Ultimate vegan chilli

Ingredients

• 400g mushrooms
• Olive oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 black pepper
• 2 red onions
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 fresh red chillies
• 30g fresh coriander
• 1 celery stick (I usually add one or two extra sticks to get some extra vitamins 😉 )
• 1 red pepper
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 250ml red wine
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
• 1 x 400g tin black beans
• 1 x 400g tin kidney beans
• 1 1/2 tsp maple syrup
• 10g dark chocolate (we used 99% lindt chocolate that was too bitter for us to eat on it’s own and it tasted great in this chilli but you can use whichever you want)

For the spice mix

• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 black pepper
• 1 bay leaf

Method

1. Put the mushrooms in the food processor and pulse until very finely minced (you can chop them too but it is fast with the processor)
2. Pour a little oil into the hot frying pan. Once the oil is hot, tip in the mushrooms with the salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes. Take the pan off the heat, transfer the mushrooms to a bowl and set aside.
3. Peel and mince the red onions. Peel and mince the garlic. Rip the stems from the chillis, cut them in half lengthways and remove the seeds if you prefer a milder sauce, then chop finely. Remove the leaves from the coriander and set aside. Finely chop the stalks. Trim the leaves and root from the celery. Cut the pepper in half and cut out the stem and seeds. Cut the celery and pepper into very small chunks.
4. Add a little oil to the large saucepan. Once it is hot, add the minced onions and garlic, the finely chopped coriander stalks and the chillies and cook gently for 5-10 minutes, making sure you stir constantly. Add the chopped celery and red pepper chunks to the pan and stir.
5. Add all the spice mix ingredients to the pan and stir so that the spices are well mixed and coat all the vegetable. Stir in the tomato purée to give a rich colour and depth of flavour. Pour the red wine, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar into the pan and turn up the heat to high. Stir constantly until the liquid has reduced by two-thirds and the alcoholic aroma has subsided. Tip the chopped tomatoes into the pan, stir into the chilli and simmer for 5 minutes, until the sauce is noticeably thicker.
6. Drain the black beans and kidney beans and add them to the pan along with the maple syrup, dark chocolate and the minced mushrooms. Stir everything together really well and then reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer. Leave this bubbling away with the lid off, stirring occasionally until it’s reduced to the right thickness (at least 10 minutes). You can leave it bubbling for longer to deepen the flavours, adding more water if needed to keep the right consistency.
7. Take the lid off the pan and remove the bay leaf. Stir the coriander leaves into the chilli and serve.
8. We like to serve ours with guacamole, jalapenos and nacho chips 🙂 you could try this recipe with mince but I suggest trying the vegan version first! Enjoy