Red bean and beef chili

The small red bean takes a lot longer than many other types of beans to soften. It takes me 3 days of soaking, or 1 day of soaking plus 4 hours of cooking to get it the texture that is soft for chili. Based on my previous experiment with black beans, I adjusted the recipe to match the flavor of red bean. 


Recipe: Red bean and beef chili (for 2-3)


Ingredients:
- 3 full cups of cooked red beans with liquid from cooking
- 8 oz ground beef, 80% lean
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 3/4 medium onion, thinly sliced
- 1 medium carrot, chopped to 3/4" cubes
- 3 white mushrooms, chopped to 3/4" cubes
- 1/4 cup red wine
- 2 teaspoons (tp) dried basil flakes
- 2 tp mix of dried rosemary, savory, marjoram
- 1/4 tp dried thyme 
- 1/4 tp cumin powder
- 1 chipotle chili with 1 tp adobe sauce, from can
- 3/4 cup (~6 oz) unsalted tomato paste


Procedure:
Brown ground beef with garlic and onion in a pot. When the onion softens in the juice of beef, add all the dried herbs and continue to heat until the aroma of the herbs comes out. Then add red wine and let cook until its aroma comes out. Now add red beans with its liquid. Add mushroom, carrot, cumin powder, chipotle and tomato paste. Let cook on medium heat for 5 minutes to boil. Then turn heat down to med-low or low, cover with a lid (with hole), and keep it at a mild boil for 2 hours. Stir every 20 minutes, especially when beans start to melt, to prevent sticking. Ready when the liquid thickens into a watery paste. Turn heat off and let sit for 1 hour or so to let the paste thicken to the right texture. 

My household loves this dish very much!