This week’s recipe for my paid subscribers of my newsletter, The Flavor Files, is comfort food in the form of this easy chilli with white beans and chicken. There are days when I need comfort to come quickly. Not the kind that simmers all afternoon, but that that arrives with a bit of ease, a little heat, and the steadying warmth of something deeply familiar. This soup is exactly that. Maybe it’s no surprise that it draws on the parallels between Indian and Mexican cooking, two cuisines that speak the same flavor language. Both celebrate fragrant spices and the slow layering of flavor. Both lean on bright acids like lime or tamarind to cut through richness and love to play with the fire of chiles. And yes, both are proudly rooted in the joy and ingenuity of street food. These similarities aren’t coincidental. Colonization shaped the culinary landscapes of both countries; the Spanish in Mexico, the British, Dutch, Portuguese, and French in India, leaving behind a complicated legacy of migration, trade, and exchange. Ingredients like chiles, tomatoes, and potatoes crossed oceans and rewrote recipes. But somehow, even across continents, these two cuisines remain in conversation, with each other, and with those of us who cook and crave them.
The familiar flavors in this Mexican-style white bean and chicken chili feel like comfort food to me: the aroma of smoky cumin in the taco seasoning, the warmth of chilies, the fresh herbs, and, of course, the brightness of the lime.
Get the full recipe in my newsletter, The Flavor Files
