Turkey Vegetable Chili

This recipe comes from Curtis Stone. He made a guest appearance on one of my favorite shows, the Biggest Loser, and he made this dish. He baked some potatoes, topped them with this chili and some yogurt. Becky and I tried it out; it is DELISH and super healthy. One serving is about 290 calories.

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

For the chili:
1-½ tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, medium diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 small red chili, seeded and small diced (I used serrano chilies because I couldn't find red chilies. Next time I think I might use a jalapeno instead.)
½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 large carrot, peeled and small diced (I didn't peel the carrots, it made no difference)
1 large celery stalk, medium diced (and by medium, he means SUPER tiny small)
1 small yellow bell pepper, seeded and medium diced
12 ounces 1% lean ground turkey
4 medium size ripe tomatoes, medium diced
8 oz cooked white or black beans (I think I will add more beans next time I made this. We used great northern beans, I recommend.)
4 cups baby spinach (I just bought a bunch from the store, it came out to around 3 cups)
Freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup plain fat free Greek style yogurt (we used light sour cream because we didn't have any yogurt, but we decided that the tangyness of the yogurt would be really good)
Micro cilantro to garnish, (can substitute with chopped chives or chopped cilantro) (an even better garnish is Tabasco sauce)

METHOD

• Place a large saute pan over medium high heat, then drizzle with the oil.
• Add the onion, garlic, and red chili and sauté for 2 minutes, or until tender.
• Sprinkle the cumin over the onion mix and stir well, then add the carrot, celery, and bell pepper and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the vegetables begin to get tender.
  

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• In a separate saute pan, brown the turkey in the remaining oil over medium high heat, then transfer to the vegetable mix.

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• Add the tomatoes and the beans and cook for a further 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the tomatoes have broken down and most of the liquid has evaporated.

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• Stir in the spinach and remove from the heat.
• Season the chili to taste with freshly ground black pepper
• Spoon the chili into serving dishes
• Spoon a tablespoon of the yogurt onto each garnish with the micro cilantro and serve.

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