Chili Con Carne

There are a lot of recipes out there for Chili Con Carne. A lot! And many of those recipes require you to cook the minced meat from scratch, which we normally don’t. If we have a little leftover Bolognaise Sauce for Pasta, which I usually cook in large batches and freeze, that’s what we will use to spice things up a little (literally!) with this easy, cheap and super quick Chili Con Carne.

Using up the leftover Bolognaise Sauce for Pasta to make Chili Con Carne just makes this dish so much more flavourful. Sure, you could just have the Bolognaise Sauce with some pasta for dinner but if you’ve already had that two nights in a row – which sometimes does happen to us when I defrost a tub of Bolognaise Sauce – then it’s Chili Con Carne night for us which we so enjoy. Here’s how to make this simple meal.

Ingredients:

2 Ladles of Bolognaise Sauce for Pasta

1 tin Beans in brine (drained)

*you can use any beans that you like

1-2 Chili Peppers (to taste), finely chopped

¼ Tsp. Cayenne pepper

¼ Tsp. Chili Powder

Salt and Pepper to taste

Spray ‘n’ Cook

1 Tbsp. Oil

*You can halve all the ingredients if you have a smaller amount of Bolognaise Sauce leftover and it will still yield a few reasonably sized portions.  

Method:

Spray a deep pan with Spray ‘n’ Cook, add the oil and allow to heat up. Fry the Chili peppers for a minute or two. Add the Bolognaise Sauce for Pasta, drained beans, spices and salt and pepper to taste. Cook on moderate heat for about 10-12 minutes and serve immediately.

Serve with:

A toasted, buttered bun or a slice of bread.

Rice or couscous.

Fried eggs.

Mashed or baked potatoes.

Pasta or noodles.

The last time we made Chili Con Carne with leftover Bolognaise Sauce for Pasta, we served it with a couple of ‘fancy’ fried eggs, as you can see in the photo. I honestly don’t know whose idea this originally was but it did its rounds on social media a while back and ever since then it’s been one of our favourite way of making ‘fancy’ fried eggs – I just love the taste. It also looks super appetizing on your plate!

It’s easy to make though. All you needs is a 2cm thick slice of green pepper. Slice the green pepper across to get a round shape. Heat up a frying pan a little, place the sliced green pepper, add a few drops of oil in the middle of the slice and allow it to heat up a little. Crack an egg inside and fry it. Use an egg lifter to remove it gently from the pan and onto a plate. It really goes well with a serving of Chili Con Carne and a slice of warm, buttered bread. Enjoy!

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