Earth Day vegan chilli

My wife Clare and I were inspired by the #meatfreemondays campaign and decided to try it out. Unfortunately, our children were not so inspired and Mondays became a day of half-finished plates and bitter complaints.

I decided to try a different tack. My aim was to create meals that were so cunningly disguised that nobody noticed they contained no meat. This recipe was my first success and was gobbled up with gusto.

I’m sharing the recipe as a way of marking Earth Day 2021, and I hope this will be the first of many. Please share your favourite vegan recipe and I promise to try it - I’m keen to increase my repertoire.

Ingredients to make 8 servings

For the vegan chilli

• Corn oil
• 2 medium aubergines, chopped into chunks
• 1 large onion, chopped into chunks
• 20 button or chestnut mushrooms
• 4 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• 2 cans of chopped tomatoes in tomato juice
• 2 cans of beans (I used 1 of red kidney beans and 1 of green pigeon peas)
• Chilli sauce (for example, Tabasco)
• 4 squares of dark vegan chocolate

For the Mexican rice

• 1 large mug of white long-grain rice
• 1/2 green pepper, finely diced
• 1/2 red pepper, finely diced
• 1 small can of sweet corn, drained
• 1 handful of coriander, chopped
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt

For the avocado and coconut salsa

• 1 ripe avocado, cut into small chunks
• 1 small tub of dairy-free coconut yoghurt (preferably not single-use plastic!)
• 1/2 tsp paprika

Method

1. Make the vegan “mince”. Blitz the aubergine chunks in a food processor to the size of grains of rice. Heat the corn oil in a heavy casserole and throw in the aubergine, stirring frequently.
   
   
2. Blitz the onion and mushrooms in the same way and add this to the casserole. Add the garlic and season with salt and pepper.
   
   
3. Add more oil if necessary to keep the vegan “mince” coated and cook for 5 minutes, until the mixture has browned. Your mixture should now look something like this…
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Add the chopped tomato and then the beans. Turn the heat down to a simmer and keep stirring well for another 5 minutes.
   
   
5. Add the chilli sauce a few drops at a time and sample the mixture until you’ve achieved the right level of spiciness. My family loves spicy food, but yours may not be so keen!
   
   
6. Finally, add the dark vegan chocolate. You don’t need much to give a nice depth to the colour and flavour of the chilli. By now, your chilli should look like this…
   
   
   
   
   
7. Keep the casserole uncovered and bubbling away on a low heat while you make the rice.
   
   
8. In a deep bowl or microwave rice cooker, combine all the Mexican rice ingredients. Add just under 2 mugs of water, cover and microwave on full power for 20 minutes. When finished, it should look something like this…
   
   
   
   
   
9. Now make the avocado and coconut salsa. Stir together the avocado chunks and coconut yoghurt in a bowl, then sprinkle with the paprika.
   
   
   
   
   
10. When the rice is done, the vegan chilli should also be ready to serve. We had ours with tacos and tomato & mango salsa.