Sometimes, normally after the weekend, I feel the urge to eat something healthy for dinner, ideally that contains lots of vegetables and pulses. This isn’t because I am a health freak that religiously watches what she eats; quite the opposite, it’s normally the result of an overly indulgent weekend.
With some dishes, for me it’s all about what you eat with it. This chilli is one of those dishes. To be honest, it isn’t really that special on its own, but with the addition of some soured cream, some grated cheddar, a handful of chopped coriander, and maybe even a few sliced jalapenos, it gets quite interesting. Serve it up alongside some homemade, skin-on chunky oven chips and before you know it you’ve got yourself a satisfying feast that also provides your 5 a day in one go.
This is a totally adaptable recipe: throw in some sweetcorn, leave out the chick peas, or even use as a filling for some tortilla wraps before covering in cheese and baking. I’m usually cooking for a toddler too hence I haven’t gone mad with spicy ingredients in this instance, but if no kids were eating then I would increase the heat by adding a few shakes of cayenne pepper and some good chilli powder too – adjust according to your own taste. This is already quite spicy (Arthur doesn’t seem to mind!) so if serving to kids who don’t like any heat whatsoever either leave out or maybe halve the amount of smoked paprika.
Serves: 6
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Ingredients:
1 onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 sticks of celery, diced
3 carrots, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
3 cans of chopped tomatoes
1 can of mixed beans
1 can of kidney beans
1 can of chick peas
2 teaspoons of smoked paprika
2 tablespoons of tomato puree
4 tablespoons of mushroom ketchup (or replace with worcestershire sauce)
Decent pinch of sugar
Salt and pepper
For the chips:
600g of King Edward potatoes, sliced into fairly thin wedges
Olive oil
To serve:
Grated cheddar cheese
Sour cream
Large bunch of coriander, roughly chopped
Instructions:
- Soften your onion and garlic over a low heat in a glug of oil.
- Add your carrots and celery and soften these too, being careful not to brown your onion or burn your garlic. When they are softened but not coloured, after about 20 minutes, add your pepper and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add your paprika and tomato puree and stir around for a few minutes so it can cook out a little. Then add your drained and rinsed beans, your tinned tomatoes, your mushroom ketchup. Season and add a pinch of sugar.
- Let it simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring so it doesn’t catch. You want to be able to distinguish what vegetable is what but the tomatoes need to have reduced nicely.
- I slice up and toss my potatoes in oil whilst the chilli is simmering. These only need about 45 minutes on about 180C.
