Is it soup yet? No, and I’m happy to say it never will be—it’s chili :)

I HATE SOUP.  More specifically, canned soup.  I hate canned chili too—it’s the worst!  So I wonder why chili isn’t considered a soup?  “Because it’s of the stew variety.”   Haha that’s funny—I hate stew too!

I do like homemade chili though, but can’t remember the last time I tried making it.  But then earlier today, I was at the supermarket buying ingredients to make spaghetti sauce (I like mine sweeter then the stuff in jars—sorry Prego & Ragu) and saw this particular style of diced tomatoes.  “Zesty Chili Style”.   I don’t recall seeing this before, is it new?  Anyway, I figured what the heck I’ll make chili instead.

• 1 14.5 can Del Monte Zesty Chili Diced tomatoes
• 1 16oz. can Hunts Tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 14.5 can Hanover kidney beans, drained, rinsed
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup green pepper
• 1 lb. ground beef, browned & drained
• 2 tbl sugar
• 2 tbl chili powder
• 1 tbl garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp ground red pepper

So simple—brown the beef, drain the grease, toss in the chopped green pepper & onions, cook 5-10 minutes more.  Now stir in sugar, garlic powder, chili powder, ground red pepper, a couple hard shakes of salt & black pepper, mix it up.

(FYI, many chili recipes call for a tablespoon of cumin; I’m not a fan.  Cumin takes it from a homemade tomatoey taste to something more like canned chili.)

Now dump in the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, beans.  Bring to a boil, then let simmer (covered, uncovered—I alternated) for 20-25 minutes.  I was surprised how well it turned out—I sprinkled a little shredded cheddar cheese on top, and a couple slices of homemade bread from the bakery didn’t hurt!

Anyway, as tasty as it was, I couldn’t help but wonder if a little more heat would’ve made it better.  It got me to thinking about those gold-foil packets of hot sauce at Wendy’s, you can’t buy them anywhere but an online cooking forum said Dynasty Hot Chili Oil was the same thing—so I went ahead & ordered a bottle of the stuff from Amazon for next time!

So until the Soup Nazi opens for business around here, or someone surprises me with their grandma’s old recipe, this is about as close to soup as I’m gonna get!