Cabbage Chili with Spicy Sausage

Black-eyed peas add savor to this healthy cold-weather pleaser

Cabbage chili? Yeah, not something you’re likely to find in Texas. But totally worth having.

Particularly since cabbage has almost no calories. Many of us are diet conscious this time of year, so that’s a winner.

But the biggest winner is the flavor. We’ve loaded this dish with lots of dried chile powder and other spices, so it has all the deep chili flavor you expect from, well, chili.

This dish makes a great weekday meal, but it’s good enough to serve at an informal weekend gathering with friends. Like, maybe, for football playoffs or the Super Bowl. Score!

Slow Cooker Homestyle Chili

Easy—and just like mom used to make

There’s nothing like tucking into a big bowl of chili. It’s the best way we know to tame the winter cold.

And with football playoffs here, you can eat it while watching the game. Plus, this easy dish is a crowd pleaser, so it’s ideal for a Super Bowl party.

Speaking of easy, chili might be the best slow cooker dish ever. You just need to do some quick prep work, then let the cooker do its magic. Unattended. The chili will be ready when you are—no last-minute timing required.

So it’s perfect for entertaining. Or Saturday night supper after all those weekend chores.

Texas-Style Chili con Carne

Warm up with a meat-based classic

With autumnal equinox receding in the rear-view mirror here in the Northern Hemisphere, we’re entering a period of chilly (not to mention gloomy and rainy) weather. Which is good news, in a way. Because chilly season means chili season.

During the cooler months, we have chili frequently—at least once a week. And although we make chili using all sorts of ingredients (including a mean vegetarian Sweet Potato Chili with Black Beans), there’s something special about a chili that’s heavy on the meat.

And when it comes to meatiness, nothing beats Texas chili. It typically contains loads of meat and chilies—and not much else. Just the thing to take the chill off.

Chili Basics

How To Make the Chili We All Know & Love

The nights are turning cooler, and we’re beginning to hanker after heartier food.  Few dishes are heartier — or deliver a bigger flavor punch — than homemade chili.  And if you haven’t already begun thinking about making a batch, maybe you should.

Although Texas chili (which contains meat, chiles, and little else) is perhaps the most iconic version of the dish in the United States, it’s not the chili that most of us crave.  For the majority of us, chili means ground beef, tomato, onion, and beans.  (Beans are heresy in Texas chili.)  Spice levels can vary from mild to incendiary, though most of us prefer a moderate level of heat.

Chili is an easy dish to make.  Learn the basics of this recipe, and you can make any chili — even that no-bean Texas stuff.

Vegetarian Chili

I lived for a spell in Texas.   There I learned the canonical Texas chili liturgy.

The dish contains chilies, obviously, and in quantity.  Probably onions and garlic (though some purists insist that spices can include only cumin, coriander, and oregano).   Salt and pepper.  Maybe tomato, in moderation (we’re not making stew here). 

Definitely no beans.  Unless you feel like it, of course.  You’re a Texan, dagnab, so you have the God-given right to eat your food how you like, even though your curious bean hankering may make you a social pariah.  If you persist in this peculiar craving, kidney beans are the best choice (preferably dark red).  Pintos will work too.

And meat.  Always meat.  Coarse ground or hand cut into ½ inch cubes.  Beef is typical.  But there’s also pork, goat, venison, buffalo.  You name it, it almost certainly has been made into chili. 

That’s it.  No additions.

Vegetarian chili?  Perish the thought.  It might be a tasty dish, but to call it chili would be nothing short of blasphemy.

Well, as Huck Finn said, “All right then, I’ll go to hell!”  Because vegetarian chili, done right, is excellent — and much less heavy than the meat version.