Southwestern Bean and Rice Chili

While visiting the library bookstore over the past weekend I came across several recipe booklets from Land O Lakes. Unless they're vintage, I don't usually give booklets like this a second glance (mostly because we eat so much differently than the recipes showcased), but the fact that this one was on soups and chili made me give it a look.

Who doesn't love soup?

On Sunday night I browsed through and decided to make this chili for dinner. It's a bit different with the addition of long grain rice. 

I made a few adjustments to my own cooking since I don't have, nor do I buy Mexican spiced beans, or spicy tomato juice. I had to spice it up somehow right?

I adjusted a few amounts as well, mostly so there would be leftovers, and I upped the ante a bit by adding jalepeno peppers. My additions and changes are listed below should anyone be interested.

Soups are relatively forgiving and can generally be experimented with successfully. The biggest issue is that you might end up with a lot more soup than you originally planned, since soups by nature seem to expand during the cooking process. lol

This recipe turned out fabulous and I'll definitely make it again.

It would be wonderful served with breadsticks, cornbread, or as we did, with cheesy French bread rounds.

My adjustments;

Omitted all but 1 cup of water (add more as needed or if you prefer a thinner chili)
1 medium chopped sweet onion instead of 2 (I like onion but not that much)
Used 3 cans of beans (equivalent of dried may also be used), one each of organic red kidney, black, and white/navy bean
2 cans of organic S&W ready diced tomatoes
In place of the spicy tomato juice I used regular V8
but...
added 2 Tbs chili powder (can be adjusted to suit your own tastes)
1 extra tsp. of cumin
1 light shake of red pepper flakes (about six to ten flakes - again, can be adjusted to suit your own tastes)
2 seeded and chopped jalepeno peppers (note; freezing them makes them easy to seed and chop, and less irritating to the senses)
Used long grain wild rice

Where the spices are concerned, err on the side of caution, unless you know you've got a healthy tolerance for spicy food. It's way easier to add more spice than to remove it. ;-)

If using dried beans, I'd probably put everything (except the rice) in the crock-pot on low for six to eight hours, adding the rice about an hour or so before serving. I'm going to try the crock-pot method next time out.