Proper chilli

Revisiting my ideal vegetarian chilli + how I like to cook it now

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This chilli is one of the things I have cooked the most over the last ten years. It is, to me, the ideal, 10/10 vegetarian chilli. It's what I made in the days before I had both my babies. Then, John made it about once a week in those first few months. It's what I’ve cooked for both of my sons' first birthday parties. In short, it would be hard to find a recipe more cooked, loved or dear to me. It's a recipe I never get bored of, and as a person who hates to eat the same thing again and again, that says a lot.

When someone else has a baby, is ill, heartbroken or sad this is the thing I make. We portion it up into containers, make a jar of the thyme and chilli oil that goes with it, buy a big bag of basmati rice and drop it at the door. It will feed two people well for five dinners or so. It’s spoonable and comforting. It is, as much as a recipe can be, universally loved. It can be dressed up a lot of different ways so it tastes like 5 different meals (crucial).

It’s a recipe that's never failed me, an old faithful that always surprises me with just how good it is.

The recipe is from my first book “A Modern Way to Eat’. A collection of all the recipes I came up with when we first stopped eating meat and fish. This chilli recipe is the one I am perhaps the proudest of.

I named this recipe ‘Proper Chilli’ in 2012/13 maybe. I’m not sure I’d call it the same thing in 2025 but I’m stuck with it now. The chilli is one of few recipes in the book that doesn't have a picture - and we all know the ones without pictures are the ones no one likes to make. I feel sorry for those recipes - they never got a fair shot. But I do like that this little recipe has defied the odds and a lot of you have cooked and loved it. The little chilli that could. I wanted to give it its time in the sun and show it to you with actual pictures.

My Proper chilli with thyme oil

Let’s talk about the three things that I think make this chilli great;

• The choice of beans and grains - I use a mixture of lentils, black beans, bulgur wheat and quinoa. It may sound like a few too many ingredients but they come together to create a really pleasing chilli texture and unlike most vegetarian chilli recipes it’s not just a load of spicy beans. You can use any (cooked) beans or grains here but you might need to adjust cooking times and add more/less water.

• Ginger - there is spice and chilli here which is essential but nothing new or unusual. What lifts this chilli is the addition of some fresh ginger which is almost indecipherable but gives a freshness that I miss if it's not there. The addition of ginger is a Heidi Swanson trick.

• Cocoa - some cocoa is added here. Inspired by Mexican and Central American cooking, it creates the most rounded richness and depth - do not skip this step.

Proper chilli with tortillas, scrunched red cabbage with lime, pickled red onions and avocado.

I first made this 12 years ago and the recipe has changed and adapted with me. These are things I do differently to the original;

• I now mostly use pre-cooked tinned lentils (quicker, easier and actually, for this, I prefer them)

• I almost always use black beans (I gave bean options in the original - but I always choose black beans)

• I use red quinoa - not necessary but I enjoy all the dark tones

• I add more garlic - when I wrote my first book I was going through a not-adding-much-garlic phase, I now lean in to adding a lot of garlic so I use 8 instead of the original 4 cloves

• I try make it a day ahead, it tastes better as it sits

• I have upped the spices a little, more cumin, more chilli powder and added some smoked paprika

• If I’m making it for kids I dial down the chilli

• I would not name the recipe Proper chilli again I don’t think, maybe Most loved chilli? Most cooked Chilli? I welcome your thoughts….

Proper chilli with my Frizzled onion dip and tortillas

This makes a huge vat of chilli to generously serve 8-10. I love to make a big pot of this as it cooks for a while and it’s pretty low on work so it’s no hassle to make a lot. If you are cooking for 1 or 2 people you can easily halve the recipe.

