13th October 2020

Leftover beef from your roast? How about a slow cooked chilli - just 15 mins hands on cooking time, 1-2 hours hands off. Perfect for after work. You can get it cooking then get a drink and relax.

If you are vegetarian or vegan, no problem, just use jackfruit, it cooks beautifully.

Fry off onion and garlic, add paprika, chilli powder and flakes (I like chipotle but use what you have), add the beef or jackfruit, add tomato purée, tomatoes, stock or water, sugar and season. Leave to cook for 1-2 hours. Add beans 20 mins before the end (I use kidney but again use what you have).

Leftover chilli? Use it to make empanadas.

Take 185g flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 85g butter, 50-60ml milk. Put everything into a food mixer and mix until a soft dough is formed. Divide into 6 balls of dough. Roll out until fairly thin. Put a spoonful of leftover chilli in the middle and pull two sides up - front and back - and join the seam the whole way along by pinching together from the top down one side then from the top down the other side. Reposition your empanada so the seam is against your board and push down on the seam very firmly as this ensures it is properly stuck together and won’t fall apart. Rhona then lightly rolled the seam to look pretty.

The whole thing took 15 mins to do, they cooked for 25 mins at 190c and were gone in a flash they were so good. Leftovers don’t have to be just reheated in the microwave, they can be given a whole new lease of life.