Secret Recipe - deliciously warming vegetable chilli - shhhhh...

There's a few meals that occasionally I'll get a real craving for and this is one of them.

I spent years cooking it with minced beef and beef stock and now that I've created this veggie version - it's no less tasty, because the secret is to make it very rich and to ideally eat it 2 or 3 days after you've made it.

It's possibly one of my signature dishes and definitely something not for the faint hearted if you eat it in my house!

Go rummage in the fridge and larder:

1 tbsp olive oil

2 large onions diced

2 peppers diced

6 cloves garlic

2+ fresh chillies (I often use 2 large jalapenos - use more if you like)

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp hot chilli powder (mild if you prefer)

2 tsp dried oregano (or marjoram)

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 veg stock cube

2 tbsp tomato puree

1 tin chopped tomatoes or half a jar of passata

1 tin mixed beans or red kidney beans rinsed (I used Epicure) 

300g bag frozen quorn mince (or extra veggies  such as carrot, courgette, mushrooms etc)

water to top up (approx 250ml)

6 squares dark chocolate (I only use Green & Blacks Organic)

Get cooking:

Gently sautee the onions in the oil over a medium heat until soft then add the chilli and garlic for a couple of minutes, then the peppers and finally all of the spices. Keep stirring and cook out gently.

Add the puree, stock cube (if you are using one) and continue to cook out gently for a couple more minutes - stirring all the time.

Add the tinned tomatoes or passata, the Quorn or extra veg and the water to top up.

Simmer gently for 30 minutes and then add the beans and simmer gently for around another 15 or until most of the liquid has been absorbed (chilli, to my mind, should not be a runny sauce - but thick and unctuous). Finally add the chocolate, stir in, taste and re-season if necessary. And you're done!

Tuck in!

So many ways to eat this - simply with rice, in taco shells, on nachos, on spuds.....

This time though it had to be a huge pile of nacho chips, topped with cheese, melted under the grill, topped with sliced jalapenos and served with sour cream, guacamole and salsa.

Total and utter fiery bliss. Arriva!


p.s. I love these chips - gluten free as well.