White Bean Harissa Chili

Happy September!

Today’s recipe test is White Bean Harissa Chili by Yasmin Fahr from the good ol NYT.

Why chili when it’s still summer? I’m asking myself the same question. I think I was craving something hearty this week. Recently I’ve been doing longer runs as I’m currently marathon training. Which reminds me, I need to find a race or I may end up running around the perimeter of Manhattan until I hit 26.2 miles (this may very possibly happen). A lot of unpredictables happened this year that led to this marathon-less marathon training, but a while ago I set my mind to running those 26.2 miles at some point this fall and if you know me, I’m real stubborn, so it’s going to happen.

Back to the chili – I thought this could be fun because it uses some ingredients that you normally wouldn’t think of when you think of chili. Yes, I definitely raised my eyebrow when I saw soy sauce in the ingredients, but the recipe had great reviews and I was curious to see how this came together.

Some things to note if you plan on making this: 1) Salt towards the end and always taste as you go!!! There are a lot of sodium-rich ingredients in this recipe so be mindful. 2) If you plan to eat this as leftovers, I suggest only adding the spinach when you are ready to eat! Maybe it’s just me but I’m not big on over-wilted leftover spinach, so I didn’t add it to the pot when cooking. 3) Use one of the cans of beans with the liquid. Recipe says to rinse the beans, but the starchy water allows the chili to thicken nicely and add more flavor.

Ingredients (3-4 servings):

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 2 red or orange bell peppers, seeded and diced
• 2 jalapeños (1 seeded and diced, 1 sliced into thin rounds for garnish)
• Kosher salt
• 1 (10-ounce) container cherry or grape tomatoes (1 pint)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons harissa, depending on heat preference
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 garlic cloves, grated or minced
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 (15-ounce) cans white beans, such as cannellini or great Northern, drained and rinsed [I used liquid from one can of beans]
• 2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth [only did 1.5 cups since I used bean liquid]
• Black pepper
• 3 packed cups baby spinach
• 2 limes, 1 halved, 1 cut into wedges for serving
• Full-fat yogurt or sour cream, for serving [I used full fat yogurt]
• 1 avocado, sliced or cubed, for serving
• ¼ cup packed cilantro or parsley leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped or torn, for serving
• ½ cup crumbled feta or grated Parmesan or mozzarella, for serving [I used parmesan]
• [I added 2 carrots, diced]

Directions:

1. In a Dutch oven or large pot, heat the oil over medium-high until shimmering. Add the onion, bell pepper and diced jalapeño, [and carrots] and season with salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions just start to soften in color and texture, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, season lightly with salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the tomatoes have burst, 6 to 7 minutes, lowering the heat if the onions threaten to burn. Stir in the harissa, cumin, oregano and garlic, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the soy sauce, scraping up anything on the bottom of the pot, until combined, about 1 minute.
2. Add the white beans and broth, season with salt, and raise the heat to bring it to a gentle boil. Adjust the heat to maintain a simmer, then cook until the broth thickens and the beans become soft and creamy, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom, about 12 to 15 minutes. Smash any remaining whole tomatoes against the side of the pot. Stir in the spinach in batches until wilted. [I left spinach out because I knew I would have leftovers. Instead, I added spinach to my bowl when it was time to eat each time I ate or warmed up leftovers]. Squeeze in the lime halves, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Divide among bowls and top each with a spoonful of yogurt, followed by the avocado, cilantro, feta and jalapeño rounds. Serve with the lime wedges.

This recipe came together beautifully, and I will be making this again soon.

And before you get on me for using parmesan instead of feta, I had leftover parmesan and was already over budget for groceries this week. Honestly wasn’t sure how the parmesan would go with this but was pleasantly surprised and thought that it paired well.

My review:

Fire. The addition of the harissa added bold heat and flavor to this chili. I was so surprised by how well the yogurt and parmesan tied this together too – the cold richness of the yogurt mixed into the hot hearty chili was so insane. Maybe it’s just me again, I’ve never been one to add sour cream to chili so it’s possible I’m late to the game. But the flavors here were different yet familiar and I couldn’t get enough!

Each bite was this hearty-tomatoey-beany goodness, and the cilantro and lime added this pop at the end and the yogurt made it so rich – I’m all over the place with this description but the bottom line is you should absolutely try this. It’s not totally out of left field flavor wise when you think chili, although the ingredients may deceive you.

Taste: 10/10. Spectacular.

Difficulty: 1/10. Lots of chopping but if you get prepped it should go smooth. The recipe is one-pot which makes this super easy!

Price: 2/10. Theres a ton of ingredients AND toppings which is why this is not a 1. Its super worth it, and not necessarily expensive, but there were a lot of little things to buy.

Let me know what you think of this!

-M3