A quick, fridge raid, veg-packed chilli to save you
She's smoky, she's sweet, she's packed with lots of good things. Plus details of a joyful photography collab with my favourite photographer
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Well hello there you lovely people. I’m landing here with this quick, but hugely satisfying fridge raid chilli because I made it last night and I think it could be a very good recipe for you to have up your sleeve as it’s incredibly adaptable and easy to throw together after work when you’re feeling pretty shattered. It’s also vegetarian, because we tend to save any meat we eat for the weekend, though by all means, if you have some mince knocking about that you want to incorporate, go for it. Though honestly, if you can get your hands on a big jar of good quality beans (and those who’ve read this for a while now will know why I rave about Bold Beans’, which is what I used for this), I just don’t think you need meat here. Beans are something I turn to during the week when I need a wholesome, filling, delicious meal in a matter of minutes, and here’s a quick reminder of a couple of my other pulse-racing recipes here - do check out my Greens ‘n Beans and Chickpeas A La Vodka for more Beanspiration.
OK, I’m going to cut to the chase, because I’ve also got one eye on writing up my Cornwall recommendations for paid subscribers (coming really soon, I promise!), but I would massively appreciate it if you could spread the word about this newsletter and share this piece with any friends who you think would like it. Also, before I leave you with this recipe, I just wanted to let you know about this beautiful collaboration of photography prints I’ve just launched with my dear friend and creative collaborator Helen Cathcart. It’s called ‘Kitchen By the Sea’, and features a set of carefully curated photographs from over the many years Helen and I have been shooting together. These images were taken between East London and my home in Deal, and some of them (like the one pictured below) featured in my last cookbook The Joyful Home Cook. All of them are focused on celebrating the natural beauty of seasonal ingredients, natural landscapes, and creative homemade recipes, and would look great on a kitchen or pantry wall. They can be sized to fit a Sainsbury’s Habitat frame too, so you don’t have to spend a fortune on the framing, and are currently on offer over on Helen’s shop. I think they’d make a really lovely and unique gift.
The Recipe
Change it up
Of course, you should adjust the warmth/chilli level in this dish according to the needs of you and your family. I tend to make this gently humming, rather than chilli hot, because that means my daughter can enjoy some if she can be convinced to eat something other than beige food (our ongoing battle atm). This recipe is begging you to look in the hard veg drawer of your fridge and pull whatever you've had in there for too long into action. I used beetroot and purple carrots as the main vegetable thrust of this, because it’s what I had, but I would also like some red/green pepper and courgette in here, and cooked corn, aubergine and mushroom certainly wouldn’t go amiss, either. You could also switch things up here in winter with celeriac, turnip or swede, and sweet potato would be nice too. The idea is to use up as much veg as you can (while maintaining a glossy, moist chilli) and create a dish that will keep you going for more than one meal…
Leftovers
We had them stuffed into tortilla wraps with more sour cream, cheese and coriander, but they would also be excellent in a quesadilla situation.
Possible shortcuts
There's quite a bit of chopping involved here, and if you're super short on time and not very quick at this, you could go hammer and tongs with a box grater on some of the harder to prep ingredients like beetroot, straight into the skillet, just watch those hands! As a time poor, working mum with a lot on my plate atm (so on brand), I’ve become a real convert to those pre cooked pouches of rice as an amazing time saver, and a brilliant way of getting food on the table for my hungry toddler in a hurry. I’m also planning on starting to batch cook rice so that I have it ready to go when I need it, rather than having to faff around with rice cookery on top of meal prep at the end of a long day.
Workable subs
If you don’t have chipotle paste, but happen to have some proper dried chipotle, please do soak and chop and use a couple of these instead. If that’s not an option, try a combination of a little smoked paprika and pul biber, tasting as you season to get a warmth that’s right for you and your family. You could also try gingerly adding a little shop bought barbecue sauce to the mix if you have that to hand, it will bring smoky, sour and fruity notes that, used subtly, can work well here. This is about resourcefulness and flavour over being any kind of ‘holy grail’ of chilli, and if you want a deeper, meatier, more savoury flavour then half a beef stock cube crumbled in will help bring that, as would a little half teaspoon addition of Marmite if you want to keep things veggie.
Top Tip
Make sure you bother to toast the whole spices to bring out their depth. It takes seconds, but try to concentrate so they don’t scorch!
The Trimmings
Having chilli is always elevated in my mind, by what you serve it with, and I love nothing more than piling a big steaming mound onto a plate and then topping it with various favourite accoutrements. I love to serve this with cooked rice, lime wedges/cheeks, grated cheddar, sour cream, finely chopped raw shallot and coriander. There’s avocado scooped straight from its skin and salted, with a pinch of chilli flakes, but you could make a guac if you had time. If I had any pickled jalapeños, those would be going on the table too, and pink pickled onions would also be good. Toasted tortilla wraps, tortilla chips and even sweetcorn fritters would be a lovely addition. Crumbled feta would be nice too. As would authentic Mexican queso fresco if you live somewhere where you could find some of that!
Serves 4
2 tsps cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
4 tbsps olive oil
1 onion, peeled and diced
2 sticks of celery, finely sliced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 beetroot, peeled and diced
1 tsp sea salt
A big pinch of dried oregano
2 tsps tomato puree
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
A few shakes of Worcestershire sauce
700g jarred or canned red kidney beans (reserve their water)
2 tsps chipotle paste (or suggested subs)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
To Serve
Lime, cut into cheeks or wedges
Sour cream
Cooked rice
A bunch of coriander, roughly chopped
1 shallot, peeled and finely diced
100g grated cheddar
1 avocado scooped out of its skin and seasoned
Heat a heavy-bottomed frying pan or skillet over a medium to high heat and toast the cumin and coriander seeds for a couple of minutes, until fragrant. Remove to a pestle and mortar or spice grinder and pulse until crushed.
Heat the olive oil in the same skillet over a medium high heat, and add in the onion, celery, carrot and beetroot, season with a good pinch of the salt, lots of black pepper, the oregano and ground spices and sweat together for a good 8-10 minutes, until softened and fragrant. After this time, add in the tomato puree and garlic and cook those off for a couple of minutes, coating the veg, before sliding in the cherry tomatoes and cooking until they’re softened and giving up their juices to the rest of the vegetables.
Now pour over the red beans and enough of their water to get everything bubbling together nicely and coated in a self made sauce, then add in the Worcester sauce, chipotle paste, cinnamon and the rest of the salt and turn the heat down slightly to simmer everything together, stirring, for a further 10-15 minutes, until unctuous, mellow and delicious. Taste for seasoning and add a little more chilli/salt, or lime juice depending on how you like it. This can take quite a lot of seasoning and adjustment I find. I also like to stir through the chopped coriander right at the end so its brightness doesn’t get lost, and serve mounds of the chilli on cooked rice, topped with the raw shallot, coriander and cheese with a dollop of sour cream on the side. But you do you, and let me know how you get on. Enjoy!
Your chili is the most gorgeous deep hue. The pics enhance the virtual tasting 😄
I remember these beautiful pics from your book Rosie! The chilli sounds fab, especially shoving the leftovers in a tortilla. I've just started fermenting a batch of home-grown chillies from the freezer (that have been in there for two years - not sure how...) and I reckon those would go great with your chilli👌