The Passionate Pursuit of Delight

Ingredient: black beans

Blow-Your-Mind Black Bean Chili

Blow-Your-Mind Black Bean Chili

Are you ready for football to be over for the season? I know that I am.  Honestly, this year I couldn’t care less about either team that is playing in the Super Bowl. The only thing I am excited about is hanging out with friends and eating delicious food.

After Thanksgiving, the Super Bowl is the next big event in the Olympics of food.

You want to bring a dish to the party that will be delicious and Instagram-worthy. You may want it to have some sort of nutritional value. I always prefer homemade food, cooked from scratch, because I am weird like that. I want my food to be made from ingredients from the Earth rather than chemicals in a factory.

Blow Your Mind Black Bean Chili

My daughter often laments when she visits my house that my kitchen is full of ingredients rather than food. I take this as a compliment, although, I know it is not intended as such.

Super Bowl Appetizer Ideas

So, for weeks I have been trying to decide what to bring to the Super Bowl party that we will be attending this weekend. I can’t decide between snack food such as a dip with chips and veggies like this Roasted Carrot Hummus or Guacamole with Clementines or bringing something more substantial.

Blow Your Mind Black Bean Chili

Some of the people attending the party are meat and potatoes people and a few are vegetarians. So, I want to bring something that will appeal to everyone.

Keeping that in mind, in addition to the dip recipes listed above, I have a really delicious chili recipe to share with you. The Super Bowl and a pot of chili go together like wine and cheese. Am I right? Chili is a perfect party food. It can be made ahead of time and then kept warm in a slow cooker so it is ready to eat at half-time.

Blow-Your-Mind Black Bean Chili

This Blow-Your-Mind Black Bean chili is sure to please your football loving friends. I am so in love with this chili recipe! It is full of black beans and wheat berries (more on these in a minute) which makes it a super satisfying.

Blow Your Mind Black Bean ChiliThe addition of mushrooms also lends meaty texture to the chili which may keep the carnivores at the table from grumbling. The smoky flavor comes from chipotle chili powder. If you like extra heat and smoke, you could add a chopped up chili pepper and some of the sauce from a can of chipotle chilies in adobo sauce. The chili is meatless which is perfect if you have vegetarians coming to party and hearty enough that the carnivores may not miss the meat.

If you aren’t familiar with wheat berries, I encourage you to give them a try. You boil the whole grains in liquid, usually water or broth, until cooked through. The process is similar to cooking rice. They have a chewy texture and a nutty flavor. You can find wheat berries in the bulk section of many super markets or packaged in the grocery aisle with other whole grains. Wheat berries are sometimes referred to as hard red winter wheat.

Blow Your Mind Black Bean Chili

Plus, suggest having a selection of toppings available so that guests can customize their chili bowls just the way they like them. Some of my favorite chili toppings are:

  • Avocado
  • Green onions
  • Lime wedges
  • Grated cheese
  • Crushed tortilla chips
  • Sour cream

Blow Your Mind Black Bean Chili

Fiesta Buddha Bowl

Fiesta Buddha Bowl

I live on Buddha bowls. I cook the components for Buddha bowls as part of batch cooking for the week. When I first started making them I didn’t know that they were called Buddha bowls. I just called them bowls. But, I love the name Buddha bowls now, so that is how I always refer to them. For the uninitiated, a Buddha bowl is simply a meal that consists of a grain, a green, and a bean.

The grain can be rice (brown, white, red, black, or wild), quinoa, wheat berries, or any other grain that you fancy. Be adventurous and try some new grains. Peruse the bulk bins at your grocery store and find a new grain to try. You can buy a small amount of a few different types and see which ones you like. You can google how to cook any grains for instructions on how to prepare them.

Fiesta Buddha BowlFor greens, I like to use raw greens which are hearty like chopped Romaine or kale. Or, sometimes I will use sauteed greens like Swiss chard or spinach. But, I often substitute other veggies in my bowls like roasted broccoli, Brussels sprouts, or cauliflower. This isn’t science, just use what you like!

I always have cans of beans in my pantry. I couldn’t pick a favorite. I love them all. They each offer unique character to a dish. On any given day, you can find garbanzos, black beans, white beans, kidney beans, and pinto beans in my pantry. I also keep a stash of dried beans handy. They are so cheap, easy to cook, and a great source of fiber and protein.

Fiesta Buddha Bowl

As you can see, Buddha bowls are perfect for make-ahead meals. Cook a big batch of your grains over the weekend, open a can of beans, and then decide what vegetables you want to include. Then, you will have a quick easy dinner and left overs for lunch.

I often will see an ingredient at the store that will inspire my Buddha bowl for the week. This week I found avocados on sale at my local market. Instantly, I know that a Fiesta Buddha Bowl was going to happen this week. Over the weekend, I made a batch of brown rice. I had black beans, Romaine lettuce, salsa, corn, onions, salsa and pepitas in my pantry. Along with the avocados, I was set!

Fiesta Buddha Bowl

I will be featuring ideas different Buddha bowls in the coming months. But, there are seriously so easy that I encourage you to come up with some combinations of your own featuring ingredients that you love. I would love to know if you have any favorite bowl combinations.  Feel free to leave me some ideas in the comments below.

Fiesta Buddha Bowl Pin

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