veggie chilli

Veggie chilli is one of my favourite meals; I never get tired of it. I usually serve it with sour cream, guacamole and organic tortilla chips. Home-made bread is also fine. This is a recipe I put together in 2009 (I made chilli yesterday so I decided to share the recipe with you today). I had wanted to make my own recipe for a long time because I had tried various ones and always felt something was missing. This one isn't too spicy because of my children and because I don't really enjoy eating chilli that only burns my tongue; I want to be able to enjoy the taste of the other ingredients. As the name indicates, the recipe contains no meat. I have actually served it to meat eaters who didn't even realise that there was no meat in it.

VEGGIE CHILLI

INGREDIENTS

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 large cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 green peppers or 1 green and 1 red, seeded and diced
• 1 green jalapeno or chilli, seeded and finely chopped
• 1½ tablespoons light olive oil
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• ¼-½ teaspoon chilli powder*
• 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses (or unrefined cane sugar/agave syrup)
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 can black beans or kidney beans (400 g)
• 1 can pinto beans (400 g)
• 1 can tomatoes (or 2 cans and skip the tomato purée)
• 2 tablespoons, heaped, tomato purée
• 100-200 ml water (½ cup = 125 ml)
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• optional: small can sweetcorn

* Use more or less, depending on how hot your chilli powder is. A very hot variant I once bought called for halving the does in all recipes. I like it when the chilli has a bit of an edge, but not when it sets the tongue on fire and makes it hard to actually taste the food. (When I first put this recipe together I used 2 tbsp of a very mild version which was some sort of a chilli mix.)


METHOD

1. Before you start cooking, rinse and drain the beans and keep them in a colander until ready to use. Mix all the spices in a small bowl (not the salt) and set aside. Make sure you are using spices of good quality.
2. In a large saucepan over low to medium heat, fry the chopped/diced vegetables in the olive oil until soft
3. Add the spices and mix together
4. Add the beans, tomatoes/tomato purée, water, molasses and salt and blend together
5. Put a lid on the saucepan, turn up the heat and bring to the boil. Then turn the heat down again and let the chilli simmer on the lowest heat with the lid for 20-30 minutes and without it for another 10 minutes. If using sweetcorn: Rinse and drain and add before serving.

You can use another can of either black, kidney or pinto beans but then you may want to add some tomato paste and water as well.

You can serve the veggie chilli with sour cream, cheddar, (home-made) guacamole, bread, organic snack (blue corn tortilla chips are my favourite) or whatever. Please make sure that you do not spoil this healthy recipe with unhealthy side dishes.

Chilli even tastes better the day after so it is perfect for the lunch box if you can heat it up at work. It's also excellent to make a grilled sandwich with chilli and cheese. It's also excellent to put chilli on a baguette with cheese and spring onion and grill/heat in the oven. If I'm serving it to guests and have plenty of time, I cook it in the morning and let it sit in the pot. Then I simply heat it again right before the guests arrive.

lasagne with black beans

Again we have a recipe inspired by my daughter Maria. To say that she loves lasagne would be an understatement. At restaurants we don't have to ask her what she's having; she's having lasagne as long as it's on the menu. I have to admit that I'm not particularly fond of lasagne with minced beef, so I decided it was time to make my own recipe, a vegetarian version with beans and a mild chilli sauce. The white sauce is based on a sauce from my foodie friend (Cafe)Sigrun. This dish has become one of our favourites (excellent for Meat Free Monday if you're involved) and is for dinner whenever Maria is allowed to choose.

LASAGNE WITH BLACK BEANS (OR KIDNEY BEANS)

INGREDIENTS

RED SAUCE

• 1 tablespoon light olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 yellow or red pepper, diced
• 1 vegetable stock cube, yeast free
• 2 cans diced tomatoes (2 x 400 g)
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped or 1 teaspoon dried
• 1 teaspoon sweet chilli
• 1 teaspoon Modena balsamic vinegar
• 1 can black beans or kidney beans (400 g)
• pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• optional: sweetcorn, as much as preferred
• optional: a handful of fresh spinach, coarsely chopped

WHITE SAUCE

• 450 g cottage cheese
• 2 eggs, free-range/organic
• 150 g grated cheese (mozzarella or mild cheddar or whatever you like)
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg

OTHER

• 100 g grated cheese (mozzarella or mild cheddar or whatever you like)
• freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 9-12 dried lasagne sheets

METHOD

RED SAUCE

1. Rinse and drain the beans and keep them in a colander until ready to use
2. In a large frying pan over medium heat, fry the onion in the olive oil until soft. Add the pepper and garlic and fry for a few more minutes
3. Add the vegetable stock cube and mix together
4. Add the tomatoes, turn up the heat and bring to the boil
5. Add all the herbs, spices and vinegar
6. Finally add the beans (and sweetcorn + spinach if using) and season with salt and pepper. Allow to simmer while you prepare the white sauce

WHITE SAUCE

1. In a large bowl, combine the cottage cheese and eggs
2. Add the 150 g cheese and nutmeg

1. Preheat the oven according to the lasagne sheet package directions (adjust oven rack to lowest position)
2. Remove the frying pan from the cooker. Use a ladle to pour a thin layer of red sauce into a lasagne dish (there is no need to completely cover the bottom) and cover with 3-4 lasagne sheets (depends on the size of your lasagne dish)
3. Add a thin layer of white sauce, followed by a layer of the red sauce and cover with lasagne sheets. Repeat the layers as needed and finish with the rest of the white and red sauce
4. Cover with the 100 g cheese and sprinkle the Parmesan on top
5. Cook in the preheated oven according to the lasagne sheet package directions (the lasagne sheets I have used so far call for 220°C/425°F/gas 7 for 25 minutes)

Serve with, for example, spinach, simple salad, homemade whole grain bread or garlic bread. When making garlic bread, sometimes I make yeast free pizza dough and place the pizza base in the oven about 8 minutes before the lasagne is done. When I remove the base from the oven, I brush it with a mixture of olive oil, garlic, oregano and sea salt, and use a pizza cutter to slice it.