Black bean and halloumi chilli

This black bean and halloumi chilli is so easy to make, and is packed with flavour, and little squidgy nuggets of halloumi cheese!

Okay, I know I’m a little bit obsessed with halloumi cheese, and you’re probably sick of hearing about it, but it’s totally justified – and this black bean and halloumi chilli shows just how amazing halloumi is. It adds such a lovely salty flavour to this chilli, plus little bites of squidgy goodness!

What is halloumi cheese?

I’ve told you about halloumi cheese loads of times before – it’s super common and easy to find in the UK, but I know that’s not the case everywhere. So if you’re not familiar with this incredible cheese, read my post about how to cook halloumi, and all will become clear.

I’ll wait.

I usually cook my halloumi in the way I detailed in the post above – sliced and then cooked in a frying pan until it’s golden brown and crispy all over. But for this black bean and halloumi chilli, I did something a bit different.

Crumbled halloumi cheese

This time, I crumbled the halloumi into rough chunks. It’s not what I would call a particularly crumbly cheese (it’s actually pretty solid), but you can tear it into pieces without too much trouble.

To start your black bean and halloumi chilli, just cook the crumbled halloumi in a pan with plenty of veggies until it’s just starting to turn golden.

Frozen vegetables

I used frozen veggies in this recipe, as I’ve been doing a lot lately – I’m still trying to avoid going to the shops too much, so I’m using what I’ve got.

To be honest though, I often use frozen vegetables even when we’re not quarantined – they’re just as tasty as fresh veg, and I love the convenience of just being able to grab what I need without worrying about wasting anything.

Of course, if you’d prefer to use fresh vegetables to make this chilli, that will work beautifully too. The exact quantities don’t really matter, and you can even swap in some alternative veg if you fancy something different. That’s the beauty of a recipe like this! Just chuck in whatever you’ve got.

Halloumi chilli

The basic halloumi and vegetable mix could be used to make all sorts of meals – I’m imagining it mixed with some cream cheese and served over pasta; spooned on top of buttered toast; baked into a creamy halloumi pie, or any number of other meals.

This time, as you’ve hopefully gathered by now, I decided to make a halloumi chilli – just add a tin of black beans, a tin of tomatoes, and some spices, and let it simmer away until it’s nice and rich.

Black bean chilli

Black beans are definitely my favourite bean of all time (does anyone have a mental list of all the different kinds of bean ranked by deliciousness, or do I just need to get a life?).

They’re nice little beans with a deep, dark flavour – I find them much tastier than most other beans, so they’re perfect for making this kind of rich chilli.

I always use tinned black beans, as they’re super convenient – just open the tin and throw them in. Feel free to cook dried black beans from scratch if you prefer!

Rich vegetarian chilli

Once it’s all bubbled up together for a little while, you’ll have a beautifully thick and rich veggie chilli. Plenty of flavour from the vegetables and spices, a little bit of heat (you can to adjust the spices to your own preference!), and the halloumi… ohh, the halloumi.

Little nibbles of squidgy, soft, salty cheese in amongst all that rich tomato sauce. It works beautifully, and brings a really lovely texture to the chilli.

How to serve chilli

I served my halloumi chilli really simply with some rice and a dollop of sour cream. I’d usually add some grated cheese to the top of a bowl of chilli, but you don’t really need to do that when it already contains all that halloumi! Even I have my limits.

A few other ideas for how to serve chilli, if you’re not in the mood for rice:

• wrap it up inside a large flour tortilla, burrito-style
• dollop it inside a cheesy quesadilla
• spoon it over homemade chips for amazing chilli cheese fries
• serve it simply with some tortilla chips for dipping
• stir it through cheesy pasta to make a spectacular chilli mac
• pile it into taco shells
• serve it over a jacket potato
• don’t forget the toppings – fresh coriander, avocado, sour cream, fresh tomatoes, guacamole, etc.

This black bean and halloumi chilli reheats really well too, so however you choose to serve it, make sure you cook enough for leftovers!

Print

Black bean and halloumi chilli

This black bean and halloumi chilli is so easy to make, and is packed with flavour, and little squidgy nuggets of halloumi cheese!

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 20 mins

Total Time: 30 mins

Servings: 3 people

Ingredients

• 225 g (~ 8 oz) block halloumi cheese
• 1 tbsp oil
• 200 g (~ 2 cups) frozen sliced peppers (or equivalent fresh)
• 130 g (~ 1 1/3 cups) frozen sliced mushrooms (or equivalent fresh)
• 120 g (~ 1 cup) frozen sweetcorn (or equivalent fresh)
• 400 g tin black beans, drained (240g, or ~ 1 1/4 cups, when drained)
• 400 g tin (~ 1 1/3 cups) chopped tomatoes
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp hot chilli powder
• 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
• Black pepper

Instructions

• Coarsely crumble the block of halloumi into chunks (it will break down a little more as you stir the chilli, so don’t crumble it too small).
• Heat a dash of oil in a saucepan, and add the crumbled halloumi and the frozen vegetables. Cook over a medium heat for around 10 minutes, stirring regularly, until the frozen veg have released all their liquid, and any excess liquid has cooked off (fresh veg will cook slightly more quickly).
• Add the black beans, chopped tomatoes, and spices, along with a generous pinch of black pepper. Halloumi is quite salty, so you shouldn’t need to add any additional salt. Mix well, and allow to simmer gently for at least 10 minutes (longer is fine!), until the chilli has become thick and rich. You can add a dash of water if it starts to become too dry.
• Serve hot.

Course: Main meals

Cuisine: Mexican, Tex-Mex

Author: Becca Heyes

Note: Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on exactly what ingredients you choose. Information above is for 1/3 of the recipe, not including sides.

This black bean and halloumi chilli would make beautiful chilli cheese fries!