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.   

PAELLA-STYLE RICE

I hesitate to call this recipe 'paella' after Jamie Oliver got so much stick about the paella recipe that he tweeted recently (a lot of which seemed to concern his inclusion of chorizo). However, since 'rice with whatever' isn't a particularly catchy recipe title, I hope that calling it 'paella-style rice' will be acceptable to any Spanish readers. I've been lucky enough to visit Spain a few times (I've even eaten paella there!) but I shan't pretend that I know much about traditional paella. I've flagrantly disregarded most of the few rules that I do know about paella-making (i.e. that you should use Spanish rice; that, unlike risotto, you mustn't stir the rice while it's cooking; and that paella shouldn't contain chorizo) so I won't make any claims on the authenticity of this recipe. If anything, I'd say it's a British take on paella. Which is fine by me as it's pretty tasty, if I do say so myself!

While I'm being honest, I'll admit that this isn't a meal I'd give my kids at the moment. I hope it will be something they'll eat when they're a bit older, but they're currently going through a no-mixed-foods phase and my 5-year-old doesn't even like the different foods touching each other on the plate!

Tips

• I've used turmeric in place of the more traditional saffron simply because of the price. If you prefer to use saffron, soak the strands in a little of the stock and add along with the stock and passata.
• This dish can be reheated successfully the following day but do make sure that you cool down the leftovers as quickly as possible and promptly transfer them to the fridge, then reheat until piping hot all the way through. 

Paella-style rice

Serves 2 adults

½ tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
70g diced chorizo
175g chicken breast, cut into chunks
100g basmati rice
½ tbsp ground turmeric
½ tbsp smoked paprika
½ red pepper, deseeded and diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
200g passata
200ml chicken stock
150g cooked king prawns, defrosted if necessary
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
120g frozen peas
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a low-medium heat and cook the onions gently for 5 minutes. Add the chorizo and cook for a further 2 minutes, then add the chicken, increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes, until sealed all over.

Add the rice, turmeric and paprika and stir until all the ingredients are coated in the spices. Stir in the red pepper, garlic, passata and stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 12 minutes, without lifting the lid.

Remove the lid and stir in the prawns, parsley, peas and chilli. Continue to cook over a low heat for 3-4 minutes, or until the prawns and peas are piping hot.

CHILLI CON CARNE

Chilli con carne might seem like an odd meal to give to children, but this is actually a fairly mild version and my kids certainly don't seem to find the spiciness off-putting – if I'm perfectly honest, they object more to the red pepper! If I'm cooking for both adults and kids, I tend to keep the chilli con carne fairly mild but serve it with crushed chilli flakes alongside, so anyone who wants their portion to have extra heat can add the chilli flakes at the table.

We went to the South Devon Chilli Farm recently and the chilli con carne they were serving in their café included dark chocolate in its ingredients. I really fancy trying that out at home sometime. My husband tried the stuff at the chilli farm and said he couldn't really taste the chocolate but presumably it's supposed to add an extra depth of flavour. What do you think? Has anyone been brave enough to try this? I've tried a few different brands of dark chocolate with chilli and I quite liked them, in a weird kind of way, so I definitely think it's a flavour combination that works.

Chilli con carne is a great meal to cook for a crowd. Even if I'm just cooking for the four of us, I usually make a double batch because it freezes well. I find that using mince is an economical way to make meat-based meals but if you want to stretch out the meat even further simply add more beans – chickpeas are a nice addition.

There are loads of ways to serve beef chilli – whether with rice, spooned over tortilla chips for nachos, or as a filling for tortillas. We love to eat ours with avocado, natural yogurt and grated cheese on the side.

Chilli con carne

Serves 4

½ tbsp vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped
½ tbsp ground cumin
½ tbsp paprika
½ tsp mild chilli powder
450g lean beef mince

1 reduced-salt beef stock cube

150ml water
250g passata or canned chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato purée
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 bay leaf
200-g can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Pour the oil into a large saucepan and place over a low–medium heat. Once hot, add the onion and cook for 8 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic and red chilli and cook for a further minute, then stir in the spices.

Meanwhile, place another large saucepan over a medium–high heat. Add the beef and dry-fry, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until the meat is browned all over. Crumble over the stock cube and stir well.

Add the browned beef to the onion mixture. Add the water, passata, tomato purée, oregano and bay leaf and stir to combine well. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat slightly and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Add the kidney beans and cook for a further 15 minutes. If the mixture seems runny, continue to simmer until reduced. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Tuck in!