Black Bean & Chocolate Chili

we met last night for our october book club meeting. we read TWILIGHT & decided to go with a fallish-halloweenish-vampireish food theme... I got this out of sarah a's moosewood restaurant celebrates cookbook & served it with fritos scoops.

2 TB vegetable oil (I used olive)
1.5 C chopped onion
4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
1 small fresh chile, minced (I just used 1tsp cholula sauce)
1 TB ground cumin
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 C chopped bell pepper (I used one large green pepper)
3 C cooked black beans (2 - 15.5oz cans, rinsed/drained)
2 C undrained crushed canned tomatoes (14.5 oz can)
1 TB lemon juice
1 TB soy sauce
1.5 oz semi-sweet chocolate, broken into small pieces (I used about 1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips that I ground up in my food processor so it would melt faster)

in a saucepan, warm oil on med heat. add onion & garlic; sauté until onions become translucent, about 10min. add celery & chile (or cholula); cover & cook about 5 min.

reduce heat & stir in spices (cumin-salt) & bell peppers. cover & cook 5 min, until bell pepper begins to soften. stir occasionally to keep the spices from burning. if needed, add a little juice from the canned tomatoes.

add beans, tomatoes, lemon juice & soy sauce. bring to a simmer, cover, and cook 5-10min. stir in the chocolate. when it has melted, adjust salt/pepper/lemon juice to taste.

garnish with chopped scallions (green onions).