Chilli Con Carne

This is quite possibly the easiest, quickest, most filling and comforting recipe I know. It can be made out of store cupboard ingredients and whatever is left over can be frozen in individual portions (plastic freezer bags or old takeaway containers) so you have your own ready meals on hand. Much better (and cheaper) than buying something processed, filled with E numbers and preservatives and made by a complete stranger. You'll get 6 reasonably large or 8 small portions out of the below recipe and you can serve with brown rice or roasted Cajun sweet potato wedges to make it low GI, or white rice or flour tortillas.

Ingredients

Olive oil

450g beef mince (I use lean, around 10% fat. You can obviously use normal at 20% or extra lean at 5%, depending on what you prefer)
400g tin chopped tomatoes or passatta
400g tin red kidney beans, drained
2 x peppers (I use red and green, mostly for colour)
100ml water
Tomato ketchup
2 Chopped shallots (As before, I use the frozen pre chopped ones from Waitrose)
Clove of garlic, chopped
Butter (generous knob of to finish off)
Salt & Pepper (freshly ground, to taste)
4 x tsps Chilli powder,  tsps Paprika, 1 tsp Cumin powder, 1/2 tsp Cocoa powder, 1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper,  1/2 tsp white pepper (if you're struggling and want a quick way to do it, Schwartz does a good ready mixed powder)
Creme fraiche to finish (you can also use half fat)
Grated cheese (your favourite, to finish)


1. Take a large non stick frying pan and heat a drizzle of olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add the garlic and shallots and cook for a few minutes until the flavour is released into the oil.

2. Take the peppers and chop into rough pieces. When you chop the pepper, make sure you remove any pith (the white part on the inside, it's bitter). Add them to the shallots and garlic and fry off.

3. At this point, add the mince and break down with a wooden spatula until it is in small pieces. Stir into the vegetables and fry until the mince is brown all over. Once this is done, there will be some residual water in the pan from the meat. Carefully drain this away down the sink, retaining everything else in the pan.

4. Put back on the heat and add the kidney beans, tomatoes, water and spices. Add 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce and stir. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for around 15 minutes until the mince is tender.

5. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once the cooking has finished, add the butter and stir. This adds a lovely glossiness and richness to the dish.

6. Serve with whatever accompaniment you choose and top with grated cheese and a generous dollop of creme fraiche. It really works well to cut through the slight heat of the chilli.

Enjoy!