Turkey and Three Bean Chilli

Ingredients

• 700 g turkey mince
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 red peppers, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 2 tbsp chipotle in adobo
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin of kidney beans, drained
• 1 tin of black beans, drained
• 1 tin of cannellini beans, drained
• 300 ml chicken stock
• juice of 2 limes

Method

1. Soften the vegetables first

   Cook the onions, peppers and garlic in the oil until soft and sweet. With turkey there is almost no fat to build flavour on, so the vegetable base has to carry more of the work than it would in a beef chilli.

   12 min

2. Brown the turkey properly

   Push the vegetables aside, turn the heat up and add the turkey in two batches, spreading it out and leaving it to colour. Turkey is very lean and goes from pale to dry quickly — you want browning, not long cooking.

   10 min

3. Bloom the spices

   Stir in the cumin, paprika, chipotle and oregano and cook for a minute in the pan until fragrant.

   1 min

4. Simmer with the beans

   Add the tomatoes, all three tins of beans and the stock, and simmer uncovered until thickened. Mash a few of the cannellini beans against the side — their starch gives the body that the lean meat cannot.

   30 min

5. Finish

   Stir in the lime juice and season. Lean chilli always tastes flatter than a beef one, and the acid at the end is what makes up the difference.