There are two camps of Chili people.
The ones that think chili should only be prepared with meat, and the ones that think it should include beans and veggies.
I live in the bean camp.
I love beans, so I always add them into my chili.
But not everyone can digest them. Especially, if they haven’t been prepared properly.
Preparing them properly means that they need to be soaked prior to use. More info on preparing beans here.
I soak my beans overnight, and then I pour off the soaking water and cook them with a little piece of seaweed.
This Turkey Chili Recipe is made with kidney beans, but you can also use black beans or pinto beans.
Enjoy!
- 1 cup pinto beans, soaked overnight
- 3-4 cups water
- 2 inches kombu/kelp sea vegetable
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 onion, peeled and diced
- 2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- 1 pound ground turkey meat (pastured)
- 1 red pepper, deseeded and diced
- 1 poblano pepper, deseeded and diced
- 1 - 15 oz can of diced tomato
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- 1 tsp. dried savory or oregano
- 2 tsp. sea salt
- Raw milk cheddar cheese
- 2 scallions, minced
- Soak beans overnight.
- Discard soaking water and cook beans in 3-4 cups fresh water.
- Bring beans to a boil and skim off foam.
- Add kombu, cover and lower to simmer for 1½ hours.
- Add 1 tsp. sea salt and continue cooking for ½ hour.
- In a deep frying pan, saute onion, garlic and cumin in olive oil for 2-3 minutes.
- Add ground turkey, breaking it up into small pieces
- Cook 3-4 minutes.
- Add red pepper, poblano pepper, diced tomatoes, thyme, savory, and remaining 1 tsp. of sea salt.
- When beans are done cooking, add the beans to the vegetables (add some of the bean water if you like a thinner chili).
- Cover and cook on medium heat for ½ hour.
- Ladle turkey chili over cooked rice.
- Garnish with shredded cheddar cheese and scallions.

Andrea Beaman is an internationally renowned Holistic Health Coach, Natural Foods Chef, Speaker, Herbalist and best-selling author. Named one of the top 100 Most Influential Health and Fitness Experts, she is also a recipient of the Natural Gourmet Institute’s Award for Excellence in Health-Supportive Education and a Health Leadership award from The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Since 1999, Andrea has been teaching people how to harness the body’s own preventative and healing powers using food, herbal remedies and alternative medicine.
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