Ingredients

• 1½ tsp ground coriander
• 1½ tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
• 125g/4½oz onion (about ½)
• cut into chunks
• 3 garlic cloves
• crushed
• 125g/4½oz celery
• cut into 3cm/1¼in chunks
• 70g/2½oz fennel
• cut into 3cm/1¼in chunks
• 1 large carrot
• cut into 3cm/1¼in chunks
• 375g/13oz button mushrooms
• 1 red chilli
• 12g/½oz fresh root ginger
• finely grated or sliced
• 1 red pepper
• cut into large dice
• 100ml/3½fl oz rapeseed oil
• large pinch sea salt
• 100g/3½oz flageolet beans
• 260g/9½oz brown basmati rice
• 1 bay leaf
• 100g/3½oz tomato purée
• 200g/7oz piquillo peppers
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 x 240g tin red kidney beans (drained weight)
• 100g/3½oz brown sauce
• 2 tbsp vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
• 40g/1½oz chocolate (100 per cent cocoa solids)
• finely grated
• 10g coriander leaves
• roughly chopped
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

• For the toasted spices
• in a dry frying pan over a low–medium heat
• cook the spices for a minute – taking care to ensure you don’t burn them (you just want to extract the essential oils). Set aside.
• For the vegetable base
• add the onion
• garlic
• celery
• fennel
• carrot
• mushrooms
• chilli
• ginger and red pepper to a food processor. Pulse in 3-second bursts for 30 seconds
• until you have 2–3mm dice. This may need to be done in batches depending on the capacity of your food processor.
• Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and gently fry the vegetables
• toasted spices
• and a large pinch of salt for 10 minutes.
• For the rice
• in a separate large saucepan over a high heat
• bring 550ml/1 pint water to the boil and cook the flageolet beans for 10 minutes on a full boil until just tender. Lift the beans from the pan using a slotted spoon but keep the cooking liquor on the heat as you will use it to cook the rice. Reserve the beans.
• To finish the chilli
• add the tomato purée
• piquillo peppers and tinned tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the kidney beans
• cooked flageolet beans
• brown and Worcestershire sauces and leave to cook for a further 5 minutes.
• While the chilli is cooking
• cook the brown rice in the flageolet bean cooking liquor with the bay leaf and simmer for 15–20 minutes
• covered with a lid. Depending on the variety of rice
• it may take a few more minutes. Once cooked
• drain off any excess liquid and transfer to serving dishes.
• To finish
• stir in the grated chocolate. Taste and season with salt and pepper as required. Serve the chilli with the chopped coriander and brown rice alongside.