Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I did some batch cooking today – chilli mince, a favourite! Cheap meal with LOTS of goodies in it… and a lot of chilli. Here’s a sort of recipe, but it’s one of those home cooking/comfort food dishes where you put in a bit of this and a bit of that – whatever you have to hand at the time.

• 1kg lean beef mince (2lb ground beef for the Americans)
• 2 onions, diced
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 or 2 sticks of celery, chopped
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• 4 large-ish mushrooms, chopped
• 1/2 red capsicum (red pepper), chopped
• 2 cans kidney beans
• 1 can chopped/diced tomatoes
• 1 packet chilli con carne mix (I use “Old El Paso”)
• 1 good shake of McCormick’s Spicy BBQ spice
• 1 good shake cajun spice
• 1 big dollop of a fiery chilli sauce! (if you’re not a big chilli fan, leave this out)

In a large pot (I use a soup pot), lightly fry the diced onions in a squirt of olive oil. Add the carrots and celery. Crumble in the mince and brown it. Stir in the can of tomatoes and the cans of red kidney beans. Add the mushrooms, zucchini, and red capsicum. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring every so often so that it doesn’t stick. Add all the spices and the chilli – mix in well. Simmer for about 40 mins, stirring every 5-10 minutes.

While it tastes good straight away, it tastes even better after a day! I usually put the mix into takeaway containers and freeze it in meal size packs. This recipe above created at least 5 meals for the two of us.

Serving suggestions:

• over pasta as a Bolognese sauce
• with rice
• as the base for Shepherd’s/potato pie
• as the meat part of nachos