Vegan Bean Chilli and Two Vegan Recipe Book Reviews | Tin and Thyme (2024)

A delicious, warming and hearty vegetable stew made with aduki beans. This vegan bean chilli is just the sort of nourishing food to cook up for a crowd. Serve with rice, baked potatoes or crusty bread.

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As promised for this month of Veganuary, I’m trying to up the number of vegan meals I eat. This has been massively helped by the acquisition of two recently publishedvegan recipe books authored by talented fellow food bloggers.You’ll find reviews of the books below along witha recipe for veggie chilli which has been rather heavily adapted from one of them. Twas ever thus …

Bit of the Good Stuff by Sharon Collins

Sharon is a long standing plant-basedwhole food blogger over at Bit of the Good Stuff. Due to popular demand, Sharon self-published over a hundred of her recipes and created an excellent cookbook which I’m really excited about. Despite the wealth of recipes on the internet, I still love print cookbooks. So I desperately hope that online books won’t ever entirely replace them.

Bit of the Good Stuff is definitelymy kind of book. It’s not only beautifully illustrated, but the recipes are wholesome, hearty and delicious and everything is made from scratch. Sharon cooks the way I like to cook and uses similar ingredients. I guess that should be no surprise as she is a fellow member of the Suma Blogger’s Network.

Sharon starts byexplaining the benefits that a whole food plant-based diet have made to her and her family. It must be working; her 13 year old son has not yet had a single day off school through sickness. Sharon no longer has the aches, pains and sinusitis she did before adopting this way of eating and her husband has more stamina when mountain biking and rides faster than ever before. I’m not sure I’m ready to give up dairy yet, but I feel almost tempted.

If you struggle with getting kids to eat their five a day, Sharon throws in several tips on how to encourage themto love their veggies. She also outlines some ofher favourite ingredients and kitchen essentials. The recipes are dividedinto five chapters: breakfasts & elevenses; soups; lunches & light dinners; mains; desserts, treats & snacks. Time to get stuck in.

The recipes are family friendly, easy to follow and easy to make.Each one is accompanied by a clear and appealing photograph taken bySharon herself. How cool is that? I particularly like The Good Stuff, nuggets of nutritional informationthat accompany most of the recipes. The recipe for Chive & Onion Frittata with sun-dried tomato, for example, tells us that “onions are great immune-boosters and are packed with antibacterial, anti-inflamatory and antiviral nutrients”.

After I attended avegan cookery workshopat The Vegetarian Society last year, I bought myself a tub of nutritional yeast flakes. It has sat in my cupboard unopened ever since; I just never think to use it. Thanks to Sharon, I now have several recipes to try it in, including Cashew ‘Parmesan’, Mac ‘n’ Cheese and Spinach & Tofu Pie.

If you’re wanting to incorporatemore plant-based meals into your diet or you’re vegan and looking to widen your cooking repertoire, I can’t recommend this book highly enough. You can buy it online at the Bit of the Good Stuff’s bookshop. It’san absolute bargainat £14.99 plus p&p. For the month of January, you can get a 20% discount and delivery worldwide if you enter “VEGANUARY” at the check out.

You can also buy Bit of the Good Stuff:Over 100 Easy and Delicious Plant-Powered Recipes for All the Family to Enjoy*on Amazon.

I’ve only made one of the recipes so far, but I’ve got several bookmarked including: Green Pea Tostadas, Nut Koftas and Butternut Squash & Apricot Tagine. As regular readers will know, I can’t resist the sweet stuff, so I will have to try theseEasy Vegan Waffles, Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread and Giant Peanut Butter Cupsin due course.

Vegan Bean Chilli

As I’m almost incapable of following recipes and tend to use whatever I have available, I’m giving you the vegan bean chilli recipe I was inspired to make from the book, rather than the originalRainbow Veggie Chilli. You’ll need to head to Sharon’s blog for that, or better still buy the book.

The main task involved in making this vegan bean chilli is chopping all the veg. The rest is very quick and extremely simple. Start by frying the leeks and carrots in a large pan. Then add the remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil and simmer for thirty minutes. That’s all there is to it.

Use whatever vegetables you have to hand for this vegan bean chilli. It’s not worth going out to buy specific ones which may not be in season. I used leeks, carrots, red pepper, sweetcorn and mushrooms in mine. But differently coloured peppers, onions, celery, sweet potato, courgettes, peas, aubergine, pumpkin or squash are all good.

Aduki beans are small and tasty. They’re similar to black beans, but red in colour and they work particularly well in a veggie chilli. But do feel free to swap them for other beans such as red kidney or black.

