Chilli-Con-Carne Recipe – Chilli V Bean

And so comes a time in every mans life when they decide they eat too much red meat and therefore must make some effort to change. Not that they want to do, really.

Chilli V is not only my first vegetation Chilli Con Carne, it’s a 5 Bean Chilli. It’s also the 5th recipe I’ve created from scratch mostly. So, Chilli V works on many different levels – Good, innit?
OK. So, technically this isn’t really my 5th recipe. Truth be told I wanted to do this a while back but the original Chilli V ended up tasting just like my Original Chilli recipe and so there didn’t seem to be a lot of point in it.

I moved on and messed around with a few other things, but then as I was experimenting my wife decided we should do a “Meatless Monday” thing. I went back to the drawing board and started looking up recipes from books and on the internet. I found one I liked the sound of and set out to make it.  But then I forgot to bookmark it and couldn’t find it again (not quickly at least) and so I just throw caution to the wind and decided to make one from what I remembered reading from countless places.

And, it turned out better than I thought it would – So, I made notes, I tweaked and we ended up where we are today with you reading this recipe.

This doesn’t neccessarily have to be a 5 Bean Chilli, it can be as many or as few Beans as you like so long as the quanitity is there.

I use “5 Bean” cans that you can find in supermarkets. They don’t always have the same kinds of beans in them and I wouldn’t be too worried if one day I went and I ended up buying “3 Bean” cans instead of 5.

Anyways – Enough from me, let’s get this show on the road.

What you’ll need:

1. Some oil of some kind – Sunflower / Vegetable / Rapeseed / Canola – Whichever you prefer
2. 3 x Tins of 5 Bean Salad
3. 1 x Large Onion
4. 1 x 500g Passata
5. 1 x Yellow Bell Pepper
6. Chillies (As always, at your own descretion)
7. 300ml Vegetable Stock (I use two Vegetable OXO Cubes)
8. 90g Jar of Chipotle Paste
9. Kashmiri Chilli Powder (Or your own personal weapon of choice)
10. Cumin Powder
11. Smoked Paprika
12. Garlic Powder
13. Mexican Oregano
14. Salt
15. Black Pepper

Prep:

1. Finely Dice the Onion
2. Slice the Bell Pepper
3. Chop up the Chillies
   
4. Drain and wash the Beans
5. Prepare your Vegetable Stock

Method:

1. Fry the Onion, Chillies and Bell Pepper in a Tablespoon of Oil on a low to medium heat
   You’ll want to do this till your Onions have gone that nice translucent colour.
   
2. Add the Chipotle Paste and stir in well
3. Add in the Passata and stir
4. Add in your Beans (Stir)
5. Throw in 2 Teaspoons of Cumin (Stir)
6. Add 1 Teaspoon of Smoked Paprika (Stir)
7. Add 1 Teaspoon of Mexican Oregano (Stir)
8. Add half teaspoon of Garlic Powder (Stir)
9. Finally add in one teaspoon of Kashmiri Chilli Powder (or whatever you’re using) (Stir)
10. Add the Vegetable Stock
11. Add Salt / Pepper to your taste
12. Bring up the Heat to full for 5 minutes to let bubble
    
13. Turn down the heat back to medium and let simmer until the sauce reaches your desired consistency (I let it thicken up a little and then kill the heat).

And, done!

Now that you’ve got a pan full of tasty Five Bean Chilli you can serve it however you would normally.

As always, if you’ve any thoughts or feedback on this i’d love to hear them in the comments below.

And, again, as always – Enjoy!