I’ve always loved making chili. I’ve never bothered to put together an actual recipe for it, it’s always been a matter of “put stuff in the pot till it’s awesome”. It’s definitely been an interesting exercise to start paying attention to what I’m doing and keeping track of everything, to be able to produce actual recipes!
This chili isn’t my normal “recipe”. This one was actually designed especially for my husband, who has weird issues with tomatoes. He loves ketchup, but doesn’t like tomatoes. Yeah. I don’t get him sometimes, but whatever – he’s worth tweaking a few recipes for 
. This chili recipe gains the vast majority of it’s flavor from the peppers involved – and there are so many peppers involved, this is a GREAT recipe for using up the bounty from your most recent Farmer’s Market raid!
The interesting thing about this recipe is that it does gain SO much flavor from the main ingredients, it really doesn’t need any additional seasoning. Feel free to add a little chili powder or bay leaves if you like, but be sure to try it without, first. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!
As with most of my more involved recipes, this makes a LARGE pot, and is great for leftovers! on a per-serving basis, this is a very, very thrifty meal to make, as well.
Peppery Chili
4 red bell peppers
1 cayenne pepper
1 hot banana pepper
1 jalapeno pepper
2 poblano peppers
2 green bell peppers
1 onion, chopped
4 ribs celery, sliced
1 lb chorizo
3 lbs ground beef
1 lb sliced mushrooms
30 oz can light red beans
26 oz can black beans
27 oz can dark red beans
3 28oz cans diced tomatoes
Optional: chili powder, cayenne powder, bay leaves, etc
Core all peppers. Put red bell peppers, cayenne pepper, and hot banana peppers into food processor or blender and puree them. This will serve as a kind of base for your chili.
Chop remaining peppers fairly fine – a little larger than you’d like the finished pieces to be. Place in a LARGE pot, along with onions and celery. Sweat vegetables until fairly soft – a lot of liquid will come out of them.
Add chorizo and ground beef. Cook, breaking the meat up as you stir. Once meat is fully cooked, add mushrooms. Cook until mushrooms are soft.
Drain and rinse all beans, add to the pot along with the cans of diced tomato.
Cook on low for 2-3 hours, until everything comes together and has a nice texture. Taste, and add seasonings if you want.
