican flavors, but in a bowl instead of rolled up in a tortilla. I've been trying out spaghetti squash casseroles and loving them. I've been making a dressing for Caesar salad that is so irresistible that it has me craving big bowls of greens.

And so the emphasis is on satisfying vegetable-heavy meals. This is important because what I'm trying to establish here is not a "diet" in the sense of that short-term unpleasant thing you do to get to some goal. This is the way I will eat for the rest of my life.

As for ingredients like rice, it is not an all or nothing deal. Every now and then, I will eat a small amount. For instance, I made my favorite quick winter meal- khichdi- with 1 cup moong dal and 1/4 cup rice. Usually there's at least as much rice as dal, if not more rice than dal. And I enjoyed my dal-heavy khichdi with a large helping of two different stir-fried vegetables- subzis, making vegetables the star of the meal while also enjoying the warm khichdi.

What about snacks?  Crispy salty snacks are my kryptonite. This month, I've completely stopped buying potato chips, tortilla chips and fried Indian snacks like chaklis. If I am served any of these things somewhere, say at a party or a friend's home, I'll eat a few- no problem. But I just can't have the whole package in my house because I know I simply cannot eat these in moderation- the family size bag will vanish in hours. When V picked up a packet of chaklis at the store, I requested that he keep it in his office for snacking instead of at home. Because I don't need a packet of chaklis in my pantry and also, once I get my hands on it, he has no chance of tasting even half a chakli. I'll polish them off in record time. So you do need family buy-in to help you avoid the foods you're trying to steer clear of.

Instead, this month I'm keeping three snacks on hand, all three are foods that I love: (a) nuts,  (b) hummus and veggie sticks and (c) homemade granola with unsweetened almond milk. If cravings strike between meals, I turn to one of these. Many people use high-protein granola bars and smoothies as snacks, but I really don't like the taste of either granola bars or smoothies, so I'm going with what I personally like to eat.

But here's the funny thing: I rarely feel like snacking any more. All my life, I've been on a roller coaster of high and low blood sugars. I get hunger pangs every couple of hours, and need regular snacks between meals to keep from feeling jittery and moody. Once I removed the thing that my body can't handle- excess carbs- the problem of being constantly hungry is going away too. For the first time in my life, I'm not craving snacks all the time and it is a nice feeling to be satisfied from one meal to the next. Let's see what the rest of this month brings.