Recipe: how make your own tomato sauce for chili

My boyfriend and I have been on a natural kick lately (well mainly him... I can not give up potato chips!) We decided to make a typical turkey chili but thought it would be good idea to make our own tomato sauce instead of using cans. There are just so many preservatives and chemicals in them that it doesn't make sense to keep using cans. Granted, we are still using canned beans, but we are taking this one step at a time!

Recipe

5-6 of your favorite dried Mexican chilis
2 cups of water
10 tomatoes (vine ripe sized)
1 garlic clove
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp sugar

Directions

Rehydrate the Mexican Chilis in boiling water for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, finely dice 4 of the tomatoes, and put aside. The remaining 6 should also be roughly chopped to be put in the blender.

Once the chilis are done, add them to the blender with the tomatoes, salt and sugar. Blend. Add water if need be.

The recipe is for two packages of ground turkey, but add more tomatoes if you want more sauce. We prefer our chili chunky so we don't add as much. Add 1 tbs cacao powder to the actual chili for more depth. If you want it to be sweeter, add more sugar.

Grilling: Tandoori Chicken Platter

Recipe

1 pack of naan

1 white onion

1 banana pepper

Chicken

3 chicken breasts, diced evenly

1 entire Fage greek yogurt

3 tbs Shaan Tandoori Chicken Spice

1 tbs garam masala

1/2 tbs cumin

1.5 tbs of tomato paste

1/2 cup cilantro

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Mix all ingredients and marinade for 1-2 hrs in the fridge. Once marinated, put chicken on the grill for 4-5 minutes (each side).

Meanwhile, slice the white onion thick and grill in a basket until translucent and charred

Add the naan on the grill till warm and until you can see the char lines.

Slice the banana peppers on top of the chicken and serve with salad and sauce.

Salad

1/2 english cucumber, diced

1 tbs of red onions, chopped

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Toss all ingredients and refrigerate

Sauce

1 tbs Coleman's Mint Sauce 

2 tbs Fage greek yogurt

Mix ingredients and refrigerate

Gnocchi with Shrimp and Asparagus

Recipe


Gnocchi - 

2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 large russet potatoes

Boil or microwave the potatoes until soft and mushy. Mix in with the 2 cups of flour and kneed into a nice ball. Take a small piece from the large dough and roll it into a skinny snake (you can determine how skinny you want it based on how fat your want your gnocchi to be) Cut with a knife and put in boiling water until the gnocchi comes floating to the top (about 2-3 minutes). Make sure you don't overcrowd the gnocchi, so complete in batches.

Shrimp - 

10-15 Medium deveined shrimp
1 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional ... I just like spicy food)

Sauté the shrimp in a separate pan and just lightly brown each side. Put aside on another plate

Asparagus

Chop the asparagus into large long chunks and blanche in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Rid of the excess water and set aside.

Shallots -

1 shallot
1/2 tbs of coconut oil

Meanwhile with some coconut oil, sauté 1 large shallot until gold brown. Move the shallots to a separate plate and use the same pan to make the sauce.

Sauce -

1 cup of chicken broth (sodium)
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 tbs of butter
2 tbs of all purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped italian parsley
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp ground pepper

Deglaze the shallots pan with broth, wine and butter. Let the ingredients simmer and then slowly add the all purpose flour to thicken the sauce. I would add a little flour at a time until you get the consistency you want. The 2 tbs requirement is a rough estimate I begin with and add more if I need to.

Add some of the italian parsley, red pepper flakes and ground pepper to the sauce. I didn't add any salt because the broth had plenty but feel free to add to your liking!

Once the sauce has thickened, add the shrimp, shallots and asparagus to the sauce. Let simmer for about 5 minutes and toss in the gnocchi. Add the last bit of fresh parsley, some fresh grounded pepper (optional) and toss. Serve immediately.