Vegan in 15 by Kate Ford

With more and more people wanting to embrace a vegan lifestyle or at the very least attemptingto eat less meat and dairy meals, Kate’s Vegan in 15 is timely. It’s a great guide for the novice vegan shopper and cook as it contains over 60 quick-to-make recipes. You’ll find tips on going vegan as well as planning, shopping and cooking.

If you’re worried about nutrition and where you’ll get your protein and calcium from, Kate has you covered. She also gives a fairly comprehensive guide on stocking the store cupboard.

The bookcontains over 60 recipes and you can prepare them all in fifteen minutes or less. The recipes aredivided into sevenchapters: Easy Brunch, Speedy Soups, Salads, Fast Lunch, Small Plates, Main Courses and Decadent Desserts. The recipes are diverse; as well as the pasta, risotto and stews you’d expect to find, there are plenty of gems such as Tahini and Cashew Quinoa Bowl with Garlic and Ginger Mushrooms.

I do love a good breakfast, so what suggestions, I wondered did Kate have for us? Turns out she has some fabulous ideas.. Bubble and Squeak Fry-Up with Grilled Tomatoes sounds like a great start to the weekend, although I’ve also fallen for the Smashed Avocado on Toast with Crispy Spring Onions and Chilli Yoghurt.I’m rather wishing now that I’d tried the Hazelnut and Plum Porridge with Pumpkin Seeds for breakfast this morning. Luckily, there is always tomorrow

Yesterday, I made Cannellini Beans with Cavolo Nero. It was speedy and delicious, although in fact I substitutedborlotti beans and savoy cabbage as that’s what I had to hand. The recipe was very easy to follow, included alternatives to the cavolo nero and a useful top tip. Today I’m thinking I quite fancy the Speedy Bean Burger with Gherkins and Mustard Mayo or maybe Black Bean Tacos with avocado and Roasted Peppers.

Some of the recipes are cooked from scratch, some useready made products. Asmentionedearlier, I tend to cook most things from scratch, but it’s always useful to have a few standbys in the cupboard and I do occasionally resort to “cheat” ingredients. I’m sure I’m not the only one who is pressed fortime at some point or other.

I particularly like the handy little “check” symbol next to any ingredient that might contain animal products. It’s always a good idea to read the labels in my experience.

The recipes are mostly unillustrated, but there are a few photographs by Romas Foord in the middle of the book to whet your appetite. I’m rather taken by the picture of the Chocolate and Peanut Butter ‘Freakshake’ and even more so by the recipe. It’s a much healthier version of the ‘Freakshakes’ that have suddenly become so popular, but it still sounds decadent and delicious.

With two weeks of Veganuary left, now’s a good time to get hold of this book and try a few of the recipes. Published in pbk by Short Books, Vegan in 15: Delicious Plant-based recipes you can cook in 15 minutes or lessis widely available at £8.99. Kate’s blog, The Veg Space is well worth visiting too.

Other Vegan Stew Recipes You Might Like

• Carlin pea stew with red peppers
• Cypriot vegetable stew
• Oca peanut stew
• Ribollita
• Slow cooker vegetable stew with mushroom dumplings

Keep in Touch

Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this vegan bean chilli, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.

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If you’d like to see some more Mexican inspired recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.

Choclette x

Vegan Bean Chilli. PIN IT.

Vegan Bean Chilli – The Recipe

Sharing

I’m sending my vegan bean chilli off to Baking Queen and Farmersgirl Kitchen for the Slow Cooked Challenge. Whilst the chilli doesn’t take that long to cook, I slow cooked the aduki beans beforehand that I then used in the chilli.

A Bit of the Good StuffGiveaway

Sharon iskindly offering one Tin and Thyme reader a copy of her excellent book. To be in with a chance of winning, please fill in the Gleam widget below.You will need to leave a comment on this post, answering the question, which then gives you additional chances to enter if you so wish. Gleam will pick a winner at random from the entries received who will then be contacted via e-mail.

If you are commenting anonymously, please give me some way of identifying you as I verify the validity of all entries. Any automated entries will be disqualified. This giveaway is only open to those with a UK postal address. Winners will need to respond within 5 days of being contacted. Failure to do this may result in another winner being picked. There are no cash alternatives.

The bookis offered and provided by Sharon Collinsand Tin and Thymeaccepts no responsibility for the acts or defaults of said third party. Tin and Thyme reserves the right to cancel or amend the giveawayand these terms and conditions without notice.

Closing date is Thursday 16February 2017

Do takea look at the Tin and Thymegiveaways pageto see if there’s anything else you’d like to enter.

Bit of the Good Stuff

Thanks to Sharon and Katefor the books. I was not required to write positive reviews and as always, all opinions are my own. The post contains affiliate links which are marked by anasterisk*. Buying through a link will not cost you any more, but I will get a small commission. This helps to keep Tin and Thyme blithe and blogging.