Recipe: vegetable chilli

Nothing special, certainly not 'authentic', but jolly tasty, packed with vegetables and very frugal.  A good one for using up veg at the end of the week.  As always, amounts are variable and I have rounded them.  A carrot, after all, is a carrot, not so many grammes!

Ingredients:
Butter from allowance (around a rounded tsp-worth)
70g onion
70g pepper (I used yellow and green because that's what I had in the fridge)
120g carrot
80g parsnip
30g mushroom
40g celery
2 chillis (I used one red and one green).  Chilli purée would do (and be cheaper)  but it doesn't have the fresh flavour of a real chilli.
1 value can chopped tomatoes plus half a can of water
2 tsps vegetable stock paste
a squidge of garlic puree
40g tomato puree
mixed herbs, black pepper to taste
1 value can red kidney beans

Method:
Prepare all the vegetables by peeling and dicing until the size you want.  I did mine quite small.
Prepare the chillis by topping, halving and scraping out the seeds (leave them in if you like it hotter), then very carefully and very finely chopping into tiny bits.

Melt the butter in a solid based saucepan, add the veg, the chillis and the garlic puree, stir well, cover and let it all sweat in the butter for about ten minutes.
Add the chopped tomatoes and the half can of water, the stock paste, the pepper and herbs.  Stir well, bring to a boil and simmer, uncovered, for about 20 mins or until the vegetables are cooked.  The sauce should have thickened somewhat as the water evaporates.
Add the tomato puree and the drained kidney beans and stir well.  Check seasoning and adjust, if necessary.

Serve with rice or pasta.  Grate some cheese over the top if you're feeling lavish!!!

This made five portions, one for tomorrow and four for the freezer.  Without the rice, pasta and cheese it came to 28p per portion.  Price will vary, of course, depending on what you use.  I went for value stuff when I could  . . .



(I don't add more salt because the stock paste is salty - if you use a different stock, you might need to add a bit of salt)
(quite a long list of veg but basically it was what I had - it can change to suit what you have)
(not impressed with the Aldi chopped tomatoes - will stick with Morrisons for the same price)