These are the ways I like to eat the chilli;

• With the thyme and chill oil in the original recipe below, basmati rice, yoghurt/sour cream and a good grating of cheese - I like cheddar or manchego

• With warm flour tortillas, red cabbage scrunched with lime and salt, pickled red onions, avocado and sour cream eaten folded up like a taco

• With this spring onion yoghurt, pickled jalapenos and crispy tortilla chips to crumble over - kind of reverse nachos

• On a baked potato with cheese and lots of chilli sauce (I go for Valentina)

• As a taco or burrito filling

Whichever way you serve it there should be fresh lime for squeezing over and some kind of dairy - cheese, sour cream or yoghurt.

Proper Chilli

Here is some of the original intro - I might write it differently now but it feels cute (and John has graduated to husband now - reader, I married him etc);

My boyfriend John loves chilli, and since we moved away from eating meat I’ve been trying to put together something that I felt could stand up to the depth of flavour I had come to love about it before the switch. It has been a long time coming, but this is it.

I find most vegetarian chillies based around lots of beans to be a bit too filling and not very interesting to eat. This one uses lentils, some little beans and grains that give character and texture and seem to take on the punchy flavours much more readily.

Feel free to 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. Pearl barley, farro and amaranth also work well (but steer clear of couscous, 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 (which I would encourage), make sure you watch the liquid levels and top up if needed.

SERVES 8–10

FOR THE CHILLI

olive or rapeseed oil
2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
8 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
a thumb-size piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 red or green chilli, finely chopped
1 teaspoon good chilli powder
2 teaspoons of smoked paprika
1 tablespoon of cumin seeds, bashed
1 heaped tablespoon chipotle paste
3 × 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
2 tins of cooked Puy lentils (about 500g), drained
100g bulgur wheat
100g quinoa (I use the red kind here, but either will do)
1 × 400g tin of small beans (haricot, black or black-eyed)

1 heaped tablespoon good cocoa powder
1–2 litres vegetable stock
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE THYME OIL

6 tablespoons olive oil
2 green or red chillies, finely chopped
a small bunch of fresh thyme

TO SERVE

salted natural yoghurt
warmed corn tortillas

Cook the onions and garlic

First get out your biggest pot and place it on a medium heat. Add a splash of olive or rapeseed oil and cook the 2 chopped onions, 8 cloves chopped garlic, thumb of chopped ginger and finely chopped chilli for 10 minutes, until soft and sweet.

Add the spices

Now add the 1 teaspoon of chilli powder, 2 teaspoons of smoked paprika, 1 tablespoon of cumin seeds and stir around in the pan for a minute or two.

Add everything else

Then add all the tablespoon of chipotle paste, 3 tins of chopped tomatoes, 2 drained tins of Puy lentils, 100g of bulgur wheat, 100g of quinoa, 1 can of black beans with their liquid and a tablespoon of cocoa. Add 1 litre of the stock to start with, and keep the rest on hand to add as needed if the chilli starts to look a bit dry.

Simmer

Bring to a gentle boil, then turn the heat down to low and leave to simmer and blip away for 30–35 minutes, until the lentils are cooked and the chilli is deep and flavoursome. Add the remaining litre of stock as needed.

Make the thyme oil

Make a thyme oil by mixing the 6 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 finely chopped chillies and the leaves from a small bunch of thyme with a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

Finish the chilli

Taste your chilli and add a little more salt and pepper if you like. Serve in bowls, topped with a little yoghurt, a drizzle of thyme oil and some warmed corn tortillas for scooping.

Storage, freezing, leftovers

The cooked chilli can be kept covered in the fridge for up to 5 days. It can be kept in the freezer for up to 4 months, I reheat it in a pan with a little extra water until piping hot. See Ideas above for ways to use leftovers.

Things to click on:

• Some very on point thoughts

• This supper club will be excellent

• Olia Hercules’ strong roots

• Are my recipe intros too long?

• ‘In my underwear’

• A nostalgic sandwich

• The Great American Granola Exchange

• Miranda July at her kitchen table

• Veg forward recipes from Eastern Europe

• The world at our feet

• Can’t tell you how proud I am to have made it onto this shortlist