Recipe for chilli (with variations)

We had some friends round for dinner last night, and one asked for the recipe for the chilli I'd cooked. I figured that if I was going to type it up I might as well do it on the blog and let everyone use it. So here it is, also with variations to make it vegetarian or to comply with Slimming World.

Ingredients (makes ~10 portions)

• 4 medium/large onions, chopped
• 2 red peppers, chopped
• 2 tins kidney beans
• 3 tins tomatoes, chopped
• 2 tins other beans (whatever you prefer)
• 900g/2lb mince beef (or quorn mince for veggie)
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 4 teaspoons of ground cumin
• 4 teaspoons of ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons of paprika
• 2-4 teaspoons chilli powder (2 = slightly spicy, 4=hot)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 tube of tomato purée
• veg oil for frying

Directions

1. Fry the onion and peppers in a wok or large frying pan until they start to brown, adding half of the cumin, coriander, paprika and chilli powder half way through.
2. At the same time, in a large heavy pan, cook the mince beef with the other half of the cumin, coriander, paprika and chilli powder.
3. Once the mince has all turned from red to brown, add the chopped garlic.
4. Once the vegetables are browning, add about 1/4 tube of tomato purée and keep frying for a few minutes.
5. Add the vegetables to the large pan with the mince in it, and keep cooking for a few minutes.
6. Add the tins of tomatoes and beans, keeping the heat medium-high and stirring.
7. Add the salt, sugar and the other 1/4 tube of tomato purée.
8. Once it's all heated up and is bubbling, reduce the heat to minimum, cover and leave to simmer for at least 30 mins, ideally an hour. Leaving it longer still won't hurt it at all!
9. Serve with rice.

Veggie option: either replace the mince beef with quorn mince, or miss out the mince altogether and just use more tins of beans.

Slimming World version: I'm no expert at this, but I am reliably informed that the recipe will be syn-free on the 'Extra Easy' plan if you:

• use extra-lean mince or quorn mince
• replace the tomato purée with pasata
• miss out the sugar
• use fry-light instead of veg oil for frying

Maybe I'll put my onion bhaji recipe up soon, though I should really charge for that! :-)

Mike