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The 100% Dark Chocolate Three-Bean Chilli

The original. Three tins of beans, two tins of tomatoes, a mountain of spinach and three squares of 100% chocolate stirred in off the heat. Makes enough for two nights, which is most of the point.

serves 4 45 mins dinner vegan meal-prep spicy
The 100% Dark Chocolate Three-Bean Chilli

why it works

This is about as efficient a cholesterol-lowering meal as you can build. Three tins of beans is an enormous quantity of soluble fibre, which physically binds bile acids in the gut and drags them out rather than letting the liver recycle them. No animal fat anywhere, and the chocolate adds polyphenols with zero sugar.

Ingredients

  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1–2 tsp cumin
  • 1–2 tsp smoked paprika
  • ½ tsp chilli powder, or a fresh chilli
  • 1 tin black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 tin kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 tin pinto beans (or cannellini, or chickpeas), drained and rinsed
  • 2 tins chopped tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp tomato purée
  • lots of fresh spinach
  • 10–15g 100% dark chocolate (about 3 UK squares)

Method

  1. Soften the onion and garlic in a tiny splash of olive oil. Drop the cumin, paprika and chilli straight onto the hot onions and give them 30 seconds to wake up before any liquid goes near them.

  2. In with the tomato purée, both tins of tomatoes and all three tins of beans. Stir, bring to a gentle simmer, lid on, and leave it to bubble for at least 20–30 minutes so the beans actually absorb the spice rather than just sitting in it.

  3. Turn the heat off completely. Drop the chocolate straight into the hot chilli and stir until it melts entirely into the sauce. Stir the spinach through until it wilts.

  4. Rinse the beans hard, in cold water, before they go anywhere near the pan. It makes a genuine difference to how kind this is on everyone's digestion the next morning.

  5. Serve with proper sourdough rather than baguette — the slow fermentation drops the glycemic index right down, where refined white flour would spike straight through the fibre wall you've just built. Toast it and drizzle with olive oil.

Serve it with

remix

  • Cajun seasoning works brilliantly in place of the individual spices
  • Cannellini or chickpeas can stand in for any of the three tins
  • Add a diced bell pepper and some mushrooms with the onions for more volume
  • A tin of sweetcorn stirred in at the end gives it a Tex-Mex lean
  • Leftovers are better on night two. This is not a consolation, it's a fact