One of the girls I work with occasionally brings in leftovers from her dinners which she very generously distributes to the rest of us poor street urchins.  One of these dinners was vegetarian chilli, which was absolutely delicious.

She gave me the recipe which turned out to be incredibly easy to make – especially if, like me, you like cooking that involves one pot.  The recipe can be very easily amended depending on how hot you like things.  Personally I don’t really like very spicy food so the spice measures I’ve given are to my taste – feel free to add more chilli powder if it’s too bland.  If you’ve made it too spicy serving with sour cream takes the sting out of it, and you’ll learn for next time to put in less chilli powder!  I’ve also listed the ingredients in the amounts I like them, you might want more or less pepper / onion / garlic.

You can serve it with whatever you like – bread, rice, potatoes etc – I tend to stick to my colleagues suggestion which is baked butternut squash. Beware though: this dish is full of beans!

Ingredients

2 small onions or 1 large onion
2 peppers
3 cloves of garlic
2 tins of beans - kidney, pimento, cannellini, other etc
2 tins tomatoes
2 heaped teaspoons of cumin
1.5 heaped teaspoons of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of paprika
Less than half a teaspoon of chilli powder

Method

1.  Fry the onion, pepper and garlic
2.  Add the two tins of beans and the two tins of tomatoes
3.  Add the cumin, coriander, paprika and chilli powder
4.  Simmer for at least 30 minutes (or more if you have time)

For the Butternut squash:

Cut it in half and sprinkle the top with brown sugar.  Bake in a shallow dish of water for about half an hour.

Serve the chilli with butternut squash and sour cream or whatever you want.

Related posts:

1. Wednesday Wind-down: Simple Carrot Curry with Shallots
2. Chilli Con Carne: Make a Big Pot and Eat It All Week
3. Chocolate Chilli Bean Stew