Vegan Chilli

I have been guilty of using chopped tinned tomatoes until recently. But 2016 is a year of small changes for me and consciously using only fresh tomatoes to cook is one of them.

I have also decided to turn vegan as far as I can. This means that when I am out & about or travelling if I can't find something vegan, I will settle for vegetarian options. This is due to spiritual reasons and I will leave that for another post.

Anyway this led me to create this vegan chilli and it's really simple to make, with each bite oozing spicy deliciousness!

Ingredients-

1 big onion chopped (red or white)

6 tomatoes pureed (you could chop them too, but I'm just lazy. Thank god for Nutri Bullet.)

250 grams broccoli (separated as florets)

3 coloured peppers chopped

Boiled red kidney beans

Smoked paprika

Paprika

Cayenne pepper

Ground cumin

Salt & pepper

Fresh coriander

Organic veg stock cube

Steamed rice to serve on the side

Lemon

Avocado on the side

Heat some extra virgin olive oil in a wok and add the chopped onion to it. Add salt & pepper and sweat the onions till they are soft and translucent. Then add 2 table spoons of smoked paprika and two table spoons of paprika. Don't worry these are more for the colour and flavour they are not hot. Carefully add a good pinch of cayenne pepper. Now this is really hot. Add according to your chilli threshold. Add two table spoons of cumin powder as well. Tip in the pureed or chopped tomatoes. If cooking with real tomatoes, they will look pale at first but don't worry the colour comes back as they cook. It is never as red as the canned tomatoes but in this case the colour from paprika makes up for it.

Next add broccoli and peppers and continue cooking & occasionally stiring. Some people might get on the protein debate of a vegan diet and thats why we added broccoli in here. Did you know that broccoli is a super rich source of protein? There sorted! At this point add your stock cube to 250 ml boiling water and then add this water to the cooking pan. Now go ahead & taste, if you feel like you need more spice just add more spice. 

Bring to boil and let this simmer for 15-20 mins. At this point tip in the boiled beans and cook for another 10 minutes. I am obsessed with lemons so I also squeeze half a lemon in, for that extra punch. Sprinkle chopped coriander on top and serve with steamed rice and avocado on the side!

Let me know if you get to try this. See you next time.