Lentil and Walnut Chilli

Ingredients

• 250 g green or puy lentils
• 100 g walnuts
• 250 g mushrooms, finely chopped
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 red peppers, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 tbsp chipotle in adobo
• 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin of black beans, drained
• 600 ml vegetable stock
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• juice of 2 limes

Method

1. Toast and chop the walnuts

   Toast the walnuts until fragrant, cool, then chop them to roughly the size of mince. They provide the fat and the chew that a meatless chilli otherwise has no way of getting.

   8 min

2. Brown the mushrooms hard

   Fry the chopped mushrooms in the oil over a high heat, past the point where they release their water, until they are properly browned. Undercooked, they leave the whole pot tasting damp.

   12 min

3. Build the base

   Add the onions, peppers and garlic and cook until soft and sweet.

   12 min

4. Bloom the spices

   Stir in the paprika, cumin and chipotle and cook for a minute in the oil, then add the lentils and stir to coat.

   1 min

5. Simmer

   Add the tomatoes, beans and stock and simmer until the lentils are tender but still holding their shape, about 30 minutes. Season only now — salted early, lentils stay stubbornly firm.

   30 min

6. Finish

   Stir in the walnuts and lime juice off the heat. The walnuts go in at the end so they keep some bite rather than softening into the sauce.