Hot 3 Bean Casserole

My mission:  Find a great "go to" dish that could go with anything.

I think I've found it with the Hot 3 Bean Casserole from The Vegetarian Bible.  I love this recipe and I do plan to make good use of it!  I can see taking it to pitch-ins or family dinners.  It is totally wheatless and gluten free!  I also think it is an easy and affordable recipe you can make on your stovetop, I do suspect you could throw it all in a crockpot set on low if you don't want to hover over a skillet.  I have yet to try it that way though.

The recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of Chili powder, but I ended up using 1/2 the amount of Red Chili Pepper Powder.  It was a trek on the zippy side, but not enough to go to RED ALERT.   Although most of the time in the kitchen, I hit RED ALERT.  I think I should just go out and get some regular Chili Powder but what fun would that be?

Hot 3 Bean Casserole

12 servings

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 cup coarsely chopped onion

1 cup chopped celery

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can (about 15 oz.) chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 can (about 15 oz.) kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup coarsely chopped tomato

1 can ( about 8 oz.) tomato sauce

1 cup water

1 to 2 jalapeno peppers, minced ( I didn't use this ingredient )

1 Tbsp chili powder

2 teaspoons sugar 

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 1/2 cups (10 oz.) frozen cut green beans

Instructions:

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat.  Add onion, celery and garlic; cook and stir 5 minutes or until tender.

Add chickpeas, kidney beans, tomato, tomato sauce, water, jalapeno pepper, chili powder, sugar, cumin, salt, oregano and black pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low; simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes.  Add green beans; simmer 10 minutes or until tender

I double the recipe because I wanted lots of leftovers.  Following are some picture in progress, for a moment I was afraid my huge skillet wasn't big enough!

 Ok. I have to confess something.  I adden the green beans before I was suppose to and they lost a bit of color.  So you want to make sure you add them when the recipe says so you will have a nice presentation.