Autumn Harvest Chili

Author: Wednesday Group 1 Cooking Method:Simmering, convection heat transfer Cuisine:American Courses:Lunch, Dinner Recipe Keys: F Flexible Dairy Free

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 20 minutesCook time: 30 minutesRest time: minutesTotal time: 50 minutesServings:4 servingsCalories:249 kcal Best Season:Fall

Description

Everyone loves this no-bean Autumn Harvest Chili. It’s a smoky/sweet combo of ground turkey, spices, and fall veggies like pumpkin and sweet potato.

Ingredients

• 1  tbsp olive oil or canola oil
• 1  lb. lean ground turkey
• 1  small onion, diced about ½ cup 
• 1  large carrot, grated about ¾ cup 
• 1  large, sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1″ cube
• 1  (15 oz) can corn, drained and rinsed 
• 1  cup canned pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie mix) 
• 2  (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes; no salt added – undrained 
• 1  tbsp chili powder 
• 2  tsp ground cumin 
• 1  tsp sea salt or to taste
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper optional 

Instructions

1. Add 1 tbsp of oil to a large soup pot or saucepan (2 qt or 3 qt) and heat over medium-high heat. Add the ground turkey and cook until no longer pink, breaking up large chunks as you go. Add the diced onion and sauté for 3-4 minutes, until onions are translucent. 
2. Add the carrots, sweet potato, corn, pumpkin, and diced tomatoes and mix well. Stir in the chili powder, cumin, salt, and cayenne (if using). 
3. Continue cooking on medium-high until mixture starts to bubble. Lower heat to low-medium, cover, and allow to simmer for 30 minutes. 
4. Serve hot topped with any combination of plain yogurt, sour cream, ripe avocado, lime juice, hot sauce, and/or sharp cheddar. 

Video

Keywords:Dairy free, Gluten Free, Healthy

School is back again and that means it’s the start of fall semester. School can cause a lot of added stress to college students’ everyday lives. From expensive textbooks to tuition and rent, it can be an added stress to go to the grocery store, wandering the aisles trying to stay within budget and make meals that you know will keep you satisfied. You shouldn’t have to break the bank to be able to make nutritious and delicious meals. This Autumn Harvest Chili recipe by Juggling with Julia will help you prevent that. No more breaking the bank or worrying about finding the time in between classes and homework to cook. This recipe uses ingredients that are in season for the fall and easy to find, but most importantly the ingredients are inexpensive. Most ingredients are basic household ingredients you probably already have in your pantry. 

When you think of college your mind probably goes directly to studying, taking notes, and spending long hours finishing homework and writing papers. Our brains are constantly using energy throughout the day to keep us going, even more so when so much information is being thrown at you from all different directions. Our bodies can use many things for energy but our main sources are protein and carbs. This recipe is packed with protein and good carbs to keep you going throughout your busy day. It is veggie dense, to help boost your daily intake of those necessary vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber. You can even meal prep this recipe at the beginning of the week and take it on the go. It tastes just as good heated up, as it does straight out of the pot.

We hope you love this recipe as we have. We hope it takes stress off your budget, and we hope that it gets you into the cozy fall mood! 

Putting it Together

If you are new to cooking or experienced, this is a fun recipe to try. Because of it’s seasonal veggies, it could be a new recipe to try. Have you ever cooked with pumpkins? The first thing to do when beginning to make this recipe is to gather everything together and measure ingredients. This is a process often called mise en place. As many of the experienced cooks and chefs know, mise en place can help in preparation to ensure you have everything you need while also setting you up to create a higher quality dish by having everything ready to add at the moment it’s needed.

After you gather everything, you will saute the meat and onions together. Sauteing is a form of cooking where you add a little oil and use high heats to cook things. To achieve the best results, make sure to cut the onion to uniform sized pieces as shown in the video above. After ensuring all the meat is no longer pink and the onions have reached that opaque (almost clear) look, you can proceed. Refer to the picture below for a good representation!

