Chipotle Bean and Root Vegetable Chilli made in the slow cooker
Vegetarian, vegan & gluten free
*Serves 4 to 6 people
Ingredients:
- 2 tins of tomatoes
- 2 tins of beans of some kind (black, black-eyed, kidney, mixed beans)
- 3 root veggies of your choice (carrot, parsnip, sweet potato, potato)
- 1 red onion
- 1 green or red pepper
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 chilli (optional)
- 2 tablespoon chipotle paste
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon or piece of cinnamon stick
- 2 bay leaves
- Salt & pepper to your taste
- Fresh chopped herb of your choice to garnish
- One lime cut into wedges
To make:
- Set slow cooker to high and leave to warm up.
- Finely dice all the vegetables: onions, carrot/parsnip/sweet potato etc, red or green pepper.
- Roughly slice garlic cloves and finely chop chilli (if using one).
- Fry vegetables with garlic and chilli in two tablespoons of olive oil until soft.
- Add cumin seeds, smoked paprika, cinnamon, bay leaves & chipotle paste. Stir well to spread spices around before adding two tins of tomatoes and a further tin of water. Add salt & pepper to your taste.
- Pour contents into slow cooker and set a timer for 2 hours.
After two hours, drain and rinse beans and add to the slow cooker.
Check if you need to add any further liquid or salt & pepper.
Cook on high setting for four more hours.
To serve:
Serve with grains, such as rice, cracked wheat or couscous.
*Couscous is the fastest as it only takes some boiling water, oil and salt and about 5 mins to absorb the water. Fluff up with a fork before serving.
As a cooling dish, serve a bowl of sour cream or make a simple cucumber raita with yoghurt.
For vegans, serve with coconut yoghurt or make a coconut yoghurt cucumber raita.
If you have a jar of jalapeno peppers in the fridge, place the jar on the table!
To garnish:
Garnish chilli with fresh herbs of your choice – chopped parsley, coriander, mint.
Place lime wedges on the table for your guests to squeeze over their chilli.
The ultimate comfort food
This chilli is the ultimate winter warming dish. It cooks into a rich, colourful chilli over the course of its six hours in the slow cooker. I often serve it on the first evening of my Finding Space retreat.
I added the vegetables to the original black bean chilli recipe as I think the root vegetables improve the depth of flavour and the texture of the stew. It’s less about the beans this way! It you add a sweet potato it helps to thicken up the sauce, but any root vegetables will do – whatever you have in the fridge.
It does involve quite a bit of vegetable chopping but you can use this time to practice some mindful cooking to release stress.
If using a cinnamon stick, only use a small amount or it take out when you add the beans (otherwise, it can drown out the subtle chipotle flavour).
I often serve it with fresh (vegan) cornbread & (vegan) butter – I’m aiming for a total comfort food vibe. Try it!
Enjoy your meal,
Bon appétit!
