MIXED BEAN CHILLI

Here's a little something for meat-free Monday! Even though we're a family of omnivores, I think it's important to incorporate meat-free food into our weekly menu, so I usually try to make at least one vegetarian dinner a week, and our lunches are often meatless. Actually, come to think of it, this particular recipe would be suitable for a vegan diet too, if you omit the yogurt accompaniment or swap it for a dairy-free alternative.

Sadly (although predictably), this chilli turned out to be a bit on the spicy side for my kids (and a bit on the vegetarian side for my husband, a confirmed meat-eater) but it freezes well so a batch lasts me a while. I like to eat it for lunch as a filling for a baked potato or, if I'm feeling slightly less virtuous, I'll serve with tortilla chips and a good dollop of cooling natural yogurt.

The vegetables and beans in this tasty chilli all count towards your five-a-day (although apparently beans only count as one portion a day, no matter how many you eat) so I reckon you'd be well on your way to this target if you ate this for lunch or dinner.

Mixed Bean Chilli (vegetarian/vegan)

Serves 4

½ tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
2 tsp each ground cumin and paprika
1 tsp mild chilli powder
1 each red, yellow and red pepper, deseeded and diced (360g total prepared weight)
400-g can chopped tomatoes
400-g can mixed beans in mild chilli sauce
400-g can red kidney beans in water, drained and rinsed
200-g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp tomato purée
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a low-medium heat and cook the onion for 8-10 minutes, or until softened. Add the garlic and red chilli and cook for a further minute.

Add the cumin, paprika and chilli powder and mix until the onion is coated in the spices. Increase the heat to medium-high, then stir in the peppers, tomatoes, beans, chickpeas and tomato purée.

Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes, until thick and reduced. Stir in the coriander just before serving.

HOME-MADE FAJITA SPICE MIX

For many years, I used a store-bought fajita spice mix whenever I made fajitas. It was pretty tasty, but I worry about salt content when it's food I'm giving to my kids so I decided to try making my own. It took a few attempts, but I'm really happy with this version and I won't be going back to buying expensive ready-mixed sachets. Other than the garlic and onion granules, I already had all the ingredients I needed for this in my cupboard.

I tried making this without any salt all but it lacked the flavour punch it needed. I don't think one teaspoon of salt is too bad though, not when you consider that this amount of spice is enough to flavour the filling for eight tortilla wraps.

Home-made Fajita Spice Mix

Makes about 35g/4 tbsp
1 tbsp mild chilli powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp onion granules
1 tsp salt
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp dried chilli flakes

Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl. Transfer to a small airtight container until ready to use.

Tips

• For a recipe using this spice mix, follow this link to my Chicken Fajitas recipe.
• You could easily double or treble the recipe so you don't have to mix the spices each time you make fajitas.
• This mix is fairly kid-friendly in terms of its spiciness, but could easily be pepped up by using hot chilli powder or increasing the amount of chilli flakes.