The Back Yard Lemon Tree

This recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen where it started its life a filling for vegetarian burritos and then morphed into a black bean and vegetable bake with a layer of cheese grilled on top. I prefer to serve it as a chilli bowl with loads of toppings and corn chips on the side. I first made this chilli when I was on holidays and I wanted to make a meal with easily accessible supermarket ingredients. Instead of buying separate spices I used a taco spice mix which I used later in the week to make a Nigerian kidney bean stew. This was my big holiday discovery – taco spice mix makes a good all purpose spice mix for holiday house cooking.

This is a mildly spiced, kid friendly, vegetable loaded, chilli bowl. You load up on the heat but I prefer to keep this as mild kid friendly version and serve hot sauce on the side. It is excellent served with your chilli toppings of choice – sour cream, avocado, pickled jalepenos, onion, grated cheese, chopped coriander and lime quarters. This chilli can be used as a vegetarian burrito filling, with rice, or as a vegetarian component in a taco feast but if you are on holidays or party mood serve as a chilli bowl with lashings of sour cream and loads of corn chips!

Black Bean Chilli

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Serves 6-8

• 2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, minced finely
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 -2 fresh jalapeno or habanero pepper, minced
• 1 green or red bell pepper, diced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2-3 teaspoons of ground chilli pepper
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 large can (800g) of finely chopped tomatoes (If making this as a burrito filling use 1 X 400gram can)
• sea salt
• 2 x 400 g cans of Black Beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup of corn kernels fresh (one large ear) canned and drained or frozen (no need to defrost)
• 200-300g (4 – 6ounces) baby spinach, roughly chopped
• 1 lime, juiced.

1. Heat oil in a large saute pan to a medium high heat. Add onion, garlic, jalapeno pepper, bell pepper and a large pinch of salt. Saute until soften about 4-5 minutes.
2. Lower heat a little and add cumin, 2 teaspoons of chilli powder and two tablespoons of tomato paste. Saute for another minute or so until spices and tomato paste sizzle and are fragrant (About a minute) Add tomatoes and simmer for another few minutes then add beans 1-2 teaspoons of salt and simmer for ten minutes with the lid off. If the chilli gets too dry add a little bit more water. Add corn and cook until tender. Check for seasonings – salt and chilli. Add lime juice now and check for balance of flavors
3. Just before serving add baby spinach and gently cook until spinach melts down.
4. Serving with toppings of choice, hot sauce and lime wedges on the side – Sour cream is almost essential but if you want to keep this vegan this cashew sour cream from Oh She Glows is also really, really good.