This is a fabulous vegetable chilli and will satisfy vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.
As I am not a great one for planning my meals, I tend to use whatever I have in the cupboards which on this occasion was a tin of aduki and a tin of black beans. I would have used half red kidney beans like most sensible people if I had a tin available, but you could use whatever you like, lentils would probably work well too, but I think it is nice to have a mixture. Of course, if you are much more organised than me and you know you are going to cook this in advance, prepared dried beans could be used instead of tinned.
To make the job even easier I threw all the roughly chopped vegetables into the food processor to chop them finely (be careful not to puree!), but if you find chopping vegetables a therapeutic way of spending 15 minutes or so, by all means do them by hand.
My twelve year old has just started finding his way in the world of spicy food so something too hot and lip numbing would have been left on his plate. He absolutely loved this, served with some quickly toasted nachos, long slices of cucumber and a little hummus on the side, he woofed the lot very happily. Obviously for those who prefer their chillis a bit higher up the Scoville scale, add hot chilli powder instead of mild or add some fresh chillies for that extra kick.
Make sure you use a large pan as it makes a large quantity, it fed us three amply with enough left over for another meal.
- 2 Tbs Sunflower Oil
- 1 Medium Sweet Potato
- 3 Medium Carrots
- 1 Large Onion
- 1 Stick Celery
- 4 Cloves Garlic
- 1 Tbs Paprika
- 2 tsp Cumin
- 1 tsp Coriander
- 1 tsp Mild Chilli Powder
- 2 tins Chopped Tomatoes
- 1 Tbs Tomato Puree
- 1 tin Aduki Beans
- 1 tin Black Beans
- Peel and roughly chop the vegetables into large pieces. Put in a food processor with the peeled garlic and pulse until finely chopped.
- Heat the oil in a large pan and tip in the vegetables. Cook until soft and reduced, about 10-15 minutes.
- Add the spices, stir and cook for a couple of minutes then add the tomatoes, puree and drained beans. Stir until bubbling, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, partly cover and cook, stirring occasionally for about 45 minutes. Add a little more water if it becomes too dry. Season with salt to taste.
- Serve with a yoghurt or creme fraiche dressing and fresh coriander.
