Food for thought... Bean chilli

Now I'm not the healthiest person by a mile, I eat vegetables, fruit, take vitamins (on the days I actually remember) I'm not a vegetarien, or vegan, I dont drink almond milk on homemade muesli, or cook every meal from scratch and love chocolate far too much. 

However one of my favourite meals to cook is a vegetarian meal, my kids don't love meat so I don't tend to use it too much, Lloyd cooks for himself so I sort out meals for me and the kids. This meal is vegetarien and it's also not for the kids, they hate anything spicy !!
So I thought I would do my first recipe, seems though I was making this for tea and to fill the freezer! I use different vegetables each time so you can use whatever you have either fresh, tinned or frozen.

You will need:

• 3 types or beans, I have butter beans, kidney beans and chickpeas
• Passata
• Fresh tomatoes
• Tomato purée 
• Chilli powder 
• Large onion
• Peppers
• Mushrooms
• Carrot (grated to thicken the sauce) 
• Fresh or dried basil
• Oil (olive, vegetable etc)
• Salt and pepper 

Method

This can be done anyway you find easiest, you can cook it in the slow cooker, pan or even microwave it if you're desperate. I have the time today to cook it in a pan so I will. It's so flavoursome that it doesn't need to be cooked for ages to give it flavour.

First of all I always oven roast the vegetables, so the mushrooms, fresh tomatoes, peppers and onion, chop them all up and put them in a pan with a drizzle of oil, salt and pepper and some chopped up fresh basil 

I cop all the vegetables up and then drizzle with the oil and basil, it needs to go in the oven for around 1 hour, I cooked it at 170, stirring once around half way, the vegetables don't want to be crispy and hard, just soft and squishy!! 

Now I add all the ingredients to a pan and add the beans, passata, tomato purée, grated carrot and some more salt and pepper, I also used the juices off the vegetables as some of the liquid and added a cup of boiling water (you could use stock) 

I usually simmer with the lid off for around 20 minutes, till everything is soft and cooked through, I don't usually cook it for longer just because usually when I make this its to go in the fridge or freezer rather than being reheated, so I don't want to over cook everything at this stage. 

Once heated through you can taste and add more seasonings. Serve and enjoy. I like mine with basmati can rice or just on its own with grated cheese and sour cream 

Xx m xx