Jemmas Chilli con Carne
Super Tasty Chilli con Carne
This delicious classic dish can be a real family favourite so I hope you enjoy it. Packed with immune boosting onions and garlic, iron rich beef and kidney beans to help keep your fibre intake optimal, this dinner ticks lots of boxes on the health front. This recipe serves approx. 4 adult size portions but I say double it, and get 4 extra portions in the freezer to get you through the predicted cold spell in the coming weeks! You can make this either on your hob or slow-cooker. Serve with some avocado slices and steamed rice.
• 1 tbsp olive oil/steamed coconut oil (no coconut taste)
• 2 large red onions, finely sliced
• 4 cloves of crushed garlic
• 2 tbsp mild chilli powder – reduce to 1tbsp if the kiddies don’t like the heat!
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1kg minced beef
• 400g tin of chopped tomatoes/plum tomatoes
• 3 x 400g tins of red kidney beans, rinsed in a sieve
• 2 beef stock cubes
• 200mls of water
• 2 large red peppers, chopped
• 10 sundried tomatoes – optional but they do give amazing flavour
1. Heat your oven to 150C/fan 130C/gas 3. Heat the oil, preferably in a large lidded casserole dish, and fry the onions until soft. Add the garlic, spices and oregano and cook for 1 min, then gradually add the mince, stirring well until browned. Stir in the tomatoes, water and then crumble in the stock cubes and mix.
2. Cover and simmer gently for 30 mins, stirring occasionally. Stir in the peppers and sundried tomatoes, then cook for a further 30 mins. Then stir in the beans and simmer gently for 3-5 minutes, until the beans have warmed through.
3. If you want to use a slow cooker, fry your onions in a pan for 8 mins, then add your garlic, spices and oregano and cook for a minute. Tip all of the ingredients into your slow cooker, crumble in the stock cubes and mix well to break up the minced beef. Cook on Low for 8 hours, then serve.
The love affair with the slow cooker continues. Since I've gone back to full time work I'm just in awe of how people get dinner on the table day in day out. This is where the reliance on the slow cooker comes from. I'm an early riser. Is it from the farm alarm from years ago or is it from being a mother of four? I don't know. My family are all insomniacs so it's possibly just that. Throw in the worry wart gene and sleep alludes me. So getting up early is generally not a problem unless I've just gone asleep. Anyway, it's something I'm trying to improve. So to fire food into the slow cooker early morning is easy for me. But for those who think they don't have time to do it in the morning, I promise you, what would take you half the evening, only takes five or ten minutes in the morning. Love it. So try this. You'll also love the smell when you get home and can light the fire while the rice is cooking. The cold is coming... Enjoy, the butchers wife xx
Winter Warmers
Winter Warmer Slow Cooker Beef
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb/680gms. diced beef, cut into 2" pieces
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, sliced thinly
2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
8 oz/225 gm sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup/85gms. pearl barley
900mls chicken stock
1 tbsp. soy sauce
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Method:
1. Put the beef in a large mixing bowl, and pat it dry with paper towels. Season generously with salt and pepper.
2. Preheat a large cast-iron or heavy pan over a high heat. Drizzle with olive oil and sear meat on all sides until golden brown with a crust, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer meat to the slow cooker. Reduce heat to medium and add garlic, onions, carrots and thyme and season with salt and pepper. Scrape the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen all browned meat bits and cook 3 to 4 minutes. If needed, add a splash of water to fully deglaze the pan and then transfer to your slow cooker.
3. Add mushrooms, barley, stock and soy sauce; cook on low for 6-8 hours. The meat should be very tender.
4. This would be delicious served with some steamed broccoli and basmati rice or baby potatoes.
Let’s Nutrify! Jemma’s tip
Slow cooking is not just an easier, tastier way to cook but it also a very wholesome way to cook too. Cooking at lowered heat over longer periods of time reduces potential damage to the delicate healthy omega 3 fatty acids contained in the meat and can also increase the release of antioxidant compounds such as beta carotene from the carrot also.
Tips from the butchers wife.
I can’t tell you how much I love my slow cooker. I just bought another one because I wanted a bigger one – It was €60 and you can put the pot on the hob so there’s no extra frying pan to wash. I usually cook in the morning (before I shower so I don’t smell like dinner all day). You could also put it on at night if the cooking in the morning proves a step too far but I find in the morning you just fly through it because there’s no time for faffing. No big tip this week except to say, get a slow cooker. Coming home to a warm dinner is just bliss!!
Shane Dineen fitness
Although this dish might take a few minutes longer to cook, it is a perfect pre workout if you are planning on training at a steady state aerobic session, as your body will use the fats as it’s main energy source. Along with that you are also getting huge recovery and health benefits from the large amount of vitamins and minerals. On a cold, wet night this is definitely one of my favourites.
So why not give this a go..... the slow cooker is a life saver. Warm nutitious meals after a long day.
Enjoy,
The butchers wife
xx