I love this recipe! If you’re a fan of chilli con carne you must give this a try. The slow cooking of the chilli with the spices and cocoa powder gives it a deep, rich  flavour and the tender, diced beef makes it really special.

This meal is like a great big hug!

This is a great dinner to make when you have friends for over. Although the overall cooking time is long, very little of it is actual hands on time.

I serve this with some roughly chopped coriander, rice and some chunky bread on the side.

Feeds 4

• 2 onions
• olive oil for frying
• 700g diced beef
• 2 tbls flour
• 2tsp paprika
• 2tsp cumin
• 2tsp cocoa powder
• 1tsp sugar
• 1tsp dried oregano
• 2tsp chilli powder
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 1 beef stock cube
• 2 cloves garlic (finely sliced
• 3 red chilli (de-seeded and finely sliced)
• 50ml cold water
• 2 x 400g tins kidney beans
• 2 x 500g tubs of passata

1. Finely slice the onions. Put them in a large frying pan with a little olive oil and fry on a low heat for 5 minutes, moving them around the pan occasionally.
2. Cut each of the diced beef chunks into thirds. This is a little time consuming but well worth it to get the beef tender in a shorter amount of time.
3. Heat the oven to 160C or Gas 3
4. In a small bowl mix together; the flour, paprika, cumin, cocoa powder, sugar, dried oregano, chilli powder, crumbled beef stock cube and cinnamon.
5. Add the diced beef, spiced flour, finely sliced chilli and garlic to the onions and stir until the beef is thoroughly coated in the flour.  Fry for 5 minutes, stirring regularly until the beef is browned and sealed.
6. Add both boxes of passata and 100ml of cold water to the pan and stir well, mixing in any spices that might be stuck to the bottom.
7. Pour the contents of the pan into an oven proof casserole dish and put in the middle of the oven, uncovered. Cook for 1.5 hours.
8. Remove the chilli from the oven and add the drained and rinsed kidney beans. Stir well before returning to the oven with tin foil over the casserole dish for a further 1.5 hours.
9. Take the chilli out of the oven, leave to rest for a few minutes before serving.