{"id":771,"date":"2015-05-01T13:10:25","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T18:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pcandres.com\/?p=771"},"modified":"2015-11-06T11:37:30","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T17:37:30","slug":"beyond-disgusting-kid-friendly-turkey-chili","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=771","title":{"rendered":"Beyond &quot;Disgusting&quot;: Kid-friendly Turkey Chili"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none\"><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fthesoupblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D771&amp;layout=button_count&amp;show_faces=true&amp;action=like&amp;font=arial&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;width=450&amp;height=30\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width: 450px; height: 30px;\"><\/iframe><\/div><div id=\"attachment_772\" style=\"width: 601px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Turkey-Chili.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-772\" class=\"size-full wp-image-772  \" title=\"Turkey Chili\" src=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Turkey-Chili.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"591\" height=\"149\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Turkey-Chili.jpg 657w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Turkey-Chili-100x25.jpg 100w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Turkey-Chili-300x75.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 591px) 100vw, 591px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-772\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kids + Turkey = Good.   Kids + Wild Turkey = Bad.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This week\u2019s soup, which isn\u2019t a soup at all, came about because I felt like pandering to my kids.\u00a0 Or, if you have a less sardonic outlook, I made turkey chili because I knew my kids would like it and I felt like treating them.<\/p>\n<p>The answer lies more in the notion of parental mood swings than it does with the kids.<\/p>\n<p>You try to get your children to eat a range of foods. \u00a0And, thankfully, they go along with it most of the time.\u00a0 But there\u2019s always some grousing, a lot of lollygagging, and even the occasional \u201cThis is disgusting!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It wears you down.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes you just want a freebie.\u00a0 A meal that they\u2019ll eat with enthusiasm or, at the very least, without complaint.<\/p>\n<p>This is that meal.\u00a0 No, not the without complaint one, the meal they\u2019ll eat with gusto.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also great because it doesn\u2019t feel like you\u2019re slumming.\u00a0 It\u2019s not frozen pizza.\u00a0 It\u2019s not \u201cMcNuggets.\u201d\u00a0 (Yes, I\u2019ve gone there.\u00a0 There\u2019s no shame in it, so long as you don\u2019t do it all the time.)\u00a0 This meal is good for them and they\u2019ll eat it, even if they\u2019re food \u201chaters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My eldest claims to hate turkey, and fish, green beans, beef, cooked mushrooms, pork, etcetera, etcetera.\u00a0 She\u2019s a kid.\u00a0 It comes with the territory.\u00a0 My job is to get her to eat all these things without really telling her about it.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m getting pretty good at it.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve gotten her to eat green beans by stir frying them.\u00a0 She\u2019s eaten beef made into <em>carne asada<\/em>. (Who doesn\u2019t like a lime marinade?) \u00a0She\u2019s also enjoyed pot stickers that have shrimp in them.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s like most kids, if you put a mild disguise on the food, she\u2019ll fall for it almost every time.\u00a0 Oftentimes, the food she likes best is the one wearing the false moustache.<\/p>\n<p>This week\u2019s imposter: Turkey.<\/p>\n<p>Both my girls like chili, and regularly order it when we eat out.\u00a0 They also love the vegetarian chili I wrote about back in May.\u00a0 But they haven\u2019t had real chili. Because they haven\u2019t ever had the spice that makes chili great (and hot).<\/p>\n<p>That would be cumin.<\/p>\n<p>This recipe offers a nice way to get acquainted with the spice.\u00a0 It also features a simple process that really heightens the cumin\u2019s flavor.<\/p>\n<p>The cooking begins with whole cumin seeds in a dry frying pan.\u00a0 Next the pan goes on the stove over medium where it gets an occasional shake so the seeds don\u2019t burn.\u00a0 After a few minutes the seeds end up on a cutting board.\u00a0 Once they\u2019re cool, they need to be ground up.\u00a0 To do this, there are several options.\u00a0 You can crush them with a mortar and pestle (mine\u2019s broken).\u00a0 You can put them in a coffee grinder you will never ever again use for coffee (mine\u2019s still packed away in a box somewhere).\u00a0 Or you can just crush them with the side of a chef\u2019s knife and chop them into a powder (that\u2019s what I did).<\/p>\n<p>After that it\u2019s pretty much chili as usual, but what a difference.<\/p>\n<p>I only used a teaspoon of cumin in this recipe because I wasn\u2019t sure my daughters would go for the heat.\u00a0 If you want to make your version hotter, by all means, go for it.\u00a0 Bump up the quantity of chili powder too, if you like.\u00a0 And, if you\u2019re really up for a food adventure, try adding Indian ghost chilies.<\/p>\n<p><em>Note:\u00a0\u00a0 I had some of them in a salsa over Columbus day and my mouth was on fire for a good thirty minutes, without a beer or glass of milk in sight.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You won\u2019t find that kind of heat in this chili, however.\u00a0 It\u2019s, you know, for kids.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Turkey Chili<br \/>\n<\/strong>(serves 4-6)<br \/>\n1 t cumin seeds, roasted and ground (more if you want it hotter)<br \/>\n1 T oil<br \/>\n2 cups onion, chopped<br \/>\n4 cloves garlic, minced<br \/>\n2 lbs, turkey, chopped into small cubes or ground<br \/>\n1 t oregano<br \/>\n1 T chili powder<br \/>\n1 cup stock<br \/>\n1 14 \u00bd oz can, diced tomatoes<br \/>\nSalt &amp; pepper, to taste<br \/>\n2 T instant polenta<br \/>\nGarnishes (optional):<br \/>\nSour cream<br \/>\nCheddar\/Jack cheese, shredded<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Put cumin seeds into a dry frying pan and cook over      medium heat (shaking the pan regularly) until they get a little color,      then take the pan off the heat and set it aside to cool.<\/li>\n<li>Using a mortar and pestle, a mallet or even the bottom      of a pot, gently crush the cumin seeds into a powder and set aside.<\/li>\n<li>Heat the oil in a large pot (6-8 quarts) add the onions      and garlic and sweat them over low heat until they become transparent (5-7      minutes).<\/li>\n<li>Add the turkey, oregano, ground cumin seeds and chili      powder and continue to simmer over low heat until turkey is no longer pink      (5-7 minutes).<\/li>\n<li>Add stock, tomatoes, seasonings and polenta.\u00a0 Bring the chili to a boil and reduce it      to a simmer for at least an hour, stirring regularly.<\/li>\n<li>Garnish with any combination of onions, sour cream and      shredded cheese and serve warm over polenta or rice.\u00a0 Fresh baked cornbread is an excellent accompaniment      but so is good crusty bread and butter.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>Image Credit: In the spirit of kid-friendliness, it\u2019s a turkey chili picture equation.\u00a0 Do the math. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>This chili is your classic bowl of red, although, its lack of beef might mean it\u2019s really a bowl of white.\u00a0 It\u2019s also interesting because it doesn\u2019t have any beans.\u00a0 Let me know how you like <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">your<\/span> chili, with beans or without?\u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019ll be reading <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">and<\/span> responding.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week\u2019s soup, which isn\u2019t a soup at all, came about because I felt like pandering to my kids.\u00a0 Or, if you have a less sardonic outlook, I made turkey chili because I knew my kids would like it and I felt like treating them. The answer lies more in the notion of parental mood [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,126,64,116,8,70,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dairy","category-no-dairy-products","category-herbs","category-polenta","category-poultry","category-spices","category-tomatoes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2202,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions\/2202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}