Recipe: bean and/or mince chilli to feed an army

Every now and then I like to do a huge batch of cooking. There are certain recipes that are a bit too much hassle to do well to feed two people on one evening - but scarcely any more effort to cook a huge quantity.

They tend to be recipes for delicious, relatively cheap food - dal, spaghetti bolognese, and this one - chilli.

I like waiting until I have a quiet Sunday afternoon and doing my future self a favour - cooking a huge pot of food, and freezing it up into two person portions in old takeaway containers to be defrosted and eaten, once a week or so, over the next month.

I know from experience that as I come home from work to a beautiful slow-cooked meal that actually took me ten minutes to throw together, I am deeply grateful for the little time spent a week or two before.

This time, I made chilli. I looked for recipes, but in a house with about 30 recipe books I found I only had two - a 30 year old Delia Smith that only had one spice in it, and a Nigella Express that cheats slightly eccentrically, with chorizo and sweet chilli sauce.

So I made up my own. Because we're trying to save money and eat more healthily, I've scaled down the meat and upped the beans. You could skip one or other altogether, to be honest - just double up the quantity of meat or beans.

I was planning to do enough for four meals, but as it bubbled over the top of my very biggest pot, I realised I'd overdone it slightly. It filled five takeaway containers - enough for ten hungry people. At a portion cost of about £1 a head, I reckon, and that's shopping at Waitrose, something I happily pay a premium to do because I don't want to kill people while I'm in there.

You'll see there's cocoa in the ingredients. Don't panic, try it. But do use cocoa, not sweetened drinking chocolate! This version is quite mild with a slight kick - if you like it hot, double the chilli.

Ingredients (serves 10, it turns out. Halved will serve four hungry people!)

1kg mince
Four cans beans - I used three kidney, one black beans, because three packs of kidney beans were cheaper. Drained and rinsed.
Four can tomatoes, or two huge ones
Two onions, diced
4-5 cloves garlic, sliced
Four peppers, diced
Two red chillis, chopped
1 tbsp cinammon
1tbsp ground coriander
1tbsp ground cumin
2tsp cocoa powder

Soften the onion, garlic, chillis and peppers in a large (enormous!) casserole dish.
Add the mince and stir till brown.
Add the beans, tomatoes, spices and cocoa.
Boil away till reduced - half an hour to an hour, depending on how much of a vat you're produced. Stir it every now and then so it doesn't stick.

Portion up, cool down and freeze.
I'll have some of this with baked potatoes and sour cream, some with rice topped with a bit of cheese, some with tacos - and if I'm feeling adventurous, I might try to turn some into burritos.