At our house I’m cooking for two, and sometimes it’s impossible to make a dish that doesn’t leave tons of leftovers. I freeze them, I box them for lunch, and on occasion I hack them by turning last night’s dinner into today’s brand new meal!
I think everyone, regardless whether they’re feeding just themselves, or four people, or fourteen, ends up with leftover spaghetti sauce. We manage to get the noodles right, but somewhere during the process the sauce triples itself. After one such occasion it dawned on me that all the sauce might work well as a chili base. I’m happy to say that it did, and even better it works with pretty much all types of spaghetti sauce.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Leftover spaghetti sauce
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, diced
1 can chili beans in sauce
1 can black beans, strained
1 can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp brown sugar, packed
1 tbsp chili powder
½ tbsp cumin
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp ground mustard
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp ground pepper
Let’s hear it for spices! They are the key to this hack.
Here’s how you hack:
In a large pot soften bell pepper and jalapeno in olive oil over medium heat.
Add chili beans with the sauce from the can and the strained black beans.
Mix the spices in a small bowl (brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, red pepper flakes, ground mustard, ground pepper, salt).
Pour them in the pot, stir, and let them cook with the beans and veggies for 5 minutes over medium heat.
Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaf and water.
Throw in the leftover spaghetti sauce!
Stir it up nicely and cover!
Reduce the heat to low-medium and cook for one hour stirring occasionally.
Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream and corn chips!
As I mentioned earlier any type of spaghetti sauce works. I used a ground turkey based sauce, but could have gone with chicken spaghetti or vegetarian and the chili would still be delicious.
What do YOU like to do with leftovers? Please let me know in the comments!
The post Food Hack Friday – What to Do with Leftover Spaghetti Sauce? Chili! appeared first on WineDineDIY.