Black Bean Chili - Part 1

INGREDIENTS:

1 Onion
1 Sweet pepper (green or red)
1 -(up to)
6 Cloves garlic (adjust to
-taste); "saute" in:
2 tb Or so of Kidney bean juice
1 cn Low-salt tomatoes (or
-equivalent)
1 tb Oregano
1 tb Chili powder (adjust to
-taste)
1 tb Cumin
1 c Banana peppers w/juice (in
-jar) (my special touch)
1 cn Kidney beans w/juice
1 cn Black beans w/juice

"Saute" onion, pepper and garlic in 2 tablespoons or so of kidney bean juice. Add tomatoes, spices and banana peppers; simmer for 10 mins or so. Add water or more pepper juice if needed. Add beans. Heat through. Serve over rice or potato, or with ff tortilla chips.

This is a really elementary recipe, and easy to remember because it's just one of everything :), but it's served me well over the years.

You could also do a Spanish Rice... I add the same spices as above and a little tomato juice or sauce and/or pepper juice to the cooking water before I cover the rice. I make something I call Fajita Pitas... strips of veggies saute/steamed in a modified commercial fajita marinade (follow the directions, but substitute bean juice for oil). I toss some kidney beans in at the end, heat through and serve on whole wheat pitas... more satisfying to me than tortillas & easier to find fatfree.

If you wanted to do an appetizer you could make a layered "dip" of mashed beans (with chili powder & cumin added) topped with salsa, lettuce, onion, & chopped tomatoes and serve it with baked tortilla chips. I would put a layer of seasoned rice in there too :) but I put rice in everything.

FATFREE DIGEST V96 #159