Now that the meat is up to the right temperature (155 degrees F for beef or 165 degrees for poultry) and the onions are soft, we will add the carrots, sweet potato, corn, pumpkin, and diced tomatoes and seasonings. Part of food literacy is the ability to understand how cooking process can influence your final product. We added the onions first to ensure they become soft and release flavor to interact with all the other ingredients. Consider adding the ingredients in reverse order that you want firmness. In other words, add the ingredients that you want to softest first, while the firmer ingredients later.

Allow everything to boil and become soft. During this time pectin, a polysaccharide that provides an excellent source of soluble fiber, will break down in heat. To ensure everything has weakened to your desired texture, occasionally pull out little samples of the soup and bite into the contents to check for a soft, but firm texture. We found that the time this takes slightly differs each time, so make sure to check occasionally as you cook. When all the ingredients are combined, it may appear that additional liquid is needed; however, note that the tomatoes will release their juices during simmering.

Serve in a bowl and garnish with plain yogurt, sour cream, ripe avocado, lime juice, hot sauce, and/or sharp cheddar according to your preference. We would also recommend this dish to be prepared with bread or rolls at your preference. Once put together this dish is unique and healthy!

Recipe Tips 

• Substitute vegan crumbles, ground beef, or ground pork for the turkey, or try a combination of these! 

• Try raw, cubed winter squash (like butternut or acorn) in place of the sweet potato. Also, cooked winter squash is a nice substitute for canned pumpkins. 

• For more intense heat from the spice, add 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of cayenne. In my family, anything over 1/8 or so is too much! You do you. 

Toppings

Don’t forget the toppings! There are endless ways to dress up this recipe, its customizable and completely up to you. We recommend sliced avocado, for extra healthy fats. Cilantro, for extra flavor and antioxidants. Sour cream, to add more probiotics into your diet. Fritos or your favorite chips, because not everything has to be healthy. Anything you love, its your bowl of soup! 

Budget Friendly Tips!

Making this recipe “in season” with its ingredients will lower the overall ingredient cost. This is an important skill in food literacy. It’s using your knowledge of nutrition and food production when cooking for yourself and others. When you eat seasonal vegetables, you can eat a more diverse diet while saving money. So not only does it allow opportunities for you to stretch your cooking experience, but can also lead to health benefits. These are important aspects of developing food literacy. Our chili is called “Autumn Harvest Chili” because tis the season for the autumn vegetable harvest!

Cost Breakdown

There are quite a few vegetables that need to be chopped, but we will discuss proper cutting techniques and tricks in the recipe description that will help you cut each ingredient quickly.

Making Cowboy Caviar is a super fun and easy process. Once you figure out different knife cuts and the proper way to hold your knife, it is really quite relaxing. Getting to spend a little bit of time just cutting veggies can be fun! The quick and easy preparation process makes this recipe a perfect choose for those times you are in a rush or need a quick healthy side dish to bring to a party. It is also very budget friendly if you are looking to save money. You just need to buy a few vegetables and in addition to few other ingredients that you probably already have at home. This recipe can be very versatile. The vegetables in this recipe can be switched if you don’t like them or if you have other vegetables at home you are wanting to use up.

This dish is very delicious, nutritious, budget friendly, and simple to make. It tastes very fresh and would be great to use for your next home barbecue. It is best served chilled with tortilla chips.

Cost Breakdown

Tips for Making this Budget-Friendly

• The Student Nutrition Access Center food pantry on the USU campus typically has canned beans and corn.
• Buy generic products such as Great Value or Kroger to reduce ingredient cost even more.

Making Cowboy Caviar and Knife Skill Tips

Tip before cutting vegetables: Hold the knife between your thumb and pointer finger on the bolster. Then wrap the rest of your fingers around the handle.

Step 1: Mix the ingredients for the dressing in a large bowl and set aside.

Step 2: Gather the vegetables and other ingredients that will be put into the dressing.

