Recipe! Chilli con veggie

Title: Chilli con veggie

Prep Time: 30 mins (but you will require 8 hours in the slow cooker or an 1.5 hours in the pot)
Serves: 8

A slightly different spin on the con carne version. This recipe is still packed full protein, but with beans and is so easy to meal prep!

Ingredients & Directions:

1L of homemade veggie stock
3 cup of dry beans (whatever is fine, make sure you soak your dry beans overnight)
2 onions (finely chopped or one leek)
6 cloves of garlic (chopped)
2 tbsp ground cumin
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp ground cumin
2 tbsp ground coriander
3 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 nob of freshly grated ginger
2 tbsp tomato purée*
1 tsp of chilli flakes (I tend to use 3-5 tsp as I like it hot, but you can omit if you don’t like spicy food)
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp cacao powder (optional)
2 x 400 g tins of chopped tomatoes
salt to taste

If you own a slow-cooker:

1. Soak dry beans overnight with water (if you are using chickpeas, make sure you soak it with baking soda. This will make your chickpeas less dry)
2. Drain beans
3. Sauté onions & garlic in a pan with olive oil. Sauté until clear. Add spices. Cook until fragrant. (Trust me, you’ll know what I mean, you can really smell the spices)
4. Add tomato puree
5. add canned tomatoes and stir until combined
6. Pour into a slow cooker & add veggie stock & beans into a slow cooker & leave for 8-10 hours.
7. Add the salt at the end, to taste
8. If you like, add 1 tbsp of cacao powder for added richness. Before you add the powder, get a small bowl & add the cacao in there. Add a cup of chilli sauce into that small bowl & stir until lumps are gone. Then pour that into the rest of the sauce. This will prevent giant lumps of cacao powder floating around in the actual sauce

If you don’t own a slow-cooker:

1. Soak dry beans overnight with water
2. Drained beans
3. Sauté onions (or leek) & garlic in a large pot with olive oil. Sauté until clear. Add spices. Cook until fragrant. (Trust me, you’ll know what I mean, you can really smell the spices)
4. Add tomato puree
5. add canned tomatoes and stir until combined
6. Add veggie stock & beans and simmer for 2 hours or until beans are tender
7. Add the salt at the end, to taste
8. If you like, add 1 tbsp of cacao powder for added richness. Before you add the powder, get a small bowl & add the cacao in there. Add a cup of chilli sauce into that small bowl & stir until lumps are gone. Then pour that into the rest of the sauce. This will prevent giant lumps of cacao powder floating around in the actual sauce

*have leftover tomato puree? Don’t fret! You don’t have to throw it out!

I buy tomato paste in a glass bottle. And for any of the leftovers, freeze into an ice tray. Just under 1 tbsp fits into a block/cube. Once frozen, place cubes into an airtight container. Whenever, you need tomato paste just pop in one or two cubes of frozen tomato paste. Works a treat! And almost no waste!