Legume Wednesday: Chili

Yesterday, I was so excited. I'd found a ton of tasty looking crock pot recipes for dried beans and had even set out my pinto beans to soak overnight. I was going to do Legume Wednesday! Really do it, with beans and the being on time part. Everything. Plus, finally some real food in the house.

Of course, nothing is ever that easy. This morning, I noticed a few tiny black bugs floating on the water of my bean cup. As I stirred it, more came floating up. Oh yeah, I've got weevils. Thanks to a friend, I can safely assume I have greater rice weevils. Living in my pantry. In my food. The kind that goes in your mouth. You can imagine the cringe here. 28 bugs for 1 cup of beans. ONE CUP! 28 WEEVILS! That's insane. And there could be larvae in the beans themselves. Ugh.






With a bit of research, I found that weevils are generally safe to eat, though not generally appetizing in my part of the world. Still. They were already soaked and everything. And I've eaten worse. So fine. I'll see if I can stomach tiny cooked larvae in my baked beans. Except for the fact that I was supposed to use black-eyed peas instead of pinto beans in the recipe. skty8uhwuiwgvk! Back to the drawing board.

I couldn't find anything with the same amounts of tidbits that I had, but I noticed that my ingredients looked suspiciously like the chili recipes I had been finding. Crock pot + off the hip recipe with leftovers + time. It couldn't be that bad, right? Well, right actually. Except for the fact that the beans were a bit dry and not as soft as I would like, it had a good flavor. (I'm ignoring the "extra protein" found in the bugs. There ARE no bugs. It was a dream.) I added about 1/2 of rice because I wasn't going to make any separately and it needed to be used. This is a super pantry meal because everything is adjustable to what you have on hand and what spices you like. Overall: success.



Crock Pot Chili

1 lb ground beef, browned
1 c dried beans, soaked (larvae optional)
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 T onion flakes
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp beef bouillon
2 cubes tomato bouillon dissolved in about 2 cups of hot water.


Throw in crock pot and cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours. Or whenever you remember to turn it off. Check occasionally to stir and add water if needed.