Slow Cooked Five Bean Chilli Recipe

I love my slow cooker.  It's taken me a while to see the full potential of my Crock Pot but I think I am now giving it the usage it deserves.  It is just so easy to throw the ingredients into the pot in the morning and then it is ready to serve up at dinner time with no further effort required.  The healthy, cooked from scratch meals are so easy to make and I feel like a domestic goddess (albeit fraudulently because it is just so easy to do!!)

Today I am making my lazy cook's Five Bean Chilli using Napolina beans.  Tinned beans are a main staple in our home.  They are convenient, nutritious and versatile plus I think they taste good too!

Ingredients

1 can of chopped tomatoes

1 carton of passata

2 chopped onions

2 cloves crushed garlic

2 teaspoons Gourmet Garden chilli

2 teaspoons Gourmet Garden coriander

1 can of Napolina butter beans

1 can of Napolina kidney beans

1 can of Napolina chick peas

1 can of brown lentils

1 can of Napolina cannelini beans

4 oz sliced mushrooms

1/4 pt of vegetable stock

(You can throw a bag of Quorn Mince into the pot an hour before serving if you like.)

Method

Literally throw it all in at 10am after the school run is done.

Serve it with rice and creme fraiche at 5pm when the kids are back home and hungry!  It's easy to make, nutritious, delicious and warming in this cold weather.

I was sent a selection of Napolina beans but the recipe is my own.  Napolina beans are priced at 79p a tin and are available from all good stockists.

Aldi vs Napolina

I'm continuing with my swap and save challenge for Aldi.  Today we put peeled plum tomatoes to the test, comparing brand leader Napolina against Aldi's Sweet Harvest.  Both tins came with a ring pull lid to open them, the ingredients list only had a 1% difference in the proportion of tomatoes to juice and both were a product of Italy.

The tomatoes inside were all whole.  The Napolina had seven smaller tomatoes whereas Aldi's had five bigger ones.  The only other discernible difference was that the Napolina tomatoes were a slightly redder colour. There was also one piece of skin in the Aldi one, but that is quite a common occurrence in tinned tomatoes and I just took it out...no big deal.  I mushed the tomatoes up to use in my dinner and both looked the same.  I tasted a spoonful of each and there was no difference (I'm not keen on tomatoes unless they are cooked into a meal, but they both tasted OK.)

Identical Tins

Aldi

Napolina

Aldi

Napolina

I used both tins in tonight's dinner (Quorn fillets in tomato and mushroom sauce served with pasta).  The difference in the two products is negligible and once cooked...they're the same.  So again, the cheaper alternative has measured up well against the more expensive brand leader!!