Chili Verde

The other day I was grocery shopping at Market Basket, where they have the best sale racks ever,  and I noticed they had zucchini on sale so I bought some thinking could roast some with lemon and garlic for Easter. Naturally, I forgot I bought them and they ended up in the bottom of my veggie drawer. Which obviously is usually quite full since, well, veggies are life. Anyways, I had to figure out something to do with the zucchini so they didn’t go bad. I hate wasting food. At first I was just going to add them to my morning smoothies and get some extra veggies in but then I started thinking of soup except I wanted something heartier and all green.  I didn’t actually realize at the beginning of all this that chili verde was a thing but I set out to make a green chili. Full of hearty beans and zucchini chunks swimming in  something similar to salsa verde. It came out better than I could have imagined! I love when an idea for a recipe works out so well. This is definitely a keeper so lets get into the recipe!

Ingredients:

  • 2 poblano peppers
  • 1 medium onion, halved- dice half, leave the other half whole
  • 1-2 jalepenos
  • 6 medium tomatillos
  • 4 cloves garlic- mince two, peel and leave whole two.
  • 1-2 cups cilantro
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 medium zucchinis diced
  • 2 15oz cans cannellini beans
  • 1.5 cups water
  • 2 teaspoons coriander
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Place the poblanos, jalapeno(s) the tomatillos and cut the onion in half and place half on the baking sheet.  Once the oven is preheated roast the veggies for 20-30 minutes. Until all have brown spots and are soft.
  2. While the veggies are cooking dice the second half of the onion, the zucchini and mince two of the garlic cloves. Set aside.
  3. Once the veggies are finished roasting place the poblanos in a bowl with a plat eon top so they steam. Once they are cool to touch carefully peel the skin off and remove the stem, seeds and ribs. Remove the stem and seeds from the jalapeno as well (the charred skin can stay on).
  4. Place the tomatillos, poblanos, jalapeno and roasted onion in a blender or food processor with the remaining two cloves of garlic and the water. Process until still a little chunky but there are no large chunks.
  5. Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot on medium heat then add the zucchini and onion, saute for about 6 minutes until soft then add the garlic and saute for a minute or two more.
  6. Add the processed veggies to the pot along with the cannellini beans and the coriander and cumin. Add salt and pepper to taste and let sit on medium low heat for 10-20 minutes.
  7. Garnish with avocado and some extra cilantro. We also had some smoked sea salt so I added that to the top too. Its optional though.
  8. Devour with some tortilla chips or even some soft corn tortillas.

 

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