Vegetarian Recipes

When I make things like chilli and curries, I like to make huge amounts and then freeze them as not only does it make less work for me to have to keep making them in single portions when required, but it gives the flavours a chance to really infuse together, giving a better flavour in my opinion.

The recipe below makes a huge amount of chilli, so enough to fill a family and/or put some away for another time, depending on how many people you're feeding in one serving. You can change the amounts (more or less) quite easily, in fact most of this can be done in guess work so don't worry if you're not too accurate with the amounts, as long as it tastes good to you then that's good enough for me!

As a vegetarian on a diet, I am always trying to find tasty meals to eat that don't make me feel like I am on a diet, this dish is PERFECT for doing this as it's full of flavour and fills me up, yet is not fattening and all ingredients are good for my health. I actually came up with this chilli after not being able to find my usual weight watchers recipe from one of their cookbooks (due to it having been packed up in a box after moving house) so I just winged it and this is what I came up with, hope you like it as much as I do.

I am also the kind of vegetarian that does not like food that is attempting to taste like meat, the taste/texture of meat is not appealing to me so to eat that would not be enjoyable, and believe me I have attempted it in an effort to be polite after somebody made a 10 mile round trip looking for vegetarian sausages for me to eat… needless to say, I almost threw up on their kitchen floor, even after using lashings of tomato ketchup haha. I find it hard to find decent vegetarian meals without soya or similar products included, which is why I tend to make my own (healthier too).

The ingredients you will need are as follows:

3 Carrots, grated.
2 Onions diced (not too small but not big lumps either)
3 Cloves Garlic
1 Can Kidney Beans
1 Can Pinto Beans
1 Can Adzuki Beans
1 Cat Haricot Beans
2 Cartons Tomato Passata (500g x 2)
3 Vegetable Stock Cubes
Tomato Puree
½-1 Teaspoon Chilli Powder/Chilli Flakes (To Taste)
¼ - ½ Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

Optional, But Recommended:

½ Teaspoon Cumin (Or To Taste)
½ Teaspoon Ground Coriander (Or To Taste)
½ Teaspoon Jerk Seasoning
Splash Soy Sauce
Garlic Salt
Sweat Down the onion, carrot and garlic in some olive oil, then add in your spices (chilli, cumin, coriander, jerk seasoning, cayenne, garlic salt etc) and stir for a few minutes.

Add in 1 of the cartons of passata and stir well, then add in your beans (after draining) and stir.

Add in your tomato puree (about a tablespoon) and stock cubes and then the remaining carton of passata, splash a little soy sauce in and taste to make sure you have all your quantities right for you.

Leave to simmer for about half an hour and then serve. I serve mine with rice, noodles, jacket potatoes, tortillas and cheese/sour cream, chips and many other ways (even on its own), it's a very versatile meal.

As variations you could also add in more vegetables like peppers, mushrooms, leek, celery etc (at the same time as the other grated/finely chopped vegetables) and I regularly do but I also know that some people don't like certain vegetables, so obviously just use the vegetables you like. I will say this though, that you generally don't taste the vegetables properly, they just bulk it up and make it more nutritious (which is good if you're giving it to kids as they don't know they're eating all those vegetables). You can also use different beans if you don't like, or can't get hold of the beans I use.

Thanks for reading. x