Black Bean and Spinach Chilli

On the way home tonight I popped into Tesco and I arrived just at the right time, the knocked down veg was being put out and price stamped! I couldn't believe it, I picked up a bag of spinach for 10 pence, bargain or what! I also picked up a few other vegetables and salad items for knock down prices too. Talk about being somewhere at the right time! :o)

On the bus home I was thinking of what I could cook up with my spinach bargain, the bus was cold tonight and I was craving some warmth, curry? chilli? fajitas? I settled with chilli and my mouth was watering thinking about it!

I soon knocked this up when I got in and I savoured every mouthful, the chilli worked its magic and warmed me up from the inside out.

Ingredients - serves 3-4
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Onion, finely diced
1 Green pepper, finely diced
3 Cloves of garlic, crushed
1 Tin black beans, drained and rinsed
1 Tsp Smoked garlic
1 Tsp Hot chilli powder
½ Tsp Dried cumin
200g Spinach, chopped
1 Tin chopped tomatoes
½ Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp Tomato purée

Method
Sauté the onion and green pepper in the olive oil for 5 minutes.

Add the garlic and sauté for another minute, being careful not to let the garlic burn.

Add the black beans and stir through. Add the smoked garlic powder, hot chilli powder and dried cumin and stir again. Sauté for another minute, stirring all the time.

Add the spinach to the pan and stir through before adding the chopped tomatoes and stirring again. Leave to simmer for 8 minutes, stirring regularly to ensure the mixture doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Add the salt, balsamic vinegar and tomato purée and simmer for another 2 minutes.

Serve with wholegrain rice.

 Jasmine x

Retro Saturday - Bean Stroganoff

You can't get more retro than a stroganoff in my book, so today I made a bean stroganoff with three beans. But before I give you the recipe let me tell you where I've been today. 

The small village where I grew up was holding a local food festival so I went along to show my support. I was told that it was a celebration of local food talent involving all sections of the community from near and far. There were tables full of local produce that had been grown by people from all ages, homemade preserves and flower displays. 

There was a lady there telling us all about hedgehogs and right up my street a vegetarian talk. Lance Bell, from the Vegetarian Society had been invited to give a talk on the benefits of being vegetarian. I was pleasantly surprised how many people attended. Lance, who is also a vegan gave a great talk on the social, economic and health benefits of being a vegetarian and the people attending were very interested in learning more about it. The approach Lance took was brilliant and he had people listening right from the start, people asked questions and we all had a fantastic time. It was a brilliant idea to invite Lance and include vegetarianism as part of the local food festival, a big round of applause goes to the organisers and of course Lance. 

At the end of the day there was an auction of all the local produce which was brilliant fun, I was outbid on nearly every occasion, but I'm pleased to report I did win two ball courgettes for a bargain price of 60p.  They were massive, see photo below, yes that's a ten pence piece! They will feature soon in a recipe, watch this space...............

Did I mention stroganoff? The green and purple french beans and the runner beans are out of my garden. I don't think the green and purple beans will be giving me any more food I think the harvest is over for them. On the other hand though, the runner beans are multiplying as I type. There is at least another 2 kilogrammes on my 6 plants, so I'm sure they will also feature in the remaining recipes for Vegan Mofo.

Ingredients
200g Green/Purple beans
200g Runner beans
250g Mushrooms
1 Red onion
2 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 Tsp Garlic puree
1 Tsp Dried thyme
3 Tsp Paprika
2 Tsp Garlic granules
1 Tbsp Flour
½ Tin of black beans
400ml Almond milk
125ml Soy cream
Salt & Pepper

Method
First prepare all your vegetables, cut the onion into half moon shapes, top and tail the beans and cut up into 3cm pieces and cut your mushrooms into chunks.

Fry the onion in a little olive oil for 3-4 minutes or until the onion is starting to go soft. Next add the green/purple beans and saute over a high heat for another 3 minutes.

Add the runner beans and continue to cook over a high heat for another 3 minutes. Next add the mushrooms and soy sauce, turn the heat down and cook for another 3 minutes.

Add the garlic puree and stir through the vegetables, then add the flour, paprika, garlic granules and dried thyme and stir to combine thoroughly. Slowly add the almond milk a little at a time, to prevent lumps. After adding ½ the milk add the black beans then the remaining milk and cook over a low heat until the sauce thickens, stirring regularly. This should take around 7 minutes. 

Slowly add the cream and stir to combine, do not boil as the cream may split. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with rice, pasta or as I did couscous.

Please excuse the mess I made of serving, I didn't mean to dribble the sauce over the couscous!

Fry-Day - Bean Fajitas

Thank goodness its Friday! I have had such a busy week at work I'm so glad its the weekend. I didn't get in till late tonight so all I wanted to do was chill, but its Vegan Mofo and beans are still on the menu.

I wanted something super quick, super tasty and something that would fill me up. Regular readers of my blog know that Friday nights are fajita nights and tonight was no different!

On a whistle stop shop at the local Tesco's on the way home I picked up a few ingredients, which included a packet of fajita seasoning. I know, I know that's being lazy but I was hungry! I also found a tin of black beans in the world food aisle, which aren't normally stocked so a tin of those went into my basket too.

Marco, my border collie has been poorly the last few days with a tummy bug, and the vet had recommended feeding him bland food and suggested sweet potatoes, so I decided that if Marco was having sweet potato then so was I.

So I had the fajita seasoning, tortillas, sweet potato, black beans and green beans from the garden and so bean fajitas were born.

Ingredients - Serves 4
200g Green beans
1 Tin Black beans
2 Sweet potatoes
1 Large onion
Fajita seasoning
4 Tbsp Tomato passata
8 Flour tortillas

Menu
Finely dice the onion, top and tail the green beans and slice length ways. Cube the sweet potatoes and add to a pan of boiling water, simmer for 10 minutes or until the potato is soft. Drain and roughly mash with a potato masher.

Meanwhile fry the onion and green beans until the onions are translucent and the beans are tender,between 5-10 minutes. Drain the black beans and rinse well. Add the beans to the pan with the sweet potato mash and stir to combine.

Add the fajita seasoning and mix in, then add the tomato passata and mix in, until everything is thoroughly combined. Stir over a very low heat to make sure everything is hot before you fill the tortillas.

Guess what arrived today! My vegan food swap parcel. I was lucky this month as my buddy was Heather, she sent me an awesome parcel in July and I was looking forward to another one. I was not disappointed, it was truly the best swap box I've received to date, it is A-M-A-zing! I'll write a post about what I received very soon, but now I'm off to delve into the delights of my parcel. See you tomorrow!