Bomb Ass Vegan Chilli

I’m writing this in the middle of a lockdown where one cannot simply pop to the shops as easily as before. Sure while we can go the supermarket to get fresh ingredients I can’t help but feel going every other day undermines the very purpose of lockdown. Luckily for all it just so happens that one of our favourite soul warming dishes uses entirely store cupboard ingredients. It is perfect for times like these when fresh ingredients don’t always make it to the end of the week.

We first made this chilli not because of lockdown but because it tastes so damn delicious. I am even going to say it is better than regular meat chilli. The end result is a hearty and rib sticking brew packed with umami that we love to pile onto bowls of rice. It is one of our favourite comfort foods. Make up a big pot and you can have it for meals all week.

This recipe originally comes from Serious Eats by J Kenji Lopez-Alt. I recommend you have a read of the article about it’s development. I also recommend serious eats full stop. His ingredient list contains number of exotic chillis we can’t readily get our hands on here. Because of this I have tweaked the recipe to make it a little more Countdown friendly. Also I don’t know if it’s just me being thick but I find his recipe quite tricky to follow so I have rewritten it in the order that I would do things. You will need a food processor for this method but blender could also work in a bind. I use the oven for this recipe as the heat is less directional meaning you won’t have chilli catching on the bottom of the pot. You can simmer this on the stove for a similar amount of time but just be careful not to let it catch so stir regularly and add in additional bean liqiud if you find it getting too thick.

A note on masa flour - you can typically find this in supermarkets with a good Mexican section but if that isn’t available you can use chana (chickpea) flour which I normally use or even something like coconut or buckwheat flour.

We like to have this chilli on rice but you can put it anywhere you would typically have a meat chilli like in a hefty burrito.

Bomb Ass Vegan Chilli

Makes a huge potful - enough to serve say 10

Canola oil

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 brown onion, diced

2 tablespoons cumin seeds

2 teaspoons of dried oregano (plus a sprig or two of fresh if you have it)

3 dried chillis - we use birdseye

500ml water

3 chipotle chillis in adobo sauce (found in small orange cans in the international section - you can also add more than three if you want to blow your face off)

1 tablespoon soy sauce

3 teaspoons Marmite

2 cans of chickpeas

2 cans kidney beans

2 cans black beans

1 tin chopped tomatoes

3 tablespoons of masa flour, chana flour, coconut flour, or buckwheat flour - whatever you have available just not cornflour, or wheat flour.

Splash of spirits - vodka or whisky

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees on bake. Heat a heavy bottomed oven-safe pan (cast iron is great for this) on the stove to a medium heat. Sauté the garlic and onion in a god lug of oil for a couple of minutes. Add the cumin seeds and oregano and cook for a few minutes more until aromatic.

Place your dried chillis in the microwave and heat for 30 seconds. This will help toast them. Place the toasted chillis in a microwave safe vessel along with the 500 ml of water. Microwave on high for five minutes. Transfer the chillis and water to a food processor or blender along with the adobo chillis and sauce and process until the chillis are well chopped up and the liquid is sort of smooth.

Add this chilli liquid plus the soy sauce, marmite, and tomatoes to the sautéed onion and leave to simmer down while you prep the beans.

Place a colander or sieve over a large bowl and drain both cans of chickpeas collecting the liquid. Place the chickpeas in the food processor and pulse until roughly chopped. Place the chickpeas in the simmering liquid.

Drain the remaining cans of kidney and black beans reserving that liquid too. Place beans in the pot and give it a stir.

Pour enough of the reserved bean liquid into the pot to cover all of the beans which will be almost all of it. Bring the chilli to good simmer and keep it there for a few minutes.

Transfer the pot to the oven and bake for two to three hours with the lid off so that it becomes lovely and thick. (Because the beans are cooking in an acidic liquid they won’t disintegrate as quickly as they would in pH neutral liquid so there is little risk of overcooking and turning everything to mush). The longer the chilli cooks the better the flavour development.

Remove from the oven, add a splash of your chosen alcohol then stir through the masa or other flour so that the chilli thickens even more.

Serve up in your chosen format. If you want a vegan alternative to sour cream we recommend a nice thick coconut yoghurt.