Prep Time: 30 minutes or less | Cook Time: 30 minutes or less | Serves: 4
Lunch » Chili » American

 Ingredients:

- 1/2 onion, chopped.
- garlic (to taste; I used 3-4 average sized cloves here)
- ginger root (1/2 inch)
- chili peppers.
- 1/2 red bell pepper (capsicum), chopped.
- 1 15 oz. can crushed tomato.
- 2 15 oz. cans black beans (or the big double-sized can)
- olive or other vegetable oil (not shown)
- cumin seed
- chili powder
- cumin (powdered)
- paprika
- oregano
- salt
- beer (optional)
- juice of 1/4 lemon
- beer (optional)

optional: cilantro to garnish, tortillas or rice on the side 
  
 
 Step 1:

One of my guidelines for successful cooking is to do as much of the prep work as possible ahead of time. You'll be more relaxed, have more fun, and the end result will be that much tastier and more enjoyable. Here you can see I've employed the Henckels "S" series to chop the onion, garlic, chile peppers, and bell pepper. I left the lemon alone because we won't need that for a little while.