I first started playing around with a recipie for vegetable chilli when I found a tin of jackfruit in our local supermarket. Jackfruit is all the rage at the moment as a meat substitute as it has a texture similar to pulled pork and a mild taste so cit an be used in vegan pulled pork, chilli and other recipes with a spicy sauce.

Jackfruit is an extremely large, spiky tropical fruit which is sweet when ripe but for savoury cooking is eaten green. It is much less processed than many other meat substitutes but the important thing to remember if you are vegetarian or vegan is that jackfruit is low in protein so you can’t live by pulled jackfruit alone. As it must be imported from tropical climates there is also the environmental impact to be considered.

If you can’t get hold of jackfruit then substitute for mushrooms, which personally I prefer. The photographs are taken with mushrooms.

Ingredients

Beans

• 150g dried kidney beans or 1 can

Roasted vegetables

• 1 large onion
• 3 peppers of mixed colours
• 300g mushrooms or one can jackfruit
• 2 sticks of celery
• 1 courgette
• 1 large carrot
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Sauce

• 400g passata
• 1/2 tsp marmite
• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce (omit if vegetarian)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 star anise
• 1 green chilli sliced
• 1 chipotle chilli sliced
• 1/2 bottle of red wine

To Serve

• Cooked wholegrain rice
• Yoghurt
• Sliced Avocado
• Chopped coriander

Method

If using dried kidney beans then soak the beans overnight in plenty of water. Discard the water and place in a press cooker with sufficient water to cover. Cook on high pressure for 25 minutes then drain.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees c

Chop the vegetables for roasting in to 1cm pieces. Coat with oil and spices and roast for twenty minutes. You might need to spread them out over a couple of roasting pans so that they roast rather than steam.

Meanwhile put all the ingredients for the sauce in to a large pan and bring to a simmer and reduce down whilst the vegetables are cooking.

When the vegetables are cooked, add them to the sauce along with the drained kidney beans. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with cooked wholegrain rice and top with yoghurt, avocado and chopped coriander.