Hetty Lui McKinnon's tin-can vegetarian bean chilli

During our first days in New York, our family ate at a diner where I ordered a "mushroom chilli".

With no understanding of what "chilli" is in America, I expected to get a spicy mushroom stew. What I was served was a proper chilli: ground beef, in rich tomato sauce, with just a few elusive flecks of mushrooms in the mix. Lesson learned.

Soon enough, we started making chilli at home, but without the meat. At home, our chilli is full of beans.

We usually ate it on cold Sunday nights; a perfect, comforting, hearty pot of goodness to see out our weekend. 

A bean chilli is really the perfect way to create a meal that is nutritious yet crowd-pleasing and, best of all, can be eaten in a number of ways.

It's versatile, and makes a lot, so there will be leftovers that you can freeze or repurpose (read on for ideas).

My favourite way to eat chilli is just to top it with fresh fixings, which can include avocado, fresh and/or pickled jalapenos, coriander leaves, cheese and sour cream.

Use all, just a few, or none — it's really up to you and what you have in your fridge. At the very least, I recommend a squeeze of lime juice and fresh coriander.

Tips:

• I don't specify the exact types of beans to use in this recipe — the idea is that you use whatever varieties you have in your pantry or can easily get hold of at your local supermarket. In essence, you need three tins (regular 400g size) of beans, although I always like to have at least one tin of black beans in the mix because I like the flavour, colour and texture it adds to the chilli.
• One thing to note: do not drain your beans! The bean liquid is full of flavour, so I tip the entire can of beans in, liquid and all, which not only thickens up the chilli, but also adds enough flavour that we don't need to add any vegetable stock. Win-win.
• So many serving suggestions. The consistency of my chilli recipe is part way between a thick soup and a saucy stew. As such, it can be eaten as you would a soup (you could even mash up some of the beans to make it thicker), as a stew with rice (my son's preferred option), or scooped up with soft tortillas or corn chips. Sometimes, if I have extra firm or hard tofu in the fridge, I crumble it up and add it with the beans.
• Use any leftovers to make nachos (spoon over corn chips, top with cheese and bake until melty) or burritos (roll up with rice and cheese in a big flour tortilla), or blitz it up to make a smooth bean soup.
• The chilli improves with age and can be prepped up to three days ahead and kept in the fridge. Freeze in an airtight container for up to three months and defrost in the fridge overnight before reheating.