My youngest, when she was 19 years old, was diagnosed with a wheat allergy .... this is different than Celiac, that is an issue with the little fingers in your intestines which pull the nutrients from food and mosve it along the tract ... at least that was the way it was described to my daughter - or maybe its just the way she described it to me.
This is an actual allergy, which if she gets even a little bit - say a grain flying through the air - it can put her in terrible discomfort.
And Benedryl will NOT help ... in fact, most of the time she needs to suffer through ... a massive dose will land her in the hospital while they monitor her.
So, this also means that several foods which we enjoy as a family had to be changed -- and it also educated us on how many products actually contain flour as a thickener.
Chili mix is one of them ... I always made a giant batch and jarred up the extra for quick meals for my in-laws ... and, yes, without thinking I used these chili flavoring packets..
Now, I had to find a new way to make the same stuff ... minus chili packets ... sans most chili powder, even (most use a flour derivative as an anti-caking agent) ... in fact, most pre-canned "Chili Beans" (chili flavored red/kidney beans) use flour in their flavoring mix as well.
I was looking at my canning books - I've got a few - and noticed that very often they would list several of these same ingredients in them as well.
But canning rules say NO starch (other than potatoes and corn), NO rice, NO noodles, etc. so it really threw me for a loop.
But I have figured it aout ... and it cans, er, jars up wonderfully as well.
Here is my Instant Pot version ...
Gluten-Free Chili WITH Beans
Ingredients:
1 Cup Kidney beans, dry
1/2 Cup EACH: Black/Trutle beans, Pinto beans, Great Northern/Navy Beans, or any bean you like (AVOID legumes and split peas) ... Dry.
These measurements are after the beans are "sorted" (check for rocks and/or broken/shriveled beans), rinsed (until water comes off clear), and placed in the pot
1-2 Tablespoons Kosher salt, optional but it really improves the flavor
2 Bay leaves (for extra flavor, we notice when they are not there)
Cover with COLD water enough to cover the beans by at least 3 inches of water.
Pressure cook for 45-60 minutes ... let pressure release NATURALLY (after its done cooking, just let it sit until the "pin" drops)
Drain the beans ...
2# burger
2# sausage
Brown on saute until all pink is gone, but no reason to get it all crisp ... just no longer pink.
1 large onion, diced to preferred size (I like 1/2 inch pieces because I have a chopper, but I used to make them much larger as well)
Toss the onion in with the meat and "sweat it" only do NOT use salt - remember we added it to the beans.
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon black pepper (I'm not a pepper fan, if you want more, go ahead)
and then add the following items:
2 cans tomatoes, dieced
2 cans stewed tomatoes (I like them, if you do not you can add more diced)
1 large bottle of GLUTEN FREE Salsa or Picante sauce (I prefer Mild, but my daughter buys Medium)
12 ounces water (I use it to clean out all the cans/jar and pour into the pot)
The pre-cooked beans.
Pressure cook for 60-90 minutes (depending on how soft you want your beans), again lets the pressure come down NATURALLY ... wait for that pin to drop.
Pull out the bay leaves, give it a stir, and voila!!!
A delicious Gluten-Free Chili which your family will love as well.
You can even use less water (remember, you MUST have no less than 1 cupt of liquid to make steam, and the beans will absorb some) or you can use the "saute" mode to cook off some of the liquid if you prefer either a thicker chili, or want to use it for a chip dip.
NOTES
This time I did not add the Bay Leaves - I forgot - and we really tasted the differnece in the chili .... since I usually put bay into all my soups and stews, the kids zeroed in on it right away.
Also, I add the Bay leaves during the bean cooking process and leave them in until after the chili is finished so that we can get the full Bay flavoring.
If you chose I do can/jar this up but since I do not have ANY treaining from upper education in this science -- remember, cooking IS SCIENCE - as well as Art ... I do not feel qualified to say anything about it.
I do recommend that you go to the USDA ONLINE Guide to Food Preservation ... you should be able to find it with a quick internet search (I prefer Goodle these days, but Yahoo is a boog one too ... I'm not a fan of Bing, but hubby likes it)
That's it!
Enjoy!
Just remember -- we prefer BEANS in our chili .... you may not ... up here, if there's no beans, then its treated like Taco Meat.
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