Cook Lightly, Make Chili

I failed my juice cleanse.

Me, the queen of restrictions, failed miserably at my juice cleanse. A cleanse that I started yesterday morning at 9am, following my morning cup of coffee (the first offense). Ending shortly after 6pm, just hours after my second cup of coffee and thirty minutes before a bowl of quinoa and vegetables. Let’s just say it was all down hill from there. I even snuck in some chocolate before bed.

It just wasn’t for me.

Because while I love of shots of green and blended beets, I totally overestimated my ability to love an all liquid diet. Turns out, I really like to eat. And while I am a pro at dealing with restrictions, I don’t like feeling depraved.

So how about we do this instead? Let’s keep the vegetable and the whole liquid idea, but let’s also throw in some ground buffalo, squash, warm chile peppers, and even some mushrooms to fill things up. Then, let’s let all these savory ingredients leech out their natural flavors. And let’s make a chili that is chunky and comforting, low in sodium, and also technically super “juicy.” Which means it still counts.

Now that sounds a gazillion times better than blended beets. No offense, beets.

And by following a spice-packed recipe from Cooking Light, we can make this exact dish. There were surprisingly very few alterations to make on the original recipe. Almost all the canned ingredients, from tomato paste to chickpeas, are listed as “unsalted,” which is a new thing for magazine recipes. So cheers to Cooking Light for all the low-sodium, no-salt love. As a side note, the combination of dried ancho chills, cremini mushrooms, and ground bison (only 60mg of sodium per 4oz serving) create a super earthy broth on their own, so there’s really no need to use beef stock (unsalted or not) if you don’t want to.

In place of sour cream, I swapped my favorite low-sodium Greek yogurt. And for acorn squash, I subbed butternut squash. Then, I used rosemary in place of parsley, just because that’s what I had on hand. And for extra color, I sautéed some purple cabbage and boiled some Israeli couscous. Which, yes, landed me even further from this whole cleanse thing, but helped me soak up all those juices that developed with every minute of boiling. A maneuver that, if I was doing a clean bowl cleanse, would land me in first place.

So if you’re doing a juice cleanse, I commend you. If you’re not doing a juice cleanse, I recommend this hearty chili. A dish that isn’t just filled with vegetables and lean meat, but one that will keep you full too.

Chow on.

(I’m going to go eat some chicken)

BUTTERNUT AND BUFFALO CHILI with ACORN SQUASH 

adapted from Cooking Light magazine’s Bison Chili with Chickpeas and Acorn Squash

Ingredients

• 2 dried ancho chiles
• 2 cups water
• One 8-oz package of fresh cremini mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 1/4 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 1 1/2 pounds ground buffalo or ground beef
• 1 tbsp no-salt-added tomato paste
• 1 tbsp no-salt-added chili powder
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 cup orange juice
• One 28-oz can no-salt-added crushed tomatoes
• 2 1/2 cups cubed butternut squash
• FAGE Greek Yogurt
• Fresh herbs (rosemary, parsley, cilantro)

+ Sodium Count: Ground buffalo: 60mg per 4oz serving; No-salt-added tomato paste: 10mg per 2 tablespoons, depending on brand; Canned tomato: 15mg per 1/2 cup, depending on brand; Butternut squash: 6mg per 1 cup cubed; Plain Greek yogurt: 60mg per 6-ounce container, depending on brand