Chilli con Carne
Chilli con carne is simple, cheap and delicious. It is easy to adapt, simple to add veg to, and can be batch cooked to save time and money for the future, too! We’ve gathered some expert tips and small steps to help you take your current chilli from good to great!
Why is chilli so great?
Chilli con carne is simple, cheap and delicious. Spice levels can be adjusted to suit adults and children and it is easy to add veg to without changing the flavour or texture of the dish. By adding more veg and less meat, you’ll make your money go further all while eating better.
Its adaptability means chilli can be as healthy, cheap, easy and quick as you choose to make it, meaning it’s a perfect basic family recipe to have under your belt to make small tweaks to over time.
You can make a big batch of chilli and eat different meals from it – over rice with guacamole one day, in a jacket potato with sour cream and sliced spring onions the next, then stuffed into a taco with some shredded lettuce and a little cheese for a third variation.
Finally, chilli is – as you can see from its variations – a great vehicle for trying a small amount of new veggies, perfect for kids! Try offering a couple of veg toppings and let them “build your own” chilli (find suggestions in our veg tips below).
Use the basic recipe, small tweaks and tips below to take your chilli from good to better!
How are your chilli con carne skills?
Getting
started
I’m just starting out.
Next
Level
I’m ready to take it to the next level.
Engaging
Kids
How can I get my kids involved and interested?
Getting Started
Chilli con carne is simple, cheap and delicious.
Spice levels can be adjusted to suit adults and children and it is easy to add veg to without changing the flavour or texture of the dish. By adding more veg and less meat, you’ll make your money go further all while eating better.
Here is a simple recipe for Chilli con carne which you can use as a base and build on over time…
Chilli Con Carne
Claire Wright
Ingredients:
Minced meat or veggie alternative
A jar of chilli sauce
Tinned kidney or black beans
Method:
- Cook the mince in a pan with a little oil until browned and cooked through. Pour in the chilli tomato sauce and simmer for a few mins until heated through.
- Drain and rinse the beans, then add to the sauce and cook for another 2-3 mins until everything is hot.
- Serve with cooked rice or couscous.
There is no need to go any further with this recipe until you are confident with it and feel up for the next step.
Feeling ready? Let’s see how you can get your next small victory without battles…
Engaging Kids
Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.
Kids in the kitchen
You could get the kids to help with browning the mince, or getting the rice ready.
Activities
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.
Sensory
Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.
Serving
The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.
NEXT LEVEL
I Want To Improve My Chilli con carne
If you are feeling confident with your favourite spag bol recipe, but you’re wondering if there are some small tweaks you could make for the better, this is for you.
We’ve outlined some simple stages for continually improving on a basic chilli to get you from good to great. Find where you feel your current recipe sits and see if the next step is something you could aim for. You don’t have to go any further, but if you choose to, make sure you are feeling confident with this new stage before you try the next one.
And remember, the MOST important thing is that the family enjoys the meal! These changes and swaps can take as long as is needed if your family isn’t ready for big changes all in one go. Small simple improvements over time may not even be noticed.
And remember, the MOST important thing is that the family enjoys the meal! These changes and swaps can take as long as is needed if your family isn’t ready for big changes all in one go. Small simple improvements over time may not even be noticed.
Better Sauce
Read the labels on jars of sauce or chilli spice mixes and make changes as slowly as needed for your family, gently moving them towards lower sugar, salt and fat options and ingredients you recognise.
Swapping a ready-made tomato or chilli sauce for tinned chopped tomatoes and a couple of ground spices can often help the budget as well as the salt and sugar content.
If you have a little time to make and store a big batch of homemade sauce for a few meals, why not try our rainbow veg sauce? Rainbow veg sauce is perfect for when you’re busy, as it’s a super quick way to get an excellent mix of veg into your kids and helps to produce tasty meals in a flash!
Making meals go further
With food budgets being stretched, meat can be expensive. Using veg and pulses can help a meal go further without noticeably altering the taste and texture. This not only saves you money, it also helps you get a little closer to 5-a-day! Go at your pace and work through the stages to build up to 50% meat and 50% pulses/veg over time if you can.
For a chilli, try a tin of cooked lentils, drained, rinsed and added for the last couple of mins of cooking, or add the more classic kidney or black beans. If you think it will be turned down, try starting with just half a tin and perhaps even blending it into the sauce and just reduce the meat while adding more lentils and/or beans slowly each time you make the meal.
Add veg
Adding veg means adding bulk, vitamins and fibre, so you can fill up hungry bellies while making a favourite meal cheaper, more filling and healthier! For the best chance of success, start small (with a veg you know the family like if possible), add a little more each time, don’t try to hide it, and build up over time.
