I love making a good vegan bean chilli.. In fact one of the first recipes I ever posted is a recipe that I use over and over again. Whether I soak and long cook the beans, or use a random combo of tinned beans, it never fails to be a lovely wintery comfort dish.
Last Friday night I made it with tinned beans, and served it over a potato & celeriac mash. Pure delicious comfort food after a long & gruelling week, in the middle of winter. Sorry- no photos - we were too tired and hungry.
The great thing is with a chilli, is that it's impossible to cook just a little bit, which means there's usually loads of leftovers. Normally I leave some for lunch the next day & freeze some for when I need a quick comforting dinner, but, for some reason, I had the brilliant idea of using the chilli as a filling for a filo pastry triangle And.. let me tell you, this is a truly delicious thing. Tasty rich chilli in a crunchy parcel? Why had I not thought of this before! It's a bit like a Mexican(ish) take on a samosa. 
Just as the beadcrumbs on the arancini balls I sometimes make after making risotto raises the arancini to another level, this crunchy filo coating elevates the dish to pure scrummyness. I love it when leftovers are even better than the original dish! Brilliantly, both of these would also be easy to minaturise & make into a filling, tasty and easy canape. Which I fully intend to do for a party I'm off to next week!
I used store bought filo pastry. For some reason I'm quite rubbish at pastry, one day I'll conquer this weakness, but in the meantime, I'll have to make do with pimping store bought, which is both convenient & works just fine. I make sure the pastry I buy doesn't contain palm oil (there's a rant coming on that another time...).
The trickyest thing about making these is the folding & keeping the pastry from drying out. I suggest using a damp teatowel over pastry you're not working with. vegan
To fold into triangles, firstly, slick each sheet with olive oil first ( or melted butter) then fold a sheet lengthways. You want a long thin sheet. Imagine the sheet is cut into 3rds widthways, (into 3 squares on top of each other) then each square is split into 2 triangles.. Put some filling in the bottom triangle and fold it up. Then fold it back & up, (making sure each bit is slicked with oil) then up again until you reach the top, and press down the edges. The idea is to create layers of pastry, with slicks of oil between them to make them crunchy & tasty whilst locking the filling inside. You could just roll the pastry with the filling in, or create a puff if the triangle folding is too much of a faff.
Serve with some yummy salad or wilted garlicky greens. Or make baby ones & serve as a canape & bask in the glow from all the compliments..
Ingredients
- ½ recipe (leftovers) of my Bean Chilli recipe
- 1 pack filo pastry
- olive oil
- herbs to garnish
Instructions
To make one filo triangle
- Slick one sheet of filo pastry with olive oil front & back.
- Fold it lengthways- you want a long thin piece of pastry.
- To fold into triangles,You want a long thin sheet.
- Imagine the sheet is cut into 3rds widthways, (into 3 squares on top of each other) then each square is split into 2 triangles.
- Put some filling in the bottom triangle and fold it up. Then fold it back & up, (making sure each bit is slicked with oil) then up again until you reach the top, and press down the edges.
- The idea is to create layers of pastry, with slicks of oil between them to make them crunchy & tasty whilst locking the filling inside.
- You could just roll the pastry with the filling in, or create a puff if the triangle folding is too much of a faff.
- Bake in a moderate oven (Gas Mark 7, 220C ) for 15 mins ( or so) until puffed, crispy & golden
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