Lunchtime Legend

Vegtember: Three Bean Chilli

At lunch today I was perusing t’interweb and I read this article about Chillies in the Grauniad. Having read that there was only ever going to be one thing I could have for dinner tonight and that is Vegetarian Chilli.

Now as one of the challenges I am hoping to do at some point this month, particularly at the urging of this thread on h2g2, I did consider making this with Soya Mince. However I decided in the end to save that for another day (might make a Malaysian Satay curry with Quorn chicken later in the week) and do this as a full vegetarian dish with no meat substitute.

The good thing about a base chilli like this is that you can use it as a base for cooking other things. I will probably have some enchiladas, and maybe even some nachos out of what I have left over.

The other good thing is this is really, really, cheap. I used cans of beans (because I had them in the cupboard) but if you use dried and soak them yourself this meal costs next to nothing to make a huge batch. Got to be a good thing.

Anyhow three bean Chilli coming up:-

Ingredients

1 big onion

3 tins of beans (I used, pinto, black eyed and cannellini though you can also use whatever floats your boat)

I tin of tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic

1 red chilli

2tsp cumin

1tsp ground coriander

1tsp smoked paprika

1tsp cayenne, depending how hot you want it

1 square very dark chocolate

1 tsp marmite

Lots of black pepper.

Freshly chopped coriander to serve.

about 400ml boiling water

Fry the onions on a low heat until soft, add the garlic and fry for a few minutes. Chuck in the chilli and spices and cook for a minute or so, then add the beans, tomatoes and enough water to cover everything. When the mixture is hot add the chocolate and the marmite to the mix.

Bring to the boil and cook for at least an hour on a low heat. Cook it until the beans go mushy and there’s no water. You can serve this all sorts of ways, I did it with rice, soured cream and cheese. Bear in mind this dish is super healthy but the level of healthiness is inversely proportional to how much soured cream and cheese you put in it!

This is a good base recipe. Add any other peppers, courgettes etc. you have lying around to bulk it out. It’s also really good if you top it off with mash and bake it like a veggie cottage pie.

14. September 2010 by Ralph Ferrett
Categories: Activism, Food | Tags: Bean, Chilli, Climate Change, Mexican Food, Vegetarian, Vegtember | 1 comment