Aim for 2 handfuls of veg per person in the long-run, but it’s better to go slowly and get there eventually than to rush to the finish line and find no one is ready to get there with you.
- Start with frozen veg – there is less waste, it’s cheaper and easier to add a little more each time. Try sliced peppers, sweetcorn, or chopped squash or sweet potatoes, baby leaf or chopped spinach, or even chargrilled veggies (check packet instructions, but most can be added towards the end of cooking time).
- If using fresh veg, make sure it is added at the start and allow time for it to soften in a little oil before adding the protein, and sauce. Try finely diced fresh carrots, onions and celery, sliced peppers or mushrooms.
- Chilli is a great base with which to lay out some raw fresh veggies as “optional toppings” – place them on the table when serving and see if the kids can be tempted (or challenged) to load up their bowls of chilli! Try ripe sliced or mashed avocado, sliced spring onions, fresh tomatoes (or salsa) and shredded lettuce or cabbage.
- While most veg will work here, ones that may not do quite so well are: cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, sprouts, parsnips, swede/turnips, celeriac, beetroot, asparagus, sugar snap peas, salad leaves.
Don’t forget that the MOST important thing is that the family enjoys the meal! There’s no rush, and no pressure in not getting to 2 portions per serve.
Batch cooking
Once you are happy with your recipe, why not batch cook and freeze extra to save you future time, effort and money? Chilli con carne batches really well, just batch and freeze for up to 3 months and heat through to piping hot while you cook some rice to go with it, or keep in the fridge for a few days.
Not sure if batch cooking is for you? People often think batch cooking means you have to have a big freezer and a slow cooker. But while those things can be helpful, they’re definitely not essential. Find out more about how to start small with batch cooking in our guide.
engaging kids
Play is essential!
Think of children helping in the kitchen as a role play game with plenty of fun for maximum effect. One of the best ways to develop a love of veg in kids is to get them involved in the prep of the veg. Not only is cooking an essential life skill for kids to learn, but it’s a great, fun way to get them engaging with healthy foods!
Cooking with kids
One of the best ways to develop a love of veg in kids is to get them involved in the prep of the veg. Not only is cooking an essential life skill for kids to learn, but it’s a great, fun way to get them engaging with healthy foods! They don’t have to be involved in the whole process especially when they are very young (let’s keep the mess to a minimum!), just give them 1-2 smaller jobs they can own with some supervision.
If you are making a Spaghetti Bolognese, why not get younger kids stirring the sauce into the pasta, putting the kettle on for spaghetti, sprinkling cheese over the dinner, and chucking a couple of handfuls of your chosen veg into the pan.
Older kids might be ready to learn how to chop some fresh veg to add at the start of the meal, stir everything together in the pan, and grating cheese to serve!
See if they can tick off our Kitchen Ninja skills over time as you all get used to the recipe.
Arts & crafts
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging veg-based arts & crafts can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory.
Use these arts & crafts as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. While you make your spag bol tomato sauce, why not set them up with our tomato face masks?
Games & puzzles
Like arts & crafts, games & puzzles are a very safe way to get veggies to become more familiar and takes any pressure off eating or engaging their senses around veg for now.
A great place to start with chilli might be our sweetcorn Top Secret Code game!
Sensory
Sensory engagement with veg is possibly the best way to get children to slowly become more familiar with a veg. Take away the pressure to taste for now (and remember that ‘tasting’ could be expanded to include sniffing, licking and smelling) and instead encourage exploring a veg with a sense of smell, hearing, touch or sight.
Why not start with a spoonful of tinned sweetcorn and get them to describe what they feel – maybe they are “bumpy” or feel like tiny pebbles or gemstones! See if they want to chuck some into the chilli after having engaged with them.
Serving
If your kids aren’t ready to be in the kitchen helping with part of the prep or cooking process, why not give them a job around the serving that could help them feel involved in the meal?
A crafty kid may like to design a beautiful menu, one who likes to help can lay the table. One may like to help you plate up the food, another may love to give the meal a theme! If you can (and we know it’s not always possible), try to eat with the kids, as they are much more likely to eat healthier food if they see it being eaten (and enjoyed!) by their families.
Why not let your child be in charge of toppings? Let them choose a couple from our list of suggested fresh veg toppings and help them serve into bowls that can go on the table for a build-your-own chilli dinner. Make sure to praise them for their choices as you pile them on your own chilli, it may encourage them to try some on theirs!
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