Chili without tomatoes (Bosnian Pasulj)

I used to hate chili when I was little and I would come up with every excuse in the book as to why I couldn’t eat it. Every time my mom made it I would tell her that it gives me an itchy throat and every time she made me eat it anyways. I guess it’s true that your taste buds change over time because now I crave it when it gets cold outside.

In Bosnia we don’t use tomatoes in chili and most people use roux to thicken the sauce instead of tomato paste. Personally I think roux makes the chili quite heavy, but I do like my chili thicker. Years ago my mom came up with a great solution to the problem: OATS. It works great! The chili taste earthier but is still light. We also don’t put ground meat in our chili. My mom would throw in any meat she had, but my favorite was always ribs. There is something about ribs and beans cooked together in the pressure cooker that makes the chili taste fantastic.

Recipe:

• 1lb bag of Red  KidneyBeans  and 1lb bag of Black Beans either soaked overnight or quick soaked per the package instructions ( I usually do the quick soak and it works just as well) (traditionally you wouldn’t use black beans, but I really like them)
• 1 rack of Ribs (or however many can fit into your pressure cooker)
• 1 chopped Onion 
• 10 cut up Baby Carrots or 2 big Carrots
• 3 cloves of Garlic
•  2 cups of rolled Oats
• 2 tbls Paprika (I like to do half Smoked Paprika and half Spanish Paprika)
•  Water 
• Salt
• Pepper
• 2 tbls All purpose seasoning
• Olive Oil
• Scallions to put on top of chili (if you love onions this is a must because it gives it a nice onion flavor without overpowering your chili) 
   
  Add olive oil and onions in the pressure cooker. Sauté on medium until the onions are clear and add the garlic. Add the rest of the ingredients. Make sure your water covers the ribs. Put the stove on high until your cooker whistles, then turn it back to medium and cook for another 20 min or so. The time really depends on the size of your pressure cooker, mine is 5qts. Once it’s done remove from heat and let it cool off. Once you are able to open the cooker, taste the chili to see if you need to add any seasoning.  Place in a bowl and sprinkle with scallions. Enjoy!