The Ingredients:
- Ground Beef (I used premade 75/25 patties and drained the excess fat)
- Can of crushed tomatoes
- 2 fresh tomatoes (I think I used Roma)
- Roughly 1 Tablespoon liquid smoke
- 1/2 cup brewed coffee (I used my leftover, team #nowaste)
- 2 beef bouillon cubes (i added about 16 fl oz water in the vessel)
- Half of a can of tomato paste
- 1/4 cup stone ground mustard
- 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 cup steak sauce
- 1/4 cup hot sauce (i used Old Bay hot sauce this time)
- 1/4 cup “no sugar added” bbq sauce
- 2 bell peppers (chopped)
- 5 huge cloves fresh garlic (diced or sliced, I wanted bigger chunks)
- 2 onions (i used old yellers, again, like above, chopped)
- fresh jalapeno chopped
- some more hot sauce (i like the heat)
- Salt
- Chili powder
- paprika
- garlic powder
- onion powder
- cumin
- black pepper (I like freshly ground!)
- did I say hot sauce? anyway, add more!
- 1 packet of taco seasoning mix (I really like the huge cumin and lime flavor of these)
- Red pepper flakes (I legally can’t admit how much I used…)
- Hot and spicy seasoning (I used this stuff called Slap Ya Mama that is moderately salty)
- 2 packets of splenda
The Surprise…
- 1/2 cup black beans (12 net carbs)
The Method:
- Seasoned beef patties with the Slap Ya Mama seasoning and sauteed until I got a char and separated into chunks – drained excess fat off
- Chopped onions, garlic, bell peppers, and jalapeno and dumped into slow cooker – then I set it on high
- Added beef chunks obviously then added all my canned ingredients as well as the water with the bouillon cubes and the coffee.
- Added all my dry seasoning, I didn’t really measure because I tasted the broth before it cooked to make sure it wasn’t too salty or worse, under-seasoned! I’m a proponent of tasting as I go so that I can layer those flavors baby, plus no one has ever complained of too much garlic powder…
- Cooked on high and stirred every 30 minutes or so until about 4ish hours went by. I started tasting my veggies around hour 3 to make sure they were softening up correctly.
- Added them BEANS and the splenda (I know I’m such a bad keto boy I need to be punished) and cooked for another hour or so on high and until everything tasted super yummy and the veggies had a good texture.
So about 5 hour cook time and 30 minute prep, for a meal that provides me leftover chili dogs, burritos, and omelets, I’d say that’s pretty nice!
My whole idea was texture and acidity, I wanted a base that was SUPER tomatoey and I put the char on the beef and then kept my veggies bigger plus the bean addition helped me achieve my texture goal.
Okay bye!
-nathan