With everyone trying to go to the shops as little as possible, lockdown has got us all rooting around in the back of our cupboards to see what we’ve got that needs using up. For most of us, this has thrown up all kinds of surprises, some not all that pleasant. Tins of old beans with names you’re not sure how to pronounce (fagioli?), a pack of unopened dry lentils you bought when you were going to make that stew 3 years ago, potatoes that look like alien life forms, carrots that have turned an interesting shade of green.
To give you some inspiration, I thought I’d share a ‘Back of the Cupboard Recipe’ for a meal that I’ve made every week. These will be recipes that don’t require many ingredients and use things that you might well have come across at the back of your cupboard. They will also be very flexible, allowing you to substitute in whatever you’ve got. While digging around in the kitchen yesterday evening, I found a tin of kidney beans from last year, and decided to use them to make this easy Veggie Chilli…enjoy!
Easy Veggie Chilli
Serves 4
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 – 30 minutes
Ingredients:
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 onion (red or white), roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped (if you’ve got it)
2 carrots (sweet potato or butternut squash would also work well), chopped into small pieces
2 peppers, chopped into strips (any colour is fine)
400g tin chopped tomatoes
400g tin Red kidney beans, drained
1 tsp ground cumin (if you’ve got it, could use ground coriander if not)
1 tsp chilli powder (more or less to taste)
1 tbsp paprika
3 tbsp tomato purée
1 vegetable stock cube
300 ml water
To serve: Rice or pitta bread, grated cheese, sour cream or natural yogurt.
Method:
- Heat the oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and carrot and fry for about 5 minutes, or until soft and the carrot has started to brown.
- Add the garlic, chilli, chilli powder, cumin and cook for another minute. If the spices start to stick to the pan a bit, don’t worry, just add a little more oil. They’ll come unstuck when you add the liquid.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and fill the empty tin 2/3 full with water and pour this in. Add the tomato purée, pepper and mix well. Turn the heat up a little but and bring to the boil.
- Crumble in the stock cube, then reduce the heat a little bit and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the kidney beans and cook for 5 minutes. Add a bit more water if the sauce gets too thick.
- Serve and enjoy!
