Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

When I went vegan, chilli was one of the first things I made. Since then I’ve been tweaking the recipe, using different mock meat for the mince, using different beans etc. So this is my updated Best Beefless Chilli recipe. I always make a large batch of chilli when I make this, but if you prefer to make a smaller amount feel free to halve the ingredients listed below

This chilli is hearty and comforting, and you can eat it a few different ways. Serve it with baked potatoes or rice, use it to make some epic nachos or enchiladas, or serve it inside tacos. Anything you like

I also have a couple of money saving tips if you’d like to skip to the end for those

Yield; 8-10 servings Cook time; One hour

You’ll need;

1. Two tablespoons of oil
2. One large red onion, peeled and diced
3. Three peppers, deseeded and diced
4. Three cloves of garlic, minced
5. Spice mix; Two tablespoons of each the following; ground cumin, ground coriander, smoked paprika. One tablespoon of each of the following; dried oregano and cayenne pepper. Half a teaspoon of sugar. Salt to taste
6. Two tablespoons of tomato puree
7. One 400g tin of plum tomatoes, blended until smooth
8. One 500g carton of passata
9. 200ml hot meat free stock, I used one cube of meat free beef Oxo dissolved in 200ml hot water
10. 350g mock beef. I use my beef style seitan for this, you can find the recipe for that HERE
11. Two 400g tins of kidney beans, drained and thoroughly rinsed

Method;

• Start by heating the oil in a large pot over a medium heat. Once the oil has warmed up, add in the red onion. Give the onion five minutes to soften and then add in the peppers. I used a mix of red, orange and green peppers. Give the vegetables another five minutes to cook, then add in the garlic
• Give the garlic a couple of minutes to cook and become fragrant. Next, add in the spice mix and give everything a good stir. Allow the spices to cook off for a few minutes before adding in the tomato puree. Give the mix a good stir to ensure everything is evenly distributed. Next, stir through the blended tomatoes, passata and stock. Put the lid on the pot and leave it to simmer for around 30 minutes, stirring every now and then
• Finally add in the mock beef and the beans, give them around ten or fifteen minutes to heat through. As the seitan is already cooked, it just needs to be heated through. If you use a different mock beef it may need to be cooked separately and then added into the chilli
• Once everything is piping hot, it’s ready to serve

Vegan Cheesy Beef Nachos

Yield; Four to six servings* Cook time; 10 minutes

*= As per the packet of tortilla chips, 25g is listed as a serving, going by that this would serve eight. I find four-six servings is more reasonable, personally

You’ll need;

1. 200g tortilla chips
2. Two servings of chilli, from the recipe listed above
3. 100g dairy free cheese, I used a 50/50 mix of Cathedral City plant based cheese and Applewood smoked plant based cheese
4. Two spring onions, thinly sliced

Also feel free to add any additional toppings like guacamole, salsa or dairy free sour cream

Method;

• Line a baking tray and evenly spread the tortilla chips onto it. Heat the chilli up (I heat it up in a microwave for a couple of minutes) then spoon it evenly over the tortilla chips. Next, evenly scatter the cheese over the top of the chilli
• Pop the tray under a warm, but not too hot, grill for a few minutes until the cheese melts
• Sprinkle over the spring onions, and any other toppings you fancy, then serve

A Few Money Saving Tips

Here are a few things I do that help to keep costs down

1. Batch Cooking; Cooking a big pot of chilli and freezing the leftovers not only saves money, but it also means you have some vegan ready meals on hand. Just defrost and reheat the leftovers when you want them
2. Freezing & Reheating; When it comes to reheating the leftovers, I like to defrost them in the fridge overnight, then reheat them for a few minutes in the microwave, as it’s cheaper than reheating on the hob
3. Beans; I find that generally the cheapest beans are kidney beans, you can find them in ASDA, Tesco, Aldi and Sainsbury’s for between 30p-33p per 400g can
4. Mince; As I mentioned, I feel this recipe works best with beef style seitan. But to save more money swap this for TVP (textured vegetable protein, also called soy protein or soy mince). You’ll need 85g of TVP, and 260ml hot vegetable stock/hot water to rehydrate it with