This is THE ultimate comfort food! And the great news is that if you’re trying to be healthy, you can just remove the cheese topping and then you’re on to a clean eating winner! I first had this meal at a restaurant about 10 years ago. They’ve since taken it off the menu, but it’s a firm favourite in my cooking repertoire.
It’s also a complete hit with the boy, which is even better. With autumn now well and truly here, this will definitely warm up those cold evenings.
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 400g of beef mince
- 1 x tin of chopped tomatoes
- 1 x onion
- 1 x clove of garlic
- 1 x red pepper
- 1 x can of kidney beans
- 1 x beef stock cube
- 4 or 5 large sweet potatoes
- 4 x slices of Mexicana cheese or cheddar
- Paprika, smoked paprika, chilli powder, salt and pepper for seasoning to taste
- Coconut oil to cook with
Method
- Start by prepping the veg. Chop the onion into small pieces. Cut the pepper in to bitesize chunks. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut in to small-ish pieces.
- Put the sweet potato into a saucepan and cover with boiling water. Leave to boil over a medium heat.
- In a large frying pan over a medium-low heat, heat the coconut oil and fry the onion until it starts to go transparent. Try not to let it brown.
- After about 5 mins, add in the beef mince. Stir this in with the onion and break it all up. Continue to cook until the mince has browned.
- Crush the clove of garlic in to the onion and mince, and add in the red pepper. Continue to fry for about another 5 minutes.
- Add in the seasoning. I like to add in a good amount of the different seasonings, so that it becomes flavourful and a little bit spicy. Also add in the beef stock cube.
- After stirring, add in the chopped tomatoes and kidney beans, and stir again.
- Turn down the heat and leave it to simmer.
- You can leave the chilli to simmer until the sweet potatoes are soft enough for mashing.
- Once softened, drain the sweet potato and put it back in the saucepan. Mash until it has a smooth consistency. Sweet potato is much easier to mash than normal potato, and so you should find that it doesn’t need any milk or butter.
- Take the chilli off the heat and pour it in to a large ovenproof dish. Flatten out so that it covers the entire bottom of the dish.
- Spoon the mash on top and flatten so that it’s all covered. According to the boy, it’s imperative that you then drag a fork across the mash to make a nice pattern.
- If using cheese, put the cheese on top of the mash.
- Place the dish in to an oven, pre-heated to 180 degrees. Leave to cook for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese has all melted and is starting to bubble.
- Enjoy the happy food coma that this will undoubtedly put you in!
You can easily eat this dish on it’s own, or you can serve with a side of greens.
Sammy x
