Chilli, you may be thinking, isn’t that impressive as a meal. It’s pretty standard. So why do I think it makes a great conversion meal? Well most people care about animal suffering and they’ll admit that vegan food tastes good but a lot of people think being vegan is impossibly hard.

Chilli is not impossibly hard. It’s easy. It’s tasty. You can save extras for leftovers, scale up for a large group, cook it on an open flame, cook it in your kitchen, serve it with rice or spuds, or spaghetti. It’s also ridiculously easy to convert your existing recipe to be animal free. You can use one of the meany veggie mince substitute on the market, fill it with veggies, or do what I do and bean it up.

Black Bean Chilli

1 tbsp oil
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 400g can of chopped tomatoes
1 400g can of black beans (or one cup dried beans cooked)
Salt to taste

1. Heat the oil in a pan over a medium high heat and add the onion, cook until translucent.

2. Add the garlic and spices and cook for 30 seconds or so until the spices are fragrant

3. Throw in the tomatoes, then fill your tomato can half full with water (or half empty) and pop that in the pan too. Add the can of black beans and simmer for twenty minutes.

4. Salt to taste and serve.

And that’s how easy it is to be vegan.