Those who know me well know that I am a sucker for a nice pot of chili, for too many reasons to list out here. For just the highlights: it’s quick and it’s good. And it’s simple enough that even your cat could make it! This time around I scratched the ground beef and doubled down on the beans. Some would say it’s better for the environment, but the jury seems out on that; multiple sources put the water use for a pound of beef in the 1500+ gallon range, but no one seems to be talking about the environmental impact of growing beans.

This isn’t a recipe site so I won’t bore you will the nitty-gritty details (nor do I want to give up my secret recipe!), but here are some glimpses into the process. We start with the vegetables.

After simmering those for a bit, we add the beans and let them all take a swim in the tomato sauce.

As a side note, Chili’s (the Tex-Mex restaurant) doesn’t actually serve chili. It’s a bit of a mystery since “Chili con carne” supposedly originates from the Texas-Mexico border region, which would give it firm status as a Tex-Mex dish in any reasonable person’s mind. Those Chili’s executives must be asleep at the wheel, so to speak.

In general my strategies with chili recipes is to play it fast and loose with the spices, then let the ingredients get to know each other for a good long while. This keeps it fresh every time, an important piece of the puzzle when you use chili as a staple. Once it’s all done, all that’s left is to scoop it into a bowl of your preferred shape and grab your favorite spoon (though a fork will do in a pinch if your chili is thick enough; mine usually is).

Chili has an interesting property that I deem the “homogeneous heterogeneity” principle: while an individual scoop of chili is eclectic in that it contains a variety of beans and vegetables, every scoop of chili is roughly the same. The consequence of this is that chili doesn’t require your gaze, freeing up your eyes to do other things, such as read the newspaper or make eye contact with your dining associates. In the future, I imagine there will be food stands serving hot Go-Gurt-like squeezable tubes of chili for those looking for a healthy and hearty food option on the go.

To serve, I recommend paring with a splash of blue Gatorade, you can read my thoughts on that subject in this post. Bon Appétit!