Baby Beef and Beetroot ‘Chilli’

Makes 5 mini-portions

Packed with veg and nicely spiced, this colourful ‘chilli’ is a versatile dinner for your little one. A word of warning though, it is a deep dark pink, courtesy of the beetroot, which may also have an effect on nappies! But it tastes great and has gone down a storm in The Food Wife HQ. The Food Baby has had it with rice and as a pizza topping; soon he’ll be having it with potatoes or pasta.

This contains herbs and spices, but no chilli (can it still be called a chilli then?!) but I chose to use a hot paprika to give it a little kick. I used a roasted red pepper from a jar (but you could just use a finely diced pepper). For the beans I actually used baked beans but you could use any of your choosing.

• Ingredients:
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 small red onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely diced
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 200g beef mince
• 4 mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1 (roasted) red pepper, finely chopped
• 1 small raw beetroot, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 3 tbsp cooked beans
• Pinch of pepper

Step 1: Put a pan on a medium
heat and add the oil and onion and cook for five or so minutes, until the onion has softened.

Step 2: Add the garlic, spices and oregano and stir, then add the beef mince and continue to stir every now and then while the mince browns.

Step 3: Add your vegetables along with the tomatoes and lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for about 15 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Finally, stir through the beans and season with a little ground pepper.

I made five portions out of this recipe, and froze them individually. You can adjust the vegetables you use and if you wanted to make this vegetarian/vegan just leave out the beef and up the mushrooms or replace with some cooked red lentils. Perhaps add some grated carrot and courgette to bulk it out further.