Prep Time:15 minutes    Cook Time: 45 minutes    Serves: 4

Autumn…it can be wet windy and miserable, but it’s also the perfect time for comfort food. There’s nothing better on a dark blustery evening than a hearty, warming bowl of something tasty, and this recipe is just that!

Originally from the Waitrose website (a great recipe source if you’re needing inspiration), I’ve adapted this slightly to make the cooking time a bit quicker, but the beauty of this is that most of the ingredients are store cupboard essentials. You can play around with extra chilli or spices, and quantities can easily be doubled if you need to feed a crowd.

 Ingredients

 2tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

200g Chorizo (I normally just buy a chunk from the Deli counter-the slices don’t work so well)

1 large red chilli, chopped

2 x 400g tins of tomatoes

1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks

1x 410g tin of chickpeas (You can mix and match with your beans and pulses!)

Method

1. Heat the oil in a big casserole style pan and fry your onion and garlic for 5 minutes. Add the chorizo and the chilli and cook for another minute or so, until the oil starts to come out of the chorizo.
2. Add the sweet potato and stir to coat in the chorizo juices. Add the tomatoes, pepper and about 100ml of cold water. Bring to the boil then cover and simmer for about 30-35 minutes, until the sweet potato is tender.
3. Add the chickpeas and season. I sometimes add a beef stock cube at this point, but it’s up to you. Cook for another 5-10 minutes, then serve in big bowls with chunks of crusty bread!

Foodie tip: You can always add dumplings once you’ve stirred in the chickpeas to make this into more of a stew-just cook for a little longer until the dumplings are all puffed up!