Vegetarian chilli-bean soup.

I haven’t been here for a while but, after a Christmas where health featured quite heavily, I decided to have a life rethink and one of those thoughts was that I wasn’t achieving what I wanted from my existence. 

Writing is all very well but it’s just one small facet. 

I’ve always wanted to be a vegetarian and even managed to convince the family a few years ago but, after about a year we all fell off the wagon. But I’m not getting any younger and, now that the kids are older I decided to jump the meat ship just before Christmas. 

This isn’t just for January. This is me for life. 

There was no planning and that first week I was finding it increasingly difficult to find anything in the cupboard that I wanted to eat. I’m also low carb, low salt and low sugar, which makes for an interesting diet but it’s my decision and I’m not moaning, just trying to work around it. 

Low carb is great although I’m not a slave to it. I just avoid bread and potatoes most days. I’ve never added salt to anything apart from porridge and dough so that was easy too. Low sugar is also easy as I don’t have a sweet tooth, giving up bread has been much harder. But giving up meat…

I’m not a brilliant cook but, more importantly, I don’t have either the time or the inclination to spend long periods in the kitchen when I could be writing.  The following recipe is a store cupboard accident and the purists will frown at the use of tinned but these ingredients can be easily substituted for dried beans and fresh tomatoes and I would have if I’d had any in the cupboard. 

This is cheap, quick, easy, low calorie and vegan as well as vegetarian but, I’m going to add either some feta cheese or a soft poached egg to the top of mine before serving to make up for the lack of crusty bread 😉. And while it’s cooking I’m going to continue editing my next masterpiece, a crime thriller set in Wales. 

Nutrients

Calorie wise it’s 240 calories for a large bowl but that’s a lot of soup! It meets all of the 5 a day in one bowl and is low in salt and only 10% the RDA of sugar. 

Recipe

One tin tomatoes

One tin mixed beans

One small onion

I clove garlic

Teaspoon of oregano and basil

I small hot chilli

1 teaspoon olive oil

Method

Purée onion and garlic, soften in 1 teaspoon olive oil. Add beans and tomatoes. Bring to boil and simmer for ten minutes. Pop in blender, add water to make it the correct consistency for you before serving. 

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