Cheesy baked Mexican beef and beans

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 red onion , finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves , finely minced
• 1 green capsicum / bell pepper , cut into 1cm / 1/2″ cubes (or other colour)
• 500g/ 1 lb beef mince (ground beef) (Note 1)
• 400g/ 14oz can red kidney beans or black beans , drained (or other beans)
• 1 cup tomato passata (Note 2)
• 1/3 cup pickled sliced jalapeño (Note 3)
• 1 1/2 cups Colby cheese , shredded (or other cheese, Note 4)

Mexican spice mix:

• 1 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika (sub normal paprika)
• 1 tsp garlic powder (sub onion powder)
• 1 tsp onion powder (sub garlic powder)
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (sub black pepper)
• 1 tsp cooking/kosher salt

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 200°C / 400°F (180°C fan).
• Sauté – Heat the olive oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium high heat (or other oven-proof pan). Cook onion, garlic and capsicum for 3 minutes.
• Cook beef & spices – Add beef and cook, breaking it up as you go, until you no longer see raw meat. Add spices, then cook for 1 minute.
• Beans & tomato – Add kidney beans and passata. Stir, then bring to a simmer.
• Cheese it! Scatter the jalapeño across the surface, top with cheese.
• Bake 15 minutes (no lid) then remove from the oven.
• Serve! Scoop into bowls and serve with corn chips or tortillas with your favourite Mexican fixings (guacamole or avocado sauce pico de gallo or restaurant style salsa, fresh coriander/coriander, sour cream). Dunk like nachos, make DIY burritos or tacos!