Vegan chickpea chili

So I had a bit of a nightmare. I don’t know whether it has ever happened to you; when you get a little overly ambitious with how spicy you can handle your chili? Well it happened to me. I had bought all the ingredients, I had big plans and high hopes for my mixed bean vegan dish but after getting a little bit spice-happy I had to accept failure. My chili was far too hot. So I tried again.

This time I was limited by ingredients. I no longer had any mixed beans and instead only had chickpeas. I’m not sure that I’m not sure how far this passes as a chili but it worked well and I liked it a lot. It is warming and filling… there is something comfy about it. And it is versatile too; you can pair it with lots of things, homemade wedges, avocado on toast… the list goes on.  I even liked it just as much (or more I dare say) the next day when I had it with a little salad for lunch!

Chickpea chili: (Serves 3-4)

½ tbsp of coconut oil

1 brown onion

1 clove of garlic

½ tsp chilli powder

½ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp cinnamon

Sea salt

Ground black pepper

1/2  cup of water

1 can of chopped tomatoes

1 carrot

1 parsnip

1 red bell pepper

1 can of chickpeas

Directions:

Begin by preparing your vegetables; finely chopping the onion, garlic, carrot and pepper and grating the parsnip. Melt the oil in a large saucepan on a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, spices and seasoning, stirring to coat. Next add the remaining ingredients; the chopped tomatoes, water, vegetables and chickpeas. Turn down the heat and allow the mixture to simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure the chili doesn’t stick. Serve up! Enjoy with anything from avocado on toast, to rice or homemade potato wedges!