Vegan chocolate chilli with cornbread

This recipe is a tasty take on a chilli, with dark chocolate giving it a depth of flavour and adding an air of intrigue to the dish

Vegan chocolate chilli with cornbread

SERVES

6

PEOPLE

PREP TIME

20

MINUTES

COOKING TIME

50

MINUTES

Ingredients

  • For the chocolate chilli:

  • 4 garlic cloves

  • 2 medium leeks

  • 2 red peppers

  • 1 whole fresh chilli or ½ tsp ground chilli

  • 1 courgette

  • 2 tbsp oil

  • 1 tbsp cumin seeds

  • 2½ tsp salt

  • 1 tin of kidney beans

  • 2  tins of chopped tomatoes

  • 100g tomato purée

  • 1 tbsp ground coriander

  • 1 tbsp ground cumin

  • ½ tsp smoked paprika

  • ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

  • small bunch of fresh coriander (20g)

  • juice of ½ a lime

  • 50g vegan dark chocolate

  • For the cornbread:

  • 1 tbsp ground flax seeds

  • 3 tbsp water

  • 130g fine polenta

  • 85g buckwheat flour/rice flour

  • 2 tsp baking powder

  • ½ tsp salt

  • 80ml agave syrup

  • 90ml rice milk

  • 60ml rapeseed oil

  • To assemble:

  • 100g baby spinach

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.

  2. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Slice the leeks into rounds, including the green tops. Deseed the peppers and, if using fresh chilli, deseed and finely slice it lengthways. Chop the courgette into bite-size pieces.

  3. Heat the oil in a big saucepan and fry the leeks and garlic on a medium heat for five minutes, stirring regularly to make sure they don’t burn. Add the courgette and peppers along with the chilli, whole cumin seeds and salt, and fry for a further five minutes.

  4. Drain the kidney beans and rinse thoroughly. Add to the pan together with the tinned tomatoes, tomato purée, ground coriander, ground cumin, paprika and black pepper. Turn the heat up to high and bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer, add the chocolate and leave to simmer for a further 10 minutes.

  5. Finely chop the fresh coriander and mix it into the chilli with the lime juice. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

  6. To make the cornbread, first mix the ground flax and water together in a small bowl to make ‘flax eggs’. Leave to sit for 10 minutes.

  7. Mix the rest of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix all the wet ingredients, then add the ‘flax eggs’ and stir in. Add the wet mix to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly until they form a dough.

  8. Put the chilli into a shallow pie dish (or an approximately 25cm quiche dish), spreading it evenly. Cover the chilli with the spinach leaves. Top it off with the cornbread dough, then put into the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes.

  9. Serve with a green salad and coconut yoghurt.

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