Vegetarian mains
Black bean and quinoa chilli with avocado salad
Quinoa has been much heralded in the last few years. It cooks with little fuss and is high in nutrients, vitamins, fibre and proteins. It has a very mild, nutty taste and makes a great bass note to a whole ensemble of ingredients. Combined with the beans, it makes this dish filling without needing rice on the side.
Ingredients
- 1 red onion
- 2 red romano peppers (any pepper is fine if you can't find romano)
- oil for frying e.g. sunflower
- 1 garlic clove
- 150g quinoa
- 1 tin black beans
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 200g passata
- ½ tsp chilli flakes – add to taste
- 1 tsp bouillon powder
- salt and pepper
- 1 fresh chilli
- 50g rocket
- 30g coriander
- 1 avocado
- 1 tsp chia seeds
- 1 lime
- olive oil
Method
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Step 1
Put the kettle on to boil. Peel and finely slice half the red onion. Deseed and roughly chop the peppers.
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Step 2
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a saucepan. Fry the onion and peppers for 5 mins, until starting to soften.
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Step 3
Meanwhile peel and finely chop 1 garlic clove. Rinse the quinoa in a sieve. Drain the black beans.
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Step 4
Add the garlic to the onion and fry for 1 min. Add the ground cumin, dried oregano, sweet smoked paprika, cinnamon, black beans, passata and half the chilli flakes to start with. Tip in the quinoa, bouillon powder and 400ml water from the kettle.
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Step 5
Bring up to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Cook gently for 20 mins, tasting towards the end and adding more chilli flakes if you like, to taste. The quinoa will absorb the liquid as it cooks; add a dash more water if it looks like it's drying out too much.
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Step 6
While the chilli cooks, dice the remaining onion half as finely as you can. Deseed and finely chop the chilli.
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Step 7
Wash and dry the rocket. Wash the coriander, shake it dry and roughly chop the leaves.
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Step 8
Remove the stone and skin from the avocado. Chop it into coarse dice.
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Step 9
In a bowl, mix the onion, avocado, rocket and chia seeds. Add half the chopped coriander and as much chilli as you fancy. Squeeze in the juice from half the lime and add 1 tbsp olive oil. Mix well and season.
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Step 10
When the chilli is ready, taste and adjust the seasoning. Stir in the remaining coriander. Divide it between two bowls and serve with the rocket salad and the remaining lime half, cut into wedges.