Chilli Sin Carne. One of millions of ways to love beans

When I first went vegetarian I wasn't really used to beans & thought of them as boring and
flavourless and I ate a lot of processed meat substitutes.  Now I've grown to really appreciate them for their versatility and nutritional value.
I made this for my meat-loving friends whilst in Portugal and it went down very well!

They're an affordable and useful source of protein & can be used in endless different ways.  I will be talking more about the nutritional benefits in greater detail in a future post. See: http://samanthathesanevegan.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/thyme-for-rice-peas-how-why-of.html
For now, here's a tasty veganised version of an old favourite.

I am no trained chef & I've taught myself what I know about cooking.  If you're new to cooking fresh vegetables, (I didn't have a clue how to cook when I was a student!) there are youtube videos on everything these days.

It's not a complicated recipe at all and if using tinned beans can probably be whipped up in 25 mins. If you're using dried beans they can take a long time to soften (1-2 hours). I usually do use soaked beans so I do it on a day when I'm not working and make a fairly large batch so that it'll do me several meals.

Ingredients for chilli:

• Borlotti or Pinto beans.  You can use dried beans and soak them the night before, which works out far better value for money but canned beans are great for those times when you want a quick meal.
• Kidney beans (I only clocked recently that they're called this because they look like kidneys lol),
• onions 
• red sweet peppers,
• tomato puree,
• chilli (can be fresh chilli peppers or powdered depending on which you prefer). I like fresh chillies but I find powdered allows for more even distribution of the heat. I like to add a few Jalepenos for extra flavour also
• vegetable stock cube (if you're somebody who can be bothered to make their own stock, great! I'm afraid I don't fall into that category)
• little bit of oil for frying (rapeseed oil, coconut oil or high oleic (monounsaturated) sunflower oil)

To serve: 

• Brown basmati rice. I'm afraid white rice is about as nutritious as boiled sweets & has a similar effect on your blood sugar.  I have it in restaurants sometimes or when I occasionally have a take-away but it's not a good idea for it to be a staple of the diet.
• Guacamole (made from mashed avocado) ups your vegetable intake and adds valuable nutrients such as vitamin E, potassium and monounsaturated fats

Method

• If you're making this on the weekend or on a day when you have plenty of time and have soaked the beans, put these on to cook first. Drain and rinse them well.  Boil thoroughly for 15 minutes and then reduce to a simmer for 1 hour.
• Rinse the brown rice in a sieve and use 3 parts water to 1 part rice.  Add rice to boiling water and reduce heat to a minimum for 25 mins, leaving the lid on the pan.  The rice should absorb all the water
• Chop the onion & red pepper and stir fry gently in a little bit of oil for a few minutes.  Add the chilli.
• Dissolve the stock cube in a small amount of boiling water.  Add this to the onion & red pepper mixture.
• Add the tomato puree to the onion & red pepper mixture & stir well.
• Add this to the cooked beans
• Cook until it looks like the above photo.

Enjoy!