Step 3: Rinse and drain the beans and corn.

Step 4: To cut the bell pepper, gently cut around the top. You do not want to cut all the way through the pepper. Turn it upside down so the stem is facing downward. Cut along each of the sections of the pepper (there will be three or four, depending on the pepper). Gently pull each section away from the pepper. Slice each section into four thin strips. Then dice. See the video for a more detailed visual.

Step 5: Cut the top of the onion off, leaving the bottom intact. Cut the onion in half. Beginning at one side, make cuts all the way across the onion. Then turn the onion and make perpendicular cuts. You should have small, diced onions. See the video for a more detailed visual.

Step 6: Slice the jalapeno in half and remove the seeds (you can leave some in if you like more of a kick). Cut the jalapeno into thin circles and proceed to mince the jalapeno until you are left with very small pieces. See the video for a more detailed visual.

Step 7: Chop the cilantro. See the video for a more detailed visual.

Step 8: Cut the avocado in half, throwing away the seed. Peel the skin gently off. Flip the avocado so the rounded side is facing up. Make thin slices lengthwise all the way across the avocado. Then turn it 90 degrees and slice all the way across the avocado. This should create little cubes of avocado. See the video for a more detailed visual.

Step 9: Add all the ingredients into the bowl with the dressing and mix well.

Eat with your favorite bag of chips, as a side for a hamburger, or just straight out of the bowl!

These tacos were made with ground beef because it is a relatively cheap protein that is versatile in its use in different dishes. For a substitution, ground turkey can also be used.

Cost Breakdown

The Step-by-Step Cooking Process

Start by heating up oil in a pan. Add meat to the pan and begin cooking the meat until it is brown and no pink is showing. Once meat is cooked, drain the grease. A helpful tip is to tilt the pan, and push the meat to the side.

Next, use a paper towel to soak up the grease, and throw it away. It is important that you dispose of grease properly; do not pour down the sink, either place it in a jar to be taken out later, or put it into the trash. Draining the grease also has nutritional properties. Reducing the grease reduces calories by nine calories for every gram of fat.

Measure out seasonings, including water and tomato paste, and add to meat. Mix until well combined and thickened. Feel free to add more seasonings to create a flavor you like.

For the taco shells, using corn tortillas helps give you a more authentic feel and taste to your tacos. Corn tortillas are very flimsy and breakable. Frying them in oil helps them stay intact when you build your taco.

To begin frying tortillas, heat up about half a cup of oil in a pan. This step can be done before, during, or after you cook your meat, whatever works best in your situation. A helpful tip to know when the oil is done is to stick the end of a wooden spoon in the oil. If bubbles form around the wood, and begin to float up, then the oil is ready. If the oil is bubbling really hard then it is too hot and needs to cool down.

When oil is ready, place the tortilla into the pan and cook each side for about 5-10 seconds. Next, fold the tortilla in half and hold the top half away from the oil while the bottom half is cooked for 10-15 seconds. Flip to the other side and repeat, ensuring that the top half is being held away from the bottom half. Cook to desired crispness. Once the shell is done cooking, place on a paper towel to drain any excess oil.

Cooking the tortillas like this can work for someone who is craving a soft taco and even a crunchy taco. The main purpose of this recipe is to learn to cook food that tastes good to you, so cook to your own desire of flavor and appetite.

Last step before you can build your taco is to prepare your toppings. Chop up lettuce and tomatoes, shred some cheese, and prepare any other toppings that you desire on your taco.

Now it is time to build your taco. Place your freshly fried taco shell on your plate, and fill with meat. Finish with desired toppings and pair with good company or with your favorite drink and TV show.

The best part is this meal can be refrigerated and used for a meal later in the week when you need a quick lunch before class.

Cost Breakdown

What else do I need to know?

