Everyday chilli

Chilli is pretty much a vegetarian staple, so it’s good to have a few versions up your sleeve. Here I’ve gone classic style, with soya mince as it’s one way to get my veggie daughter and meat-eating son to eat the same dish. Neither would go for my bean chilli and they definitely wouldn’t tolerate a full mixed veg chilli, so soya mince is a good compromise, plus I can sneak in some sweet potato without anyone complaining too much. Although there’ll probably be a pile of it left on their plates at the end! I just keep presenting them with food they ’think’ they don’t like in the vain hope that eventually they’ll change their minds.

Ingredients

Serves 8

• I large onion, chopped finely

• 1 red pepper, small dice

• 300g chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped

• 2 garlic cloves, grated

• 1kg veggie mince (see Tips below for brands I use)

• 1 ½ tsp cumin

• 2 tsp smoked paprika

• 1 tsp cayenne pepper

• 1 vegetable stock cube (I like Kallo low salt)

• 3 tbsp tomato purée

• 2 x 400g tins tomato

• 1 sweet potato, 1 ½c m cubes

• 1 x 400g tin kidney beans

• 2 tsp sea salt

• Juice of 1 lime

Method

• Heat 1 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil in a large wide bottomed pan.

• Add the onions and cook on a low heat for 5 minutes then add the red pepper and garlic. Fry gently for a further 10 minutes.

• Next turn up the heat a little and add the mushrooms for 5 minutes and then the soya mince, warm through and then stir in the cumin, smoked paprika and cayenne. Allow the spices to warm for about 30 seconds.

• Pour in the tinned tomatoes plus 2 tins of water, the stock cube, tomato purée and sweet potato. Simmer for 20 minutes with the lid on.

• Add the kidney beans and simmer with the lid off for a further 15 minutes.

• Add the salt and lime juice to finish.

• Serve with rice, sour cream, cheese and guacamole. Roasted squash also works really well with chilli as it’s sweetness counterbalances the spicy heat.

Tip

• I’ve tried using a few different brands of veggie mince for this dish and I reckon Sainsbury’s Plant Pioneers is the best. Although I think a 50:50 mix of Plant Pioneers plus Vivera also works really well as you get more variation in texture. The Vivera is a bit too strong for me on it’s own as it has quite a smokey taste, but I like it in combination. For this particular chilli I used Plant Pioneers only.

Vegan bolognese

I’ve been working on a good vegan bolognese sauce for a while now as it’s harder to really get a rich flavour into a soya mince sauce. I tried again last night, thinking carefully about which ingredients would bring the right depth of flavour and it turned out really well. My veggie daughter loved it and my carnivore son begrudgingly admitted it was ‘decent’, although this was partly due to the fact that it didn’t have any lentils in it! He is a very reluctant ‘flexitarian’ ie. forced to eat more veggie food than he’d like because that’s what I cook all the time! So if he likes something then it’s a big win for the veggies ;-)

Ingredients

Serves 6-8

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 2 onions, chopped

• 1 red pepper, chopped

• 2 large garlic cloves, grated or minced

• 1 kg soya mince (I used a mix of Plant Pioneers / Vivera)

• 350ml red wine

• 100g sun dried tomatoes, chopped

• 2 tbsp tomato purée

• 2 x 400g tinned tomatoes

• 1 vegetable stock cube

• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

• 1 tsp celery salt

• ½ tbsp red wine vinegar

• 1 ½ tsp sea salt

• A good grind of black pepper

Method

• Heat the olive oil in a large pan, add the onions and cook for 10 minutes on low. Then add the red pepper for a further 10 minutes.

• Next add the garlic and cook for 1 minute before putting the soya mince into the pan. Mix well and then turn up the heat and pour in the wine. Allow to bubble and cook off any harsh alcohol flavours and then add the sun-dried, puréed and tinned tomatoes, crumbled stock cube, Worcestershire sauce and celery salt.

• Fill both empty tomato tins with water and pour into the pan. Mix well and cook with the lid off for 35 minutes, stirring occasionally.

• Add the red wine vinegar and seasoning and cook for 5 minutes.