Nochevieja Chilli sin Carne

New Year's Eve Chilli without meat

Firstly, Happy New Year!!

Secondly, photos are not loading from my phone, so I'll add them later.

Thirdly, Chilli!

New Year's Eve with a Chilli by the bonfire down by the stream, among the orange trees you say? Yes, yes please!

I concocted a recipe from stuff we had about the place, use different stuff if you like, this was pretty lush though!

The stuff:

• 1 taza lentejas marrones/cup brown lentils
• 600ml aqua/water
• 1 cebolla/onion
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 3 dientes de ajo/garlic cloves 
• sobrante tallo de brócoli/ leftover broccoli stem
• algunas zanahorias/a few carrots
• algunos coliflor/some cauliflower - 1/4 of a head (?)
• algunas calabaza/some squash - 250g(?)
• 1 tsp azúcar/sugar
• algunos vinagre de ciruela/glug plum vinegar
• 1/2 tsp chilli en polvo/chilli powder
• 2 tsp comino molido/ground cumin
• 2 tsp semillas de cilantro/coriander seeds (crushed in a pestle)
• 1/2 tsp pimentón dulce/sweet paprika
• 1/2 tsp canela molida/ground cinnamon
• Sal y pimiento negro/salt and pepper (as per taste)
• 1 cup lentejas peladas/yellow split peas
• 800g lata de tomates/tin of tomatoes
• 400g tarro garbanzos/jar chickpeas

And yes, I am practising my Spanish, but that's my fix for the post though...

The how:

1. So, get them lovely brown lentils with the water in a saucepan and on to boil - about 20 mins until almost cooked or 'al dente'.
2. Meanwhile in the next 20 minutes, at a stove near you, get the oil in a big ol' pan that you'll be cooking the whole thing in and whack up the heat.
3. Find a chopping board, in the dishwasher, dirty, tend to this, find a knife in same state as chopping board, *good start, don't add that to the blog* *ahem*. Roughly chop up the onion, realise something's a bit smoky in here, take pan off flame, open window. Once a bit less nuclear stick onion in pan and back on the heat, nice a hot (but keep an eye on it this time).
4. Return to chopping board, stirring onions occasionally, crush and smush garlic cloves and roughly massacre the rest of the veg: broc, carrots, cauli and squish.
5. Now for some stickyness *mmm*, add sugar to onion, stir, let it get a bit gloopy, add a glug of vinegar, more mixy, more gloop. Theory is a caramelised onion base - naughty!
6. Check lentils, burn tongue on spoon (not Señor), take off heat if ready, don't drain!
7. Now, add all the spices to the gloopy mess and stiiiiiiiir, let them have a few minutes.
8. Add all chopped veg: garlic, broc, carrots, cauli and squish, stir into gloop.
9. Add the yellow split peas, tomatoes, and the entire pan of lentils (as long as they're done), water and all! Stir, stir, stir.
10. Check seasoning, be bold about the spice and add another 1/2 tsp of chilli powder, 1 tsp sugar, plus s&p.
11. Boil, simmer, simmer (with a lid on), until split peas have turned to mush and veg is cooked, I usefully didn't time it...40 mins(?)
12. Take off heat, taste test: add as needed, realise you've forgotten to add the chickpeas, drain, rinse and add, plus some oregano as you saw it on the self and thought why not?! Stir.
13. Admire chilli lovelyness, don't take photo for your blog because your phone is dead and the lighting in here is rubbish.
14. Leave on stove until bonfire is lit, roast potatoes are cooked and you're ready to see the New Year in (give it a blast of heat before serving).

That's it.

We just had two, generous, portions from this giant chilli - I'll see how many we get out of it and report back, plus the other things we have with it or concoct with it...

Happy New Year's Day!


Reporting back - 05/01/15:
I had grand idea of eating the left overs with exciting side dishes, as I suppose you could, but we went with homemade bread and generous portions! So this giant chilli did 6 generous portions, I reckon you could stretch it to 8, if you so fancied...LS x