A tasty Chilli Con Carne
HERE’S the perfect dish whether it’s raining or BBQ weather!
Just how hot you like your Chilli is a matter of personal taste, and with home cooking the choice is always yours.
Don’t worry if you don’t manage to eat all your chilli in one sitting, it tastes even better when saved for the next day, just cover and chill when cold. 500g lean minced beef
2 large knobs of butter
2 small white onions, finely cho pped
1 large garlic clove, crushed or finely chopped
1 large organic carrot, grated or diced
100g organic spinach, shredded 2 red (or mixed) peppers, deseeded and diced
1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
1 x 300g tin of chilli infused red kidney beans (or soak your own) 1 tsp chilli powder (optional!) 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 beef stock cubes
2 tbsp wholemeal/white flour 300ml vegetable water
Salt and ground black pepper Brown/wild/Basmati rice or jacket potatoes for serving
6 cherry tomatoes halved and quartered for decoration
1 green chilli for garnish, deseeded and chopped
1 tbsp of parsley or chopped coriander for garnish
Melt the butter in a large frying pan and very gently sauté the chopped onions and garlic, stir continuously with a wooden spoon without allowing to brown.
Add the grated carrot and peppers to sweat. After a few minutes add the mince beef and fry, turning continuously to brown.
Next, crumble the stock cubes over the mixture and stir whilst adding the ketchup and seasoning, after a few minutes also stir in the flour, spinach and chilli powder if using, cook for one minute taking care to keep stirring as it can easily stick at this stage.
Stir in your vegetable stock or water and allow to simmer gently for five minutes before adding the chilli beans and chopped tomato.
Keep on a very low heat for around 30 minutes, stirring regularly.
In the meantime begin to cook the rice. If your chilli mixture starts to dry out just add a little of the rice cooking water one ladle at a time.
Finally, chop the baby tomatoes, green chilli and herbs ready to use as garnish. Eat whilst hot and Enjoy!!!
Healthy? With all those fresh ingredients cooking in the pot together – it just can’t fail to be!
Lesley co-owns Roberto’s Italian on Southport’s Ocean Plaza with husband Roberto, and has a BScHons in Nutrition & Health. For more of Lesley’s Recipes go to: Facebook.com/robertossouthport and www.robertositalian.co.uk