Mixed Bean & Beef Chilli Slow Cooker Style

This chilli uses no tomatoes.  No fresh tomatoes, no tinned tomatoes.

I’d bought some beef mince which I’d frozen recently and fancied a no fuss bean chilli, which doesn’t use tinned tomatoes.  While I’ll typically use a tin of tomatoes in a chilli, I’ve recently gone off the idea as I do find they make the chilli watery, which then needs thickening up, so I thought today I’d make a chilli without tomatoes.  I think I prefer to make chilli with baked beans and without tomatoes, using, instead, a tin of baked beans to provide the content and juice.

I knew I had a tin of baked beans and so had a look to see what other beans I had in the cupboard and found a tin of butter beans, so that was it!  I’d use up the frozen beef, with a selection of lurking tins, the last of my pack of onions and a lurking chilli from the freezer.

Ingredients:

• 450-500 grams lean beef mince, frozen or fresh
• 1 tin of baked beans
• 1 tin of butter beans
• 1 tin of sliced carrots
• 1-2 onions (I only had 1 small one today, but would typically have used 2 medium onions)
• 1 fresh red chilli
• 1 packet of chilli con carne mix

Method:

1. I put the still frozen beef mince straight into the slow cooker.  It does add time to the total cooking time, compared to fresh mince, but I don’t mind!
2. Pour the whole tin of baked beans and juice into the slow cooker. Use your empty bean can to add ¼ can of cold water to the slow cooker.
3. Open the can of butter beans and drain the liquid away, rinse the butter beans and add them to the slow cooker.
4. Slice/chop your onions and add them to the slow cooker.
5. Open and drain the can of carrots. Mash the carrots and add to the slow cooker.  Adding mashed carrots to a chilli bulks it out and thickens the sauce a little, adding texture and some of that 5-a-day stuff 🙂 You can use fresh carrots if you wish, if I’d had those I’d have microwaved 2-3 carrots, which takes just 3 minutes, then mashed those and added them
6. Open the pack of chilli con carne mix and tip it into the slow cooker.  I used a 27p sachet of Lidl Chilli Con Carne mix as it was so cheap… one of those random grab moments.
7. Slice/chop/grate the chilli into the slow cooker.
8. Put the lid on the slow cooker, turn it onto high power for about 2 hours, until you can see the contents bubbling.  Give it all a good stir, to break up the mince. Put the lid back on.  If you use fresh mince, rather than frozen beef mince in the slow cooker, you can reduce this initial cooking time by up to an hour; just go by looking to see when the mixture is bubbling.
9. Reduce the slow cooker to low and let it cook away for another 4 hours.  I like to give it a quick fiddle and stir just before I turn it down to low, so I can see how it’s looking!

Menu Cost ~£4.70: 

500g of mince costs £3-4, depending where you buy it, so let’s call that £3.50

The butter beans, baked beans and carrots cost a total of ~75p.  The onions cost ~8p each. The chilli con carne packet mix I bought was 27p. The fresh chilli was one of four in a packet that cost 45p, so 11p for that.

Adding that up means this would cost £3-4 for the beef mince and ~£1.20 for the other ingredients. This should make 3-4 portions, depending on portion size, how you serve it and what you serve it with!

Saving Money and Making This Recipe Cheaper: 

• I actually kept my eye out for some reduced price beef mince and bought this at half price, so the mince only cost me £2.  Just “bank” the recipe until you spot a reduced price pack – in the main, I don’t live near supermarkets that do reductions, I was just lucky this one day.  Today, due to this lucky find, this chilli has actually cost me about £3.20 to make.
• Omit the meat entirely and add another random tin of beans of your choice!  I’d add another onion if I were making a vegetarian bean chilli.
• You don’t have to use a bought packet of chilli con carne mix.  You can just use any chilli powder and other spices you’ve got.  I sometimes buy in a packet just because it’s easier/quicker than going through my spices to see what I’ve got and then deciding which to use and measuring them out… at 27p I’m prepared to pay that price for convenience; I don’t think 27p compares too shabbily versus having to buy whole packs of spices and have 2-3 of them kicking around…. I’d be reluctant to pay, say, £1 for a pack though!

Serving Bean & Beef Chilli

Today I think I might serve this with a portion of chips, maybe with cheesy chips!  I can decide at the last minute as I microwave chips, which takes just 8-9 minutes.

Here are some ways to serve chilli, if you need some ideas: 7 Ways to Serve Chilli con Carne