PEANUTS - instead of kidney beans - in chili...??

[bort]

Do it.

Tell us how it went.

What else is going on now anyway?!

[T. J. Ricer]

That actually sounds delicious and, now that I’ve heard it, I can’t believe it’s not already a thing... knowing the consistency of boiled peanuts, it should work fine.

Yeah, let us know how it goes.

[Three Valves]

Insists on beans in the chili??

I’m not sure I could deal with that...

[MN_TimTuba]

I'd say it'll be a success. My wife - a Wisconsin girl - taught me early on that when one serves chili one also serves peanut butter sandwiches, and the true connoisseur dunks the PB sandwich in the chili. It works.
Bon appetit.

[Donn]

Unroasted peanuts taste significantly different from roasted, and thus from peanut butter. Whatever the merits of various combinations with peanut butter, this will be a different deal and probably for the best that it is. It appears to me that when making soup, people commonly blend them, which might be worth a try with chili. Either all of them, or blend half and leave the rest intact. We don't do this much up here (though farmers in some parts of the state can grow peanuts), so I don't remember very clearly, but it seems to me that they don't have the soft melting texture of well cooked beans, that gives a bean soup its satisfying substance.

[humBell]

Do it already!

Has my blessing for what it is worth.

Always one for trying new things, so long as i don't mind regretting or failing.

On a side note, as a kid i learned a songabout goober peas, and always thought they had something to do with peanuts, but never got the specifics. Any one here wise, and care to enlighten me?

[Donn]

Any one here wise

The dictionary on my computer, one reliable though not infallible source of wisdom, indicates that the origin is Kikongo nguba, "peanut."

Pinto beans are a classic and practically unbeatable ingredient for chili.

[MartyNeilan]

Try black beans or even garbanzo beans instead of kidney.

[Donn]

Similar carbohydrates there, or garbanzos might be even a bit higher. For a bean with less carbohydrates: soy bean. Doesn't taste so good though, never heard of anyone who would choose to make soybean soup. Even kidney beans would be a good deal better than soybeans.

[alfredr]

In my third world days, not having kidney beans, I have made chili (your chili may vary) with different beans at different times: black beans, pinto beans and white beans, possibly some small red beans, maybe others. It all worked for me, but I'm not known for my taste; I'll eat most anything even if it has been sitting around long enough that no one else will. And mayonnaise doesn't need to be refrigerated. I have also made chili with "Protemas", a meat substitute, probably made from soybeans. My wife doesn't like me to play around when making chili, so it's kidney beans and ground beef now.

[MaryAnn]

Well I was going to mention boiled peanuts but I see I am totally belated.

[Matt G]

Also late to this thread, but I’ve seen recipes with peanut butter and some form of meat. Thai food likes to use chopped peanuts as well. This all sounds reasonable.

[Teubonium]

I don't like the taste of kidney beans. It's always been pinto beans in the chili for me.

[Donn]

Pintos are a great bean, but lots of beans will be an improvement on kidney beans, unless it's for some kind of bean salad where their unusually firm texture matters more than the flavor. In addition to the ones alfredr mentions above, pink beans are a very classic choice. One of the farmers market sources here has cranberry beans, which are an excellent variation on pintos. For something out of the ordinary, if the big speckled "Christmas" limas are available at reasonable price, that might be an interesting option - much firmer than regular limas in soup, with a fairly strong flavor that leans more towards red or pinto beans, so it's another bean that I think belongs in a fairly normal conception of chili. Black beans, navy beans, regular limas, garbanzos are a little farther out there where you're talking about a different sort of soup, so you could expect to be trying different seasoning etc.

[Three Valves]

No damn beans - 0g/cup
No damn peanuts - 0g/cup

[Donn]

As much spice as most people add to chili, the primary difference in various beans (to me) is how well the skin survived after all of that cooking (ie. texture).

The only interest in peanuts - to me - is the fact that the carbohydrate count is lower than with either kidney or pinto beans.

kidney beans - 110g/cup
pinto beans - 121g/cup
peanuts - 24g/cup

Styrofoam chunks? I bet they totally hold up, and what else are you going to do with them?

[cjk]

Why not put string beans in your chili? When cutting out carbs, I substituted frozen french cut green beans for pasta. It worked way better than you'd think.

Mrs. cjk says she would substitute lots of bell peppers for the beans.

[Donn]

I've had zucchini "pasta" noodles. Not very satisfying, but ... I guess that's the point.

[greenbean]

Did you try it?

My mother-in-law is Chinese. She adds peanuts to lots of dishes and they always improve them. I look at peanuts differently now.

[Yane]

Sounds good to me, but where I come from boiled peanuts are a thing.