hippy farm beans

Tamra recommended this recipe from the Leon cookbook to me. It's a delicious mixture of fresh veggies and satisfying beans. I don't think they were as spicy as the recipe intended, maybe when I have the key ingredient, Linghams Garlic and Chilli Sauce, it will be as hot as it should be. In place of the sauce I added some honey, since I was guessing it is a sweet chilli sauce. (I also admit that I didn't have the guts to use three chillies; my excuse is that there were only two left in the fridge.) It was delicious!


I used courgette instead of aubergine because that's what came in my veg box this week.

Hippy Farm Beans
adapted from Leon: Ingredients and Recipes

olive oil
1 large aubergine, chopped, or 2 small courgettes
3 bell peppers, chopped
cumin
1 big onion, chopped
at least 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
at least 3 assorted fiery chillies, chopped
1 punnet (350 g) cherry tomatoes
1 tin chopped tomatoes
2 tins beans (one mixed and one kidney beans, for example), drained
Linghams Garlic and Chilli Sauce, or sweet chilli sauce
300 g spinach, washed
salt

Heat the pan with 4 T olive oil. Fry the aubergine and peppers for 15 minutes, until crispy. Season with salt and cumin. Remove from pan and cover.
Heat the pan again and fry the onion for a minute, then add the garlic and chillies.
After a few minutes add the cherry tomatoes.
After a few minutes, add the tinned tomatoes, aubergines, and peppers.
Bring to the boil, add the beans. Add a good glug of the sauce.
Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes covered, then [up to] an hour uncovered.
Turn off the heat and stir through the spinach until wilted.

The cookbook says to serve it with tortillas, avocado slices, lime wedges, and cheese, which all sounds very delicious. I instead made a side salad (more spinach was left from the veg box) and the crusty whole wheat bread I made earlier.