Chilli bean casserole is as old as the hills, but most of them fail to impress. This vegan chilli bean casserole, has all the bases covered though! Sure it’s a traditional and well worn groove – but this is so tasty & nutritious. It’s also full of veggies and fibre & will wow your guests. Not for the faint hearted though as it packs a chilli punch if you make it with the scotch bonnet! They clock in at 100,000 to 350,000 scoville units.
This version has a fairly wide mix of veggies – peppers, courgettes, carrots, sweetcorn onions & celery. Add in some veggie sausages, a little bit of veggie mince, and of course shed loads of beans. Served with some rice, pan fried polenta, cous cous or on a baked potato it can really hit the spot.
I start off with the onions, celery, garlic & ginger, to give a really good full flavoured base. Then it’s add in all the tomatoes, tomato puree, cocoa, molasses herbs and spices etc. Meanwhile, I just use the Tefal Actifry to do all the donkey work of cooking the veggies & sausages. Then meanwhile I can work on the sauce. It can be pretty raw tasting in the beginning. But as you add in all the veggies and simmer, then towards the end, the flavours flow round and into the veggies.
I like to cook it off a little at around 135°C to get the veggies and sauce integrated, & bring the veggies to a perfect al dente texture.
Then it’s just deciding what to have the vegan chilli bean casserole with – rice, cous cous, a baked potato or even pan fried polenta. After that you can batch up and label the rest to go in the freezer for those evenings, when you just can’t be bothered to cook something from scratch. Don’t forget the hummus & garlic bread!
Don’t feel you have to put in ALL the extras – sausages, mince etc, I just like to go the whole shebang!
vegan chilli bean casserole
Equipment
- 1 Large pan
Ingredients
- 330 g chopped courgettes roughly 1 large
- 300 g diced onions around 2 medium small
- 330 kg chopped green & red peppers around 2 medium sized peppers
- 100 g blitzed chestnut mushrooms not the dark varieties as they would make the dish too dark.
- 150 g chopped carrots roughly 5 medium ones
- 35 g crushed or blitzed garlic roughly 1 whole bulb
- ½ whole scotch bonnet (1 to 1 ½) or around 6 chillies
- 30 g Coriander - chopped to add at the end.
- 800 g chopped tomatoes 2 cans
- 500 g mixed beans - kidney, black, borlotti 2 cans worth
- 200 g soya mince can use 2 different types
- 150 g frozen sweet corn
- 4 whole Linda McCartney sausages or similar cooked 11mins – sliced in ½ then 6.
- 15 g cocoa powder - not sweetened
- 2 teasps veg stock
- 1 whole onion stock cube
- 1 whole umami stock cube
- 1 heaped tbsps. Yeast flakes
- 1 tbsps of soya sauce
- 65 g tomato puree â…“ of a tube
- 15 g chipotle paste Sainsbury’s do a good one.
- 1 tbsps soy sauce
- 30 g lemon juice ½ a lemon
- ½ teasp yeast extract (to taste).
- 1 teasp cumin
- 10 g Molasses
- 1 teasp smoked paprika
- 1 teasp onion powder
- 1 teasp garlic powder
Instructions
- Dice the onion medium fine and begin to saute in a large pan in lug of rapeseed oil.
- Meanwhile chop and add the ginger - I blitzed it in a mini spice grinder cos it's quicker.
- while that's sauteeing on a low heat, quickly chop the celery and add
- then chop or blitz the garlic and add that and continue to saute.
- meanwhile start actifrying your courgettes - around 11 minutes - at 200°C or pan fry
- then the peppers - around 11 minutes -200°C - pan fry
- then the carrots - seeting the them aside as they're done - around 12 mins - 200°C - pan fry
- As the onion & celery mixture gently sautees, also chop (preferably with rubber gloves on) the scotch bonnet or chillies and add those to the mix.
- shortly after, add the tinned tomatoes and stir to combine.
- after that, you can add in all the other spices in one go, and give that a good stir round. Alternatively, you could add them just before the tomtoes, but it doesn't make that much difference.
- as all this is happening, cook the veggie mince according to the instructions
- also blitz the mushrooms and saute them - use as little oil as possible.
- also actifry the vegan sausages and chop them in half, then into 6 pieces.
- then add the veggies, shortly followed by the beans, sausages, mince and mushroom and give it a good stir. Now is a good time to add a little lemon juice.
- Then I like to put the whole thing in the oven on around 135°C and stir it every 10 minutes as it heats right through - continue until the veggies are still al dent, serve/portion as you wish. I think portions of 300g to 350g are around right for one person when served with rice and a green vegetable
- Divide what's left over into take-away style containers -325 per portion. You can just about squeeze 2 portions into a large one or one portion into a small container. Use the label function in word to print the labels - much quicker. I use Avery template L7651 as they're nice and small but you can still fit all the info needed on them.
