Acorn Squash & Mayocoba Bean Chili

Hey babes,

As we all know if we get too close to a window, it is starting to get to that time of year where it is cold, unpleasant, dark, and the perfect excuse for soups, chilis, and wayyyy too much coffee. Or maybe that last one is just me?

Anywho, chili! This is going to sound appalling, but in the part of the world I was raised, most folks don’t put beans in their chili. I’m not completely sure I knew that was even an option until I was a teenager, and I was certainly not on board for such an outlandish idea until I was a grown and proper babe.

But now, beans are my jam. They are cheap, tasty, super easy to make, and have damn-near innumerable health benefits. Bean and legume consumption may very well be the #1 indicator among food factors of increased longevity, and you get all that muscle-repairing protein without the dangers associated with animal products (carcinogens, diabetes, heart disease, unnecessary antiobiotics, global warming, and early death, just to name a few).

Typically for beans, I stick with the basics: black, pinto, kidney, garbanzo, cannellini, Great Northern, Navy, lentils, red lentils, black-eyed peas, edamame, field peas, and split peas (sure beats the four types of meat most Americans eat, huh). Luckily, I recently noticed a variety I’d never tried before in the good ol’ grocery sales circular. The mighty Mayocoba bean.

Also known as the Peruvian or canary bean, these little wonders are a staple of Peruvian cooking, and have a taste and consistency somewhere between a pinto bean and a cannellini bean, and can be used in dishes that call for either (or Great Northern and Navy beans). On top of their smooth, creamy taste, they are also a very solid source of potassium, calcium, iron, and a veritable rogue’s gallery of other vitamins and minerals.

The other big player in this delicious chili: acorn squash.

Now, surprisingly, not as many people use acorn squash on the regular (or squash in general outside of the holidays, but who’s counting). Not as sweet as the butternut or as hyped as the spaghetti squash, the acorn squash often gets a back seat, and that is a shame. Personally, I like them as a change from the butternut. The flavor is a little milder, which lends itself to spices and other ingredients well, while still boasting health benefits that include a respectable dose of vitamin C, potassium, and magnesium.

(A friend of mine recently contracted the big 19, and one of his biggest problems, aside from the respiratory effects, was his electrolyte balance. The huge punch of potassium in this chili was a big selling point to get him to eat something solid.)

As a final note before I get into the finer details of this one is a culinary tip: don’t skip the vinegar. By volume it is certainly not one of the main ingredients in this, and because it’s added at the very end, I could see lots of people leaving it out. But no. Adding vinegar at the end adds depth to the flavor and can fix a dish that tastes flat, without punching up the salt or spiciness to a degree that is unhealthy or uncomfortable, respectively.

Additionally, as I’m sure you can already guess, vinegar, and more specifically apple cider vinegar, has NUMEROUS HEALTH BENEFITS. I won’t drag you through all the details, though it is worth mentioning that some of the high points include weight control, blood sugar, and arterial health. So, adds complexity to the flavor of your dish AND can help maintain your weight and blood sugar safely and naturally? Don’t forget it.

In fact, if you have one of those little oil dispensers by your stove, dump out that oil (into a sealed container), clean it out, and fill it with vinegar. Maybe even a variety of them. On the top shelf of my pantry, I have apple cider, rice, white, white wine, red wine, and balsamic, to match just about any dish I could want to concoct (keep an eye out for an oil-free vinaigrette post that will undoubtedly talk about this in much greater detail).

A little pre-recipe cooking is in order if you haven’t already prepped your beans. Assuming that you’re using dried, here’s the quick run-down of what I’d recommend. First, rinse a pound of beans, picking out any weird wrinkly beans or rocks. Next, put those beans in a big bowl of water and leave them alone overnight. The next down, cook them in a slow cooker or a big pot on the stove until they are soft, but not total mush. Judge based on your preference, remembering you’re going to be cooking them further in the actual recipe. I like to add in a little garlic, onion, and a couple of bay leaves if I’m going to be using them for other recipes. Once they’re good, strain out about three cups for this recipe. The rest, I would recommend separating into 1 1/2-2 cup portions, let cool, then put in containers or bags and freeze for later use.

And guys, I get it. This process isn’t quick. But here’s the deal. I am a single woman with a full-time job, two kids under the age of 10, a blog, a five-day workout routine, afterschool activities, and still manage to read over 100 books a year and cook every meal from scratch. If I can do it, you can do it. Good food is worth the effort, and your health and wallet will thank you.

Now, once that’s done, it’s time to move on to the main event.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Inspired by this recipe.