1. This chicken is great over rice, noodle, or potatoes, and paired with some steamed broccoli.
2. To make this dish even more budget-friendly, try switching out the ingredients for all generic brands.
3. Not a fan of spice? The sauce is so flavorful you can eliminate the sriracha.
4. The lime can also be substituted out for white rice vinegar.
5. This recipe is easy to double, or even triple. Just multiply each ingredient by 2 or 3.

Test your Knowledge: What’s
Cross-Contamination?
Most people don’t know the importance of keeping cuts of meat away from shared surfaces in food preparation. Why is this so important? Well, raw meat carries pathogens that when put in contact with other foods may cause food-borne illness. This process is called Cross-Contamination. It’s important to keep raw meat on a separate cutting board (as shown in the pictures) and to handle it with great care, being mindful not to use the same cutting board for different ingredients. This recipe uses raw meat, following these safety practices will ensure that your Honey Garlic Chicken is not only tasty but free of harmful pathogens.

Let’s Talk About It
I absolutely loved this recipe. Not only was the cooking process fun, it was easy and timely. The only difficulty I came across was making sure the chicken was cooked all the way through. Some steps I included to ensure that everything was cooked properly was by butterflying the chicken (cutting one breast in half as pictured above) to make the breasts less thick and cook evenly. For good time management, I made sure to begin cooking the rice and broccoli right after putting the chicken in the oven. This meant that everything would be cooked and served hot right as the chicken came out. I used canned garlic that was pre-minced, however adding fresh garlic can be another way to make this recipe budget friendly, fresh, and sustainable. Next time, I might change up the cooking process by only pan frying and allowing it to simmer in the marinate. This way, sauce is not lost as it bakes in the oven and gives the chicken more flavor and tenderness.

Tips:

• For any ham fried rice, leftover rice is actually best. Use the opportunity to make something fun with rice the day before, then use the leftover rice to use your ingredients to the best of your ability
• I love growing my own herbs! It is not as hard as you may think. I have grown green onions in the past, and having those are extremely useful and encourages creativity with flavoring your dishes!
• Buy generic brands! The costs I used were Smith’s prices, and almost everything on here is their Kroger brand. Here is a cost breakdown:

Recipe provided by Abby Sundell Family

PROCESS/MY EXPERIENCE

It was easy to manage my time with this recipe, especially since I prepared with Mise en Place before starting to cook the meal. This will save a lot of time and save you a lot of stress while cooking the meal. The cooking techniques aren’t overly complicated.

I loved how the Jambalaya turned out. It has a great flavor and has a good mix of meat, vegetables, and rice. It is something that you can have as a main dish and pair with many sides.

COST BREAKDOWN

Some Budget Friendly Tips:

• Get white rice from the USU SNAC Food Pantry
• Buy generic brands. Ex. Great Value brand at Walmart. All these ingredients can be found at Walmart.
• It is smart to buy in bulk. You can buy extra vegetables and use them in other recipes.

KNIFE CUTS

Knife cuts are an important skill to have. This skill can be used for the rest of your life. In this recipe, the knife cuts I used were dice and chop. Dice is to cut something up into cubes. A small dice is ¼ in. x ¼ in. x ¼ in. A medium dice is

½ in. x ½ in. x ½ in. The chop cut does not have any set measurements. I had to chop the chicken tenderloins after they were cooked. I cut them into about ½ in.

MISE EN PLACE

I decided to teach about Mise en Place. Mise en place means to put everything in its place. This includes measuring out ingredients, chopping ingredients, and getting out any equipment you may need before you start cooking. This is important because it helps save a lot of time and it makes things way less chaotic in the kitchen. It allows you to focus on properly cooking the food instead of having to do the steps all at once.

REMOVING THE TENDON FROM THE CHICKEN TENDERLOINS

Chicken Tenderloins have a tendon that can be removed from the middle. This tendon doesn’t need to be removed. It can be left in and cooked, however, it is more pleasant to eat when the tendon is removed. A simple way to do this is to grab the tip of the white tendon at the end of the tenderloin using a paper towel.