Chilli

Chilli has to be one of the best recipes as it is very tasty and can be very good for you too. Spicy chilli will boost your metabolism and our recipe also contains lots of tasty vegetables and so it is very effective at helping you burn calories as well as providing you with a healthy meal. Use lean minced beef as this contains less fat and also do not give in to the usual treats that often accompany chilli such as the tortilla chips, cheese and sour cream; instead use a small amount of low fat cheese and serve with rice, pasta, some low fat oven chips or jacket potatoes which are all very nice with chilli. The recipe we list below also makes a large amount of chilli and is brilliant when you need to feed allot of people, it does save well in the fridge too but if you do not need as much then roughly halve the ingredients.

Ingredients

Around 1kg of Lean Minced Beef,
2 Beef Stock Cubes,
A Dash of Olive Oil,
3 Cloves of Garlic,
2 Large Onions,
3 Peppers - Red are best but other colours are OK,
Around 200g of Mushrooms, more if you prefer,
2 Tins of Red Kidney Beans,
Sweetcorn,
2-4 Tins of Chopped Tomatoes, depends on the level of sauce that you prefer,
Fresh chilli peppers or chilli powder (or both), this all depends on how hot you want the chilli to be.

Method

1. Add the oil to the stockpot and heat to a medium to high temperature.

2. Add the lean minced beef and stock cubes to the stockpot and brown.

3. Chop the onions and crush the garlic and then add to the beef and soften.

4. Add the chilli powder and fresh chillies if using (chopped into small pieces). If this is the first time you have made it then add only a small amount of chilli powder as you can add more later if needed.

5. Chop the mushrooms and peppers and then add to the mixture and soften.

6. Add 2 tins of chopped tomatoes and reduce the temperature.

7. Add the red kidney beans and sweetcorn to the mixture, the amount of sweetcorn that you use depends on taste.

8. This needs to be left simmering on the hob for a good 2 hours and longer is better. If it seems dry then add another tin of chopped tomatoes until it has the right consistency, also when it has cooked for 2 hours taste it to see how hot it is and if it is not hot enough then add some more chilli powder.