Quick Chilli Con Carne with Chorizo and Sweet Potatoes
Serves 4 - 6
Ingredients
- 200g chorizo sausage
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 500g minced beef
- 125g/1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 red, orange or yellow pepper, stem and seeds removed and roughly chopped
- 16g/4 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 1 tablespoon Mexican Chilli Spice (See Recipe Notes)
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground back pepper
- 1 x 400g tin of red kidney beans or black beans
- 500g passata
- ½ - 1 teaspoon sugar or honey
- 30g/2 tablespoons tomato puree
You will also need:
- sweet potatoes - allow 1 per person
- grated cheddar cheese
- sour cream
- lime wedges
Instructions
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Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.
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Preheat the oven to Fan Oven 160°C /180°C/350°F/Gas 4
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First make the Chilli Con Carne with Chorizo: remove the skin from the sausages, if necessary. Slice one (or ¼) of the sausages into round slices and chop the remaining sausages into smaller pieces.
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Add the round slices of chorizo into a hot pan and cook on both sides until lightly browned and slightly crispy. Remove from the pan.
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As the chorizo cooks, peel and roughly chop the onion, remove the stem and seeds from the pepper/capsicum and roughly chop and peel the garlic. Blitz in a food processor until finely chopped and add to the oil from the chorizo in the pan. Add more olive oil, if necessary. Cook for around 5 minutes until soft and caramelised.
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Add the minced beef and uncooked, chopped chorizo and cook for a further 5 minutes or until browned.
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Add the remaining ingredients – beans, passata, tomato puree, Mexican spice, salt, pepper and sugar or honey, if necessary.
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Stir well and simmer, with the lid on, for a minimum of 30 minutes, but ideally for an hour. Stir from time to time.
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Prepare the Sweet Potatoes and load with Chorizo Chilli and Cheese: wash and dry the potatoes and prick, all over, with a fork.
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Bake in a preheated oven until soft. This will depend on the size of the potato and will take between 45 minutes to just over an hour.
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Remove from the oven and slice in half horizontally – be careful, they will be very hot.
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Place in a baking dish, skin side down.
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Scatter ⅔ of the grated cheese over the potatoes and pop under a grill until melted.
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Top with some hot Chorizo Chilli, to taste, and the remaining ⅓ of the cheese.
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Pop back under the grill until the cheese has melted.
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Spoon over some sour cream, to taste, and scatter over the remaining sliced chorizo.
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Serve with wedges of chilli and, if you like, you can also scatter on some fresh coriander, sliced fresh chilli, chopped tomatoes and chopped avocado. Enjoy – I know you will!
Recipe Notes
Equipment:
- kitchen scales and measuring spoons
- large cast iron skillet, frying pan, saucepan or casserole
- chopping board and knife
- food processor
- baking dish
- cheese grater
Make this dish from pre-made Chilli Con Carne
If you have made a large batch of Chilli Con Carne and want to use leftovers to make a dish similar to this you can:
- For a kilo of cooked chilli, you will need around 400g chorizo sausages. If you have less or more Chilli Con Carne, you can scale the chorizo, cheese and sour cream up or down.
- Remove the skin from the sausages, if necessary. Slice one (or ¼) of the sausages into round slices and chop the remaining sausages into smaller pieces.
- Add the round slices of chorizo into a hot pan and cook on both sides until lightly browned and slightly crispy. Remove from the pan.
- Now add the remaining sausages to the pan and cook until lightly browned and slightly crispy. Stir into the leftover Chilli Con Carne
- Serve as described in this recipe with the remaining Chorizo slices scattered on the top.