One Pot Chipotle Bean and Potato Stew

This stew uses chipotle chillies to add smokiness, but they aren't necessary if you don't have any to hand. You can substitute for liquid smoke or extra smoked paprika. Make sure you cook the potatoes in the stock before you add the passata, as the acidity of the tomato sauce means the potatoes will take much longer to cook once it is added to the dish. We ate this dish by itself but if you wanted more carb you could serve with crusty bread.

Three Bean Chilli

Vege chilli is a classic vegetarian dish and this is a good store cupboard recipe. This dish is best cooked slowly, but if you need to cook it relatively quickly it will still taste great.

I use dehydrated soya mince in this, which you simply rehydrate by pouring hot water over the top and leaving for five minutes, but you could omit it or use any other type of vegetarian mince. I prefer dehydrated mince to other types as it doesn't have so many preservatives in it as other brands, and has the advantage that it is gluten free. You can use any type of beans you like; I used kidney, black-eyed, and black turtle beans in this but they are by no means necessary. The recipe list looks quite long but most of it consists of store cupboard spices which you can always omit if you don't have them.

This serves 4 - 6. We had a very generous four portions out of this plus a bit extra for my daughter (minus salt and chillies!), who had a lovely time digging into her portion and made a massive mess:

Vegetarian Brazilian Feijoada (Black Bean Stew)

Feijoada is a traditional dish served in Brazil, which essentially involves beans and a lot of meat, often smoked. To make the vegetarian version, I substitute meat for vegetables and add smoked paprika to get a smoky flavour. There are a number of ways you can play with the recipe; you can also use 'fake' meat with a smoky flavour such as vegetarian frankfurters, or 'fake' bacon. I've done this before with much success but since I don't tend to cook with fake meat that often, I usually just use a root vegetable or something from the squash family. Carrots, butternut squash and sweet potato all work really well in this dish, but you can basically use any vegetable you want. Adding onions or spring onions also enhances the dish, but I like to keep it simple: beans and vegetables, cooked until soft and creamy. I use a brazilian seasoning called 'tempero completo' in this dish, which is sold in the 'world foods' section of my local supermarket, but if you don't have access to it, just add in a tsp of dried vegetable stock instead. For a truly authentic Brazilian experience, serve with farofa (toasted manioc flour) but again it is fine without. In my house, we also eat this with an egg on top, though this is entirely optional.

Pasta with Black Beans and Kale

From a Reader's Digest cookbook that I've had longer than I remember, but which I never really use anymore. I came across this recipe a while back and the idea of using black beans in a pasta sauce intrigued me. They combine with the cheese to make a very tasty and creamy sauce. I bought a prepared bag of kale from my local supermarket, but if you can't find it then spinach would be a good alternative.