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White Bean Chili with Turkey Meatballs

© Richard Mann

Here's an unusual chili made with low-fat turkey formed into meatballs. It's another "white chili," made with white beans and white meat, although the tomatoes will make the chili decidedly red. It also uses zucchini as a vegetable filler, giving it a pleasant texture, taste, and weight.

I'm betting you haven't ever eaten anything like this. I've never had turkey meatballs, for instance, let alone in a white chili made with zucchini! Give this a try; Pillsbury thinks it's one of their all-time best recipes. (See below.)

White Bean Chili with Turkey Meatballs

Meatballs

• 1 pound lean ground turkey
• 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup onion, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1 egg

Chili

• 1 medium zucchini, cut into quarter-inch thick strips about an inch long each
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, cut up, undrained,
• 1 15-ounce can great northern beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 14-ounce can chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 3 teaspoons chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

In a medium-sized bowl, combine all the ingredients for the meatballs, and mix them well. Make about two dozen 1- to 1 1/2-inch meatballs.

Spray a large skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium heat until hot. Add the meatballs and cook them 8 to 10 minutes until they are browned on all sides and no longer pink in the center.

Combine all the chili ingredients in a large pan and mix well. Heat until boiling, then reduce the heat and add the meatballs. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until everything is thoroughly heated.

Makes 5 servings of a cup and a half each.

This recipe is based on a recipe found in Pillsbury the Best of Classic Cookbooks : 275 Recipes from 20 Years of Pillsbury's Best-Selling Cooking Magazine, which is available for purchase at Amazon. This great cookbook picks 275 of the best recipes from 20 years of cookbooks and cooking magazines. It's not just beans and bean-related stuff, either; it covers the whole gamut of cooking. It's highly recommended!

© Copyright Richard Mann, 2001. All rights reserved. Please contact author for permission to use this article (includes reprints in mailing lists, newsletters, and/or any other purpose/format) and give details of its proposed use. Any and all use of this article in any way without permission is prohibited under copyright law.Please feel free to link to this page.