Chili con Carne with the Thermomix® calls for 25 g of dark chocolate with 85% cocoa. Anyone reading that for the first time thinks of dessert. It is actually Mexican cooking tradition: the bitter notes of the chocolate cut through the acidity of the tomatoes, while cinnamon and cloves add depth rather than sweetness. Without these three ingredients the chilli falls flat. With them it becomes the dish guests ask for the recipe of.
We have been cooking this chilli regularly for years. The combination of beef mince, kidney beans and chopped tomatoes is standard. What sets the recipe apart from the rest are three spices that are often missing from British chilli recipes: dark chocolate, cinnamon and cloves. Together with cumin and cayenne pepper they create a flavour profile that only fully develops after 25 minutes of simmering. After ten minutes the chilli tastes solid. After an hour it tastes better than when freshly cooked.
Chili con Carne with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 21 ✓
- 1/2 bunch parsley
- 140 g Emmental cheese
- 3 onion
- 2 garlic clove
- 1 dried chilli
- 40 g olive oil
- 1 red pepper
- 1 yellow pepper
- 500 g beef mince
- 400 g chopped tomatoes (tinned)
- 50 g tomato puree
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 pinches ground cloves
- 240 g kidney beans (tinned) drained weight
- 25 g dark chocolate (85% cocoa)
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 100 g soured cream
Instructions 0 / 7
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1
Chop parsley.
Wash parsley, shake dry, remove thick stalks, place leaves in the mixing bowl, chop for 3 sec / speed 8 and set aside.
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2
Grate Emmental.
Place Emmental in the mixing bowl, chop for 6 sec / speed 6 and set aside.
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3
Chop ingredients.
Peel onions and garlic cloves, halve the onions. Place garlic and chilli in the mixing bowl and chop for 3 sec / speed 8. Add onions to the mixing bowl and chop for 3 sec / speed 5. Push down with the spatula. Add oil to the mixing bowl and sweat for 2 min / 120°C / speed 1.
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4
Chop peppers.
Wash peppers, remove stalks and seeds, quarter, place in the mixing bowl and chop for 5 sec / speed 4. Push down with the spatula.
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5
Cook mince.
Add mince to the mixing bowl and cook for 7 min / 120°C / reverse direction / speed 1.
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6
Cook all ingredients.
Add all remaining ingredients except the soured cream, cheese and parsley to the mixing bowl and cook for 25 min / 100°C / speed 1.
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7
Serve.
Serve topped with soured cream, grated cheese and parsley.
Tip: You can control the heat level of your chilli yourself. This is a fairly mild chilli. For more heat, simply add a second or third dried chilli.
Video
Nutrition per serving
Chocolate, cinnamon, cloves: why Mexican
25 g of dark chocolate with 85% cocoa sounds like a mistake in the ingredients list. It is in fact a Mexican cooking tradition: the bitter notes of the chocolate cut through the acidity of the 400 g of chopped tomatoes. The cinnamon adds warmth without making the dish sweet. The cloves reinforce the depth. Together these three ingredients form the foundation for a chilli that is not just hot but complex. Leave them out and you cook a good chilli. Keep them in and you cook one that tastes better after the second bowl than the first.
Important: the chocolate must not be below 70% cocoa content. Milk chocolate or plain chocolate at 50% will make the chilli sweet rather than bitter. The recipe needs the roasted notes and the bitterness. 85% is the right threshold. Anything below tips it towards dessert.
Reverse direction keeps the mince in pieces
The beef mince is cooked in reverse direction at 120°C. 7 minutes is enough to cook it through. Reverse direction is not an optional detail here: it stops the blades grinding the mince to a paste. In normal direction the meat would form a uniform mass after 7 minutes. In reverse direction the mince moves through the bowl in pieces and keeps its texture. That is the difference between a chilli with bite and a stew with no structure.
After cooking the mince, all the remaining ingredients go in: 400 g chopped tomatoes, 50 g tomato puree, 240 g tinned kidney beans, the chopped onions, peppers, garlic and the spices. 25 minutes at 100°C on speed 1 is enough to bring the flavours together. No decanting, no second pot on the hob. Everything happens in the mixing bowl.
Control heat with chillies, not just cayenne
The recipe is designed as a mild chilli: one dried chilli plus two teaspoons of cayenne pepper gives a heat level that even sensitive eaters can handle. For more heat simply add a second or third chilli. We recommend always adjusting the heat via the whole chilli rather than blindly adding more cayenne. Cayenne pepper quickly becomes harsh rather than aromatic. The dried chilli delivers not only heat but also smoky notes. That is the difference between a hot chilli and a chilli that is both hot and flavourful.
The dried chillies are chopped together with garlic and onions. 3 seconds at speed 8 is sufficient. The onions then follow on their own for 3 seconds at speed 5. This order matters: garlic and chilli need higher speeds to be chopped finely enough. The onions would turn to mush at speed 8. At speed 5 they stay coarsely chopped and keep their texture.
Serve with soured cream and Emmental
The chilli is served with soured cream, grated Emmental and chopped parsley. The soured cream cools the heat, the Emmental adds fat and saltiness, the parsley brings freshness. These three toppings are not optional. They balance the dish. Without soured cream the chilli remains one-dimensionally hot. Without cheese the creamy element is missing. Without parsley the contrast is gone.
Rice cooked in the Thermomix® goes well as a side dish. Anyone who wants to steam it in the Varoma while the chilli simmers in the mixing bowl should make sure the total liquid in the bowl does not exceed the 1.8-litre mark. Leftover chilli can be used the next day for chilli cheese nachos: tortilla chips topped with the warmed chilli and melted cheese in the oven. That is a better second day than plain leftovers.
Compatibility: TM5 ✓ · TM6 ✓ · TM7 ✓ · TM31 ⚠ (The recipe uses 120°C. On the TM31 this temperature can only be reached via the Varoma setting; manually a maximum of 100°C is possible.)
Goes well with: Guacamole.
