Fourth Trimester Recipes | VEGAN CHILLI

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) places great emphasis on the need for warming, nourishing foods to support your recovery. I’ll be writing more on this in future posts. 

This vegan chilli recipe from Anna Jones is simple, cheap and nourishing. It fits the bill in terms of warming spices and is delicious too. 

Anna Jones is one of my favourite food writers and I have two of her books and we are often eating her recipes at home. Everything she makes is veggie and she usually has good suggestions for vegan/gluten free options too. 

It is one of the recipes I cook most often at home. 

It makes an almost overwhelming amount of food that will keep you going for a week(s). It even tastes good after being frozen. So it’s a perfect fourth trimester cook. 

Or even better, a third trimester, fill the freezer recipe. 

Or even better still, forward to a friend and they can cook it for you.

You will find the full recipe over on the Guardian website. 

The only adaptation I would recommend is to use coconut oil for frying. Nikki Hill is a brilliant naturopath and nutritionist and she shared the importance of eating good fats for our hormones in an earlier blog post, she recommends cooking with coconut oil or ghee and olive oil is best served cold. 

Bean Chilli Recipe

Mix and match the grains as you like – this is a great way to use up those odds and ends left at the bottom of a jar, but steer clear of couscous, as it cooks too quickly. The amount of stock needed will depend on the type of grain you use, so if you do experiment with different grains, make sure you watch the liquid levels and top up, if needed. 

This makes a vatful, so you’ll need your biggest pot; halve the quantities if you want a more manageable panful.

Serves 10-12

• Coconut oil, for frying

• 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped

• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

• A thumb-size piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped, or 1 tsp ground ginger

• 1 tbsp chilli powder

• 1 tsp cumin (ground or bashed seeds)

• 1 tbsp smoked paprika

• 3 × 400g tins of chopped tomatoes

• 300g green lentils, soaked

• 200g bulgur wheat, pearl barley or brown rice

• 1 tbsp cocoa powder

• 400g tin of small beans (haricot, black or black-eyed), or 300g home-cooked

• 1–2 litres vegetable stock

• Salt and black pepper

1. Put your biggest pot over a medium heat. Add a splash of olive or rapeseed oil and cook the onion, garlic and ginger for 10 minutes, or until soft.

2. Add the chilli powder, cumin and smoked paprika. Stir around in the pan for 1-2 minutes. Add all the other ingredients, stirring as you go – but start with 1 litre of the stock and keep the rest on hand to add as needed if the chilli starts to look a bit dry. Bring to a gentle boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer for 30–35 minutes, until the lentils and grains are cooked and the chilli is deep and flavoursome.

3. Season to taste, then serve.

Eight ways to eat your chilLI

1. Tortillas or wraps (flour or corn), yoghurt, with chilli and thyme oil.

2. Spooned over corn tortilla chips, topped with a grating of good cheese and melted in the oven with some guacamole and salsa for dipping.

3. Sandwiched between two slices of fresh bread with a grating of cheese, a hit of sriracha and shredded lettuce.

4. In a couple of crispy taco shells with all the trimmings.

5. Folded into a wrap with some brown rice, chopped tomatoes and a little sour cream, burrito style.

6. In a toasted cheese sandwich.

7. With rice, yoghurt and chutney.

8. With sautéed greens and a quick tomato salsa.