This is copied from a written recipe that Gabriela left me when we were living in London. Not yet tried adapting for dried stuff.

Ingredients

  • 2 cans of red kidney beans
  • 1 can of lentils
  • 1 can of tomato
  • 1 tray of mushrooms
  • 1 red onion
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1 aubergine (optional)
  • bay leaves
  • cumin
  • paprika
  • chilli powder
  • 2/3 red chillis

Converting ingredients

  • Kidney beans:

    If you need to use dried kidney beans instead then the rule of thumb is that dried beans roughly triple in weight when cooked. A 400g can of kidney beans yields about 240g of drained beans, so you will need to use about 80g dried beans per can (so for 4 cans use 320g dried beans).

  • Tomatoes: A can of tinned tomatoes is 400g; not sure what that corresponds to in normal tomatoes (given that you have to remove the insides). People on Internet are saying not to bother peeling them. We found that 1856g of her dad’s tomatoes, with seeds removed (i.e. not all the rest of the middle), and some of the stalky bit at the top removed, gave 1561g, so 84%.

  • Lentils:

    I work for a company that cans food and we produce tinned lentils… have just checked the specification and we put 115g dry lentils in a 410g can.

    500ml water, half a cube of stock crumbled, half a peeled garlic clove, half teaspoon salt, bay leaf (can be same if you double), cook on medium pressure for 5 min. Keep the water because apparently it’s tasty

(The pulses are all drained, including getting rid of the aforementioned tasty lentil water.)

Instructions

  1. Fry chopped onions with crushed garlic until soft
  2. Add mushrooms and fry until no water left
  3. Add lentils, bay leaf, cook for 5 min
  4. Add beans and tomato (and condiments) and simmer for 10 min (with fresh tomatoes we chopped them crudely as well, and with pressure-cooked beans we added the beans after simmering the tomatoes in order to not get mushy beans)
  5. Optional: Bake aubergine in 200C oven for 45 min, then slice in 2 and scoop out, add to chilli (Or in the air fryer, I think she did it on 160 for like half an hour?)

Serve with rice or cheese in taco shells.