No Tomatoes for Me, Please

I have a bit of a thing against tomatoes.  I don't eat them uncooked and I don't like big, chunky, mushy tomatoes in my cooked food either.  Spaghetti sauce is about the only exception and even then I have standards.  Because of my avoidance of tomatoes, chili is not one of my favorite foods.  There are some great recipes out there that make it less tomato-y but, usually, if it has red broth I'm a bit wary.

So imagine how delighted I was when one of my favorite bloggers posted the recipe for what she calls "Southwest White Bean & Chicken Chili."  As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to try it.  Not simply because I idolize Kate at Centsational Girl as the goddess of all things blog and diy related, although that was a huge factor, but because it has no tomatoes!  None, nada, zilch.

Pop on over to her blog to check out the recipe.

I did make a couple of changes.  Changing recipes, especially when I'm making something for the first time, is always risky for me but I can't seem to help myself.  Probably because I was raised by the queen of ingredient substitution, which is not a bad thing at all.  It means I'm flexible and very resourceful, right?

So to cut on costs, I used a green pepper instead of a yellow one.  Sweet onions were on sale so no yellow for me.  I accidentally let my green onions get a bit wilted so there aren't as many in there as the recipe calls for.  I love love love black beans so I added half a can of those to make up for the fact that I'd already eaten some of my two chicken breasts.  I also skipped both the garnishes.

Despite all the changes, I thought the results were absolutely delicious!  Kate was totally right that it's not too heavy.  It didn't even feel like it had to be served on a cold day!

So here are my veggies in my beautiful new (thrift-store) soup pot:

I've never washed beans before so I kind of winged it by putting them in a colander and rinsing.  Is it normal for them to get foamy like that?

And the final product!  Next time, I'd like to try the pop of yellow or red pepper but the green was quite good.

It's a good thing I like this recipe because now I have a ton of leftovers.  I've been halving all the new recipes I'm trying but when I was shopping for this one, I accidently bought the full 32 oz of chicken broth.  So there will definitely be a lot in my freezer.  I'm no sure how many servings it is, but after I ate two medium bowls, I still have enough to fill 2-3 of my 4-cup tupperwares.

So now I've officially made soup and it was delicious.  Thanks, Kate!