ST. PAUL, Minn., Dec. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- An Indiana woman's Asian twist on pizza has earned top honors in the Taste of CHS Recipe Contest sponsored by CHS Inc. (NASDAQ: CHSCP), the nation's leading farmer-owned cooperative, and its joint venture company Ventura Foods, LLC.

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121205/CG24990)

Hidemi Walsh of Plainfield, Ind., created Asian-flavored naan pizza featuring a zesty combination of Dean's Ranch Dip ®, a Ventura Foods product, with soy sauce, garlic, spinach, Parmesan cheese and other ingredients spread on Indian naan bread and toasted. As the contest's grand prize winner, Walsh received an all-expenses paid trip to the 2012 CHS Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, Minn., where she will join two Ventura Foods professional chefs in demonstrating her recipe for an estimated 2,400 attendees.

CHS owns 50 percent of Ventura Foods, a California-based company which is a leading national manufacturer and marketer of branded and custom-made shortenings, oils, dressings, sauces, mayonnaise, margarines, culinary bases and pan coatings for the foodservice and retail industries.

Mary Marlowe Leverette of Columbia, S.C., earned second-place honors – a $500 cooking store gift certificate and a $250 contribution in her honor to a local food bank  – for her Crab Cakes with Asian Yogurt Sauce creation which featured LouAna® Safflower Oil and Marie's® Sesame Ginger Salad Dressing. Both are Ventura Foods products.

Third-place honors went to Linda Bonwill of Englewood, Fla., for her Baked Cheddar Onion Potatoes which included Dean's Cheddar Cheese Dip, Dean's French Onion Dip, Gold-n-Soft® Margarine and L.B. Jamison's® Ham Soup Base products from Ventura Foods. Bonwill receives a $250 cooking store gift certificate and a $100 food bank contribution in her honor.

The three top winners, along with 17 recipes earning honorable mention, have been compiled in a booklet available to download at www.chsinc.com/recipes  

CHS Inc. (www.chsinc.com) is a leading global agribusiness owned by farmers, ranchers and cooperatives across the United States. Diversified in energy, grains and foods, CHS is committed to helping its customers, farmer-owners and other stakeholders grow their businesses through its domestic and global operations. CHS, a Fortune 100 company, supplies energy, crop nutrients, grain marketing services, livestock feed, food and food ingredients, along with business solutions including insurance, financial and risk management services. The company operates petroleum refineries/pipelines and manufactures, markets and distributes Cenex^® brand refined fuels, lubricants, propane and renewable energy products.

This document contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the potential results discussed in the forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligations to publicly revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances. For a discussion of additional factors that may materially affect management's estimates and predictions, please view the CHS Inc. annual report filed on Form 10-K for the year ended Aug. 31, 2012, which can be found on the Securities and Exchange Commission web site (www.sec.gov) or on the CHS web site www.chsinc.com.

SOURCE CHS Inc.