Foodie Friday: Chilli Bean Risotto

I’m typing this from my kitchen counter (standing up I might add) whilst I cook last night’s dinner – the deliciously simple chilli bean risotto. I thought it would make good fodder for my Friday post. Do you see what I did there?

Anyway, this is a great supper dish which I’ve been making since I was a student almost twenty years ago (that can’t be right, twenty years – what!!). I was veggie back then (natch) but found this dish satisfying. It’s about the only veggie dish that I still cook today. I think that it originally came from a BBC Vegetarian magazine but I may be wrong. Whatever, it’s been adapted down the years so probably bears little resemblance to the original recipe.

So, here’s what you need:

Glug of olive oil and a smidge of butter

1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped

Approx (and this is very rough) 125g risotto rice

Squirt of tomato puree

Large glug red wine

420g tin kidney beans in chilli sauce

500ml veg or chicken stock

Fresh coriander

Firstly heat the oil and butter over a medium heat in a heavy-based saucepan. When melted, add the chopped onion and saute for a few minutes until soft. Next, stir in the risotto rice and heat for a minute or so until it starts to turn translucent. Add the tomato paste and wine and stir until the wine has evaporated. Then add around 100ml of hot stock. The heat should be medium high at this stage to get things going. You can add the chilli beans now too. Once it starts to bubble, reduce to a low-medium heat and put a lid on the pan. You can now proceed as with any risotto, adding more liquid as necessary and stirring occasionally to release the starch and give a creamy texture. I’d say it takes around 30 minutes to cook properly, but if you’re in a rush, you could perhaps speed it up a tad. When all or most of the stock has been absorbed and the rice is al dente, you’re good to go. Just stir in some chopped fresh coriander and serve with a dollop of sour cream. Oh, and let me know what you think if you try it.

Meal Planning

Do you do it? I do (oooh, that’s sounds very self congratulatory – sorry). I was just jotting down ideas and thought I’d share this week’s menu with you.

I’ve done this for a good while now ever since we got sick of throwing food away because it was being bought and then not eaten for various reasons. Quite often we would also end up with plenty of food but nothing to make a decent meal with which is very annoying. So, we decided to meal plan with the aim of having seven dinners organised in advance and then compiling the shopping list with these in mind. We don’t worry too much beyond dinner, although maybe we should sort that out too. Another day…

Anyway, here’s what this week’s meal plan looks like chez nous (ours starts on a Wednesday as that’s when my Other Half does the big shop):

	Dinner	Need to Buy
Weds	Chicken Pie, mash and vegetables	Chicken pie
Thurs	Spicy chick peas and cous cous	Chick peas
Fri
Sat	Hot Chicken salad	Chicken breasts, salad leaves
Sun	Sausage & bean casserole	Sausages, borlotti beans, passata
Mon	Creamy tuna tomato penne
Tues	Quorn mince chilli & rice	Quorn mince

You’ll notice that Friday is empty. That’s because I haven’t thought of anything yet. Not as easy as it looks you see.

I’ll type up the ‘recipes’ next time in case any of you are wondering how to make any of our dinners. Most of them are my Other Half’s concoctions. Not only does he do the weekly shop, he also cooks most evenings too. Again, that sounds very smug – sorry. In my defence, I write the shopping list and cook the kids’ tea!

I’d be interested to hear about your shopping and cooking strategies – are you a planner or do you grab random items from the supermarket shelves? Leave a comment and let me know. Perhaps you could even give me an idea for Friday night’s dinner <hopeful>.