< Back to Main Blog Posted: Jan 2023

Chilli con Carne Recipe

COOK meals are perfect for when you fancy a night off cooking … something even the most passionate home cook needs now and again. But if you'd prefer to make it yourself, our recipe for a 2 portion is below. As freezer connoisseurs we'd always recommend batch cooking for the absolute best value recipe - scroll to the end for some tips.

Our shopping list for the recipe below included: 1 small onion, chilli flakes, 250g minced beef, beef stock, cocoa powder, tomato puree, chopped tomatoes, kidney beans, cannellini beans, fresh coriander. Everything else we had already.

Ingredients:

1 Small Onion, finely chopped
1 Garlic Clove, crushed
1 tbsp Rapeseed Oil
1 tsp Chilli Flakes
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Ground Cumin
250g Minced Beef 12% fat
200ml Beef Stock
1 tsp Soft Light Brown Sugar
1 tsp Cocoa Powder
50g Tomato Puree
150g Chopped Tomatoes
40g Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed
40g Cannellini Beans, drained and rinsed
1 Small Bunch Fresh Coriander, roughly chopped

Method:

STEP 1. Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a heavy stainless-steel saucepan over a gentle heat. Once hot, add the onion and cook until soft and slightly translucent. Add the garlic, chili flakes, paprika and ground cumin. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

STEP 2. Turn the heat up and add the minced beef to the pan. Fry the mince until slightly browned, breaking up any lumps with the back of the spoon.

STEP 3. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, sugar, beef stock and cocoa powder, mixing well.

STEP 4. Bring to the boil and stir, putting a lid on the pan. Turn down the heat until gently bubbling and leave it to simmer for 20 minutes.

STEP 5. Check on the pan occasionally, stir and make sure the sauce doesn’t catch on the bottom.

STEP 6. Remove the lid, add the beans and stir. Continue to simmer without the lid for five minutes (this will enable the sauce to reduce and thicken up).

STEP 7. Remove from the heat. If the sauce is a little thick add some water to achieve the desired consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir through half the chopped coriander.

STEP 8. Replace the lid and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes to infuse the flavours.

STEP 9. Serve with rice or a jacket potato and some soured cream using the remaining half of the chopped coriander to garnish.

Batch it up!

To save money, batch cooking is the way forward – it’s essentially why we can make recipes cheaper than you can at home.

With a bit of forethought, the right kit, space in the freezer and a few hours set aside, you can batch cook yourself by scaling up the quantities above.

A few tips:

Clean COOK fish pie trays can be really useful. Make your portion, freeze in the tray, then, once frozen, pop out and wrap in cling film to store (or, if you have lots of trays, just store in the tray).

To reheat from frozen, pop the frozen block into one of our ceramic dishes and cook at about 170C until piping hot.

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