Chilli Con Carne
I absolutely love chilli! I think it's a staple meal in our household. I grew up in a pub and chilli was always something that the punters loved. My mum makes an awesome chilli, but as I got older and wanted to cook more, I learnt how to cook it, and without blowing my own trumpet, my mum said it's better than hers!
The reason I love chilli so much, is that it's so versatile. It still tastes yummy without meat, making it a great vegetarian and vegan meal too. I love mine on a jacket potato (see picture below), whereas my other half and dad really enjoy theirs with rice, and my mum likes hers with a wedge of bread and butter.
You can also make really nice enchiladas with chilli, just cook for a bit longer and make the mixture drier, and use it as your filling.
We all cook chilli differently, it's one of those meals where people will say "I don't put that in mine" or "I always add this to chilli", but I thought I'd share my recipe with you. My chilli serves 10 (or 8 people that are really hungry!)
Ingredients
- 600g pack of lean beef mince
- 400g tin kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
- 400g tin cannellini beans (drained and rinsed)
- 400g tin haricot beans (drained and rinsed)
- 2x400g peeled plum tomatoes
- 150g closed cup mushrooms, diced
- 1 pepper, I normally use a red pepper (de-seeded and diced)
- 1 onion (finely diced)
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 beef stock pot (I used Knorr stock pots but a regular stock cube would also be fine)
- 1 tsp cumin
- ½ tsp of ground cinnamon or 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp of coriander leaves or a handful of fresh, chopped coriander
- pinch of salt and pepper
- 1 tsp chilli flakes or whole red chilli (de-seeded and chopped)
- 1 pt of water
Method
- Fry the beef mince, onion, garlic, mushrooms and peppers (and if you're using the fresh chilli instead of chilli flakes, add this too) at the same time, in a large pan, on a medium heat until the beef mince has browned.
- Add all the other ingredients and stir together.
- Leave for about 4-5 hours on a low heat, on the hob, with the lid off the pan. (Add a little water if the liquid has reduced to much)...
AND THAT'S IT!
See, it's so easy and so simple to make. You could put this in a slow cooker and leave to cook whilst you're at work, it's a great meal for students, and it freezes well!
You can replace any of the beans for any you prefer, and you can skip the mince and beef stock and replace with extra veggies and a veg stock cube to make it vegetarian/vegan.
Please let me know how you get on with the recipe and if you have any pictures that would be great and I'll share them in a later post!
