White Bean and Turkey Chili

My husband loves chili and all of those wintery, spicy soups. Me...not such a big fan. He is particularly fond of this one EASY, EASY recipe that I make involving 5 cans of beans, a can of corn, a can of Rotel, a package of taco seasoning, a pound of ground beef, and a package of ranch dressing mix. It makes a metric ton of soup and I can only like it the first night no matter how hard I try to like it for leftovers. I will say that it is pretty great with tortilla chips, though.

I've decided that my aversion to chili is in large part due to the fact that it is usually 90% beans. I don't necessarily hate beans, but not a lot of them all at once. So, that rare chili that doesn't have any beans is by far, my favorite. But then I found a pretty good contender in this recipe.

Normally I prefer white chili anyway but this recipe takes it one step further and requires that you puree 2 cups of the bean part to thicken the soup (and, for me, reduce the number of whole beans for me to chew up). Yay!! Fewer beans, and even better...it has cilantro!

So here is the link and, just in case they remove it from the website someday, I'm including the recipe below also. Click here for the recipe!

YUM - 4 stars - Very good...but no blondie!!

EASE - 4.5 stars - Anything that involves me standing in the kitchen more than 15 minutes gets docked a star. :) No, seriously, a bit of prep work and time spent by the stove. Still easy, though! I used pre-cooked and packaged turkey to cut down on the prep time.

HEALTH - 5 stars - It was originally in Cooking Light. That has to count for something, right?

White Bean and Turkey Chili
Source - www.myrecipes.com, Cooking Light November 2006
Ingredients
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 2 cups diced yellow onion (about 2 medium)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 3 (15.8-ounce) cans Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
• 4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 3 cups chopped cooked turkey
• 1/2 cup diced seeded plum tomato (about 1)
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 8 lime wedges (optional)
Preparation
Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 10 minutes or until tender and golden. Add chili powder, garlic, and cumin; sauté for 2 minutes. Add oregano and beans; cook for 30 seconds. Add broth; bring to a simmer. Cook 20 minutes.
Place 2 cups of bean mixture in a blender or food processor, and process until smooth. Return pureed mixture to pan. Add turkey, and cook 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat. Add diced tomato, chopped cilantro, lime juice, salt, and pepper, stirring well. Garnish with lime wedges, if desired.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 286 (19% from fat)
Fat: 6g (sat 1.2g,mono 2.1g,poly 1.6g)
Protein: 32.4g
Carbohydrate: 24.3g
Fiber: 5.5g
Cholesterol: 85mg
Iron: 4.8mg
Sodium: 435mg
Calcium: 105mg
Jennifer Martinkus, Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 2006