do you put beans in chili?

[MitchieInge]

if you do, what sort?

have sneaking feeling it's not really supposed to have beans in at all but it always does in UK doesn't it?

I use Jamie Oliver's recipe which uses kidney beans and chickpeas. And I usually replace the meat with sweet potato and put sweetcorn in too :)

Serve with basmati rice, wedges of lime to squeeze over the rice AND the chilli, and greek yoghurt - much nicer than sour cream but still has that cooling effect.

I made it the other day and added :
beans tesco kidney beans in chilli sauce. And also tesco mixed beans in chili sauce, which had 3 types of beans in it, I think.
Was great.

Tortilla chips and rice and wraps.

Black eye, chick pea or kidney.

I also put a bottle of larger in mine!

Tortilla chips. The cheapo value ones from tesco because they aren't too salty. With huge amounts of sour cream. Yum.

I'm having chilli tomorrow night now

oh yes it does have beer in doesn't it? all coming back to me now

we will have to wait until Tuesday when shopping is delivered

Yes to lager! It's also good with coffee in - and chocolate of course -and lime juice. I only make veggie chilli, so I use a mixture of red lentils (cheap) and puy lentils (for colour and texture), kidney beans, cannelini beans or black beans and butter beans (but if dd1 is eating it, I use fewer beans because she doesn't like them).

Veggie chilli, guacamole (made chunky and with no tomatoes), cheese, soured cream, mango salsa, tortilla chips = a match made in Heaven! Could just eat it now.

I'm also really fancying chilli! Mmm

It's not chilli if it doesn't have beans in.

Kidney beans are most common. I really like black beans. Jamie has a recipe with kidney beans + chickpeas.

kidney beans in mine and always always do about 5 1b of mince at one time and freeze loads for later. Read some recipe once where it said cook slowly for about two hours so flavour intensifies . must admit my chilli is lush.

Oh and ANYTHING with baked beans in is a v v bad idea.

always cook 5lb of pasta sauce too , then freeze , i do this once a month and the best feeling in the world is going to freezer in the morning taking a chilli or pasta sauce out and saying " thats the dinner made "

Baked beans here, they're cheaper and DH doesn't like kidney beans. I put them in at the end and heat them through so they don't disintegrate and put loads more chilli powder and cayenne pepper than normal as the tomato sauce waters down the chilli.

Baked beans here, i hate kidney beans and suspect the dcs would too.

A completely traditional (i.e. 16th century) chilli doesn't have beans in at all however it just doesn't taste the same to me. the beans originally would have been used instead of meat in poorer areas I would think.

Chilli history is besides the point anyway! if you fancy something a bit different try borlotti/pinto beans soaked in a weak red wine vinegar before adding, they add a bit of zing!

Sometimes red kidney beans, sometimes a can that calls itself chilli beans, which are not as red and a bit shorter, but bigger than baked beans. No particular difference in taste though.

Kidney beans and black eye beans usually

I add a tin of kidney beans, a tin of baked beans plus chilli and cumin to left over bolognese to make chilli.

Because of the way it's written I think the original dish was probably mostly beans (cheap peasant staple) in spicy veg/tom sauce with a bit of expensive meat thrown in when available making it 'con carne'. Otherwise it would be the other way around.... Carne con Frijoles .. something like that.

And answer to 'what kind'... I keep a selection of different cooked beans in the freezer so, depending on how I'm feeling, it'll either be straight traditional kidney beans or a mixture of chickpeas, cannellini, black-eye etc. About 1/2lb beans for every 1lb meat.

Best of all is pinto beans - Deliah uses these and she is quite correct IMO.

Black beans (not black-eyed, but properly black) are tastier than pinto.

Black beans make great soup too - unfortunately my local Sainsbo's never seems to have them in stock.

Made Heston's chilli yesterday, it was great and no weird stuff, just a lot more liquid than I would normally use, and 2 hours reducing on the hob. Made a big difference.
Kidney beans are about 25p a tin in Lidl/Aldi by the way.

The best addition is kidney beans in chili sauce,most supermarkets do 'em.