Chilli kinda carne

I recently read an article about quick, tasty, healthy staple dishes you can cook up in your kitchen and use in a variety of ways - flexifoods, they called them. For me chilli con carne, that tasty Tex Mex creation, is a veritable gymnast in the kitchen in terms of its flexibility.
Chilli con carne has to be one of the most versatile dishes you can cook up in your kitchen. You can serve it over rice, spoon it over hot jacket potatoes, add it to a tortilla with some avocado, salad and natural yoghurt, serve it over corn chips with accompaniments for nachos, the list goes on...
Chlli con carne literally means “chilli with meat” but in our house I bulk it out with some carrot and zucchini to up the vegetable quota, along with the kidney beans and tomatoes. This means I can make a 250g serve of mince stretch to at least two dinners (because it also freezes well).
You don’t need to buy one of those packet mixes to make a chilli con carne – it is so easy to whip up at home with just a few simple spices.
My ingredients vary from time to time but this version I made the other night was the tastiest I’ve made in a while.

Frugal Foodie's chilli kinda carne
INGREDIENTS
250g beef mince
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 carrot and 1 zucchini, grated
One 400g tin diced tomatoes
One beef stock cube
One tsp each cayenne pepper, oregano, ground coriander and ground cumin
½ tsp ground chilli (we had 1 teaspoon but not all are as brave as us!)
2 tbsp tomato paste
One 400g can kidney beans (or 1 ½ cup beans you've prepared yourself)
2 tsp brown sugar
Splash red wine vinegar
METHOD
Fry the onions and garlic in a large pan with some olive oil until soft and starting to brown. Add grated carrot and zucchini and cook until soft and starting to turn a golden colour (basically until the zucchini loses its “greenness”).
Add the mince, and fry until browned, breaking up with a fork as you go. Add your spices, mixing in to combine and stir until fragrant.
Add tomatoes, tomato paste, stock cube and a little water (I half filled the tomato can with water, sloshed it around and added that) stir to combine and let it simmer for ten minutes or more (the longer it simmers, the better the flavour)
Add the sugar, kidney beans and red wine vinegar and let it heat through, adding salt and pepper to taste.
Serve however you please. If you’re worried about the heat natural yoghurt or light sour cream are the best accompaniments.