Mixed bean and sweetcorn chilli

I have made a vegetarian chilli again. The butter beans and black beans were the main ingredients in this one, but I also added some sweetcorn to it. Use more chillies than mentioned in this recipe, if you prefer really spicy food, as I like my chilli a bit milder. I normally make a bigger batch so that I can have some left as next day's lunch. I think that this kind of chilli is also a nice dish to offer to any vegetarian dinner guests you might have. 

So this is how it goes.

7 small shallots

5 garlic cloves

1 green chilli

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp paprika

250 g tomatoes

400 g butter beans (1 can)

400 g black beans (1 can)

400 g sweetcorn (1 can)

140 g double concentrated tomato purée

150 g Red Leicester cheese

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cocoa powder

2 tsp vegetable stock powder

1 lime's juice

Chop the shallots, garlic cloves, green chilli and tomatoes small.

Cook the shallots, garlic and chilli in olive oil until soft. Then add the following seasoning: ground coriander, ground cumin and paprika, and stir for a minute or so. Then add the chopped tomatoes, butter beans, black beans, sweetcorn and tomato purée, and simmer under lid for at least 30 minutes, but the cooking time can be even longer.

Season later with salt, cocoa powder, vegetable stock powder and lime juice. Add more of any of the spices to taste. Once you are happy that the flavours have blended nicely and everything is cooked, stir in the cheese.

Serve with rice, nachos, tortillas, anything you like... what is your favourite serving suggestion?

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Parsnip croquetas with garlic and butterbean dip

Instantly when I saw this recipe by Susanna Booth, I knew I'd have to try this gluten-free dish. And now when the season for parsnip dishes is upon us, I actually got to making these tasty Spanish style parsnip croquetas. This time I followed the original recipe pretty closely, so please refer to that one if you want a more detailed description. I'm posting here my variation of it.

I absolutely loved the easy vegan butterbean dip as well and I'll certainly make it again. It was quite punchy with 5 garlic cloves, so use less garlic if you don't want an extremely garlicky sauce.

For the dip:

200g tinned butterbeans

6 tbsp olive oil

5 garlic cloves

½ tsp salt

½ lemon juice

The dip is simple to make: basically just puree all the ingredients together with a hand mixer. The dip can wait in the fridge for the croquetas to be made.

For the parsnip croquetas:

300g parsnips

1 tsp vegetable stock powder

250ml boiling water

50g butter

50g semolina

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

50g polenta (cornmeal)

Vegetable oil for frying

Peel and chop the parsnips in small pieces. Boil them for about 15 minutes until they are soft and then mash them.

Prepare the vegetable stock by combining the boiling water with the vegetable stock powder.

Then heat the butter in a pan and stir in the semolina. Whisk the hot vegetable stock into the semolina to make a smooth paste. Season it with salt and pepper and add the parsnip mash. Allow the mix to fully cool.

Place the polenta onto a plate, shape small sausages of the parsnip mix and roll them in the polenta.

Heat a generous amount of vegetable oil in a pan, a depth of 1cm, and fry the croquetas from each side until crispy and golden brown. Remove the excess oil of the croquetas after frying and serve them warm with the butterbean dip.

What a great dish this is! Enjoy while preparing and eating!

Your VegHog