Saturday, February 16, 2008

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili


This is my entry for Holler and Lisa's new food blog event, No Croutons Required. The theme this month is vegetarian soups - though I'm not sure if chili would be considered a soup? This is more stew-ish anyway so let's call it a very chunky and delicious soup!


I'm not usually a fan of chili, probably due to all the ground meat (or in my case it would be fake ground round/meat). But as I said, this isn't your regular chili. I'm kind of obsessed with sweet potatoes - or maybe not obsessed but if anything has sweet potatoes in it, I want to eat it. So the fact that this "chili" is full of sweet potatoes definitely helps, and combined with the onions makes it slightly sweet. I cut back on how spicy it was so feel free to add cayenne, extra chili powder or some jalapeno peppers to this.


This chili is simple, very easy to make, filling, healthy and yummy! What more can you ask for? It was a great discovery for me for something quick and healthy to make on a weeknight.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Sweet Potato Black Bean Salsa
Sweet Potato Badi
Balkan Roasted Vegetable Salad


Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili
Adapted from The Clueless Vegetarian

Serves 3-4 as a meal.

1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 cup vegetable broth
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 28-oz (796mL) cans diced tomatoes
2 19-oz (540mL) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp crumbled dried oregano

Heat the oil in a large saucepan* or Dutch oven. Add the onions and cook, stirring, over medium heat until the onions are soft - about 5 minutes. Add the chili powder and the cumin and cook for another minute or so. Add the vgetable broth and the cubed sweet potatoes, reduce the heat to low and cook, covered, until the potatoes are almost tender - about 10 minutes.

Add the tomatoes with all the juice from the can, the beans, salt, and oregano. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then let simmer until the potatoes are completely tender - about 20 minutes.

*Go for the Dutch oven if you can, unless your saucepan is really very large.

24 comments:

Gigi said...

I love sweet potatoes and would have never thought to pair with chili. I think this will be Sunday night dinner.

Jaime said...

that looks so hearty and delicious! hubby doesn't eat sweet potatoes though so i'll have to make that one night when i'm eating solo...

Oye Cookie! said...

Ken and I are vegetarians and always on the look out for good chili recipes. Thanks!!

jennifer
oyecookie.com

Emily said...

That sounds like a fun event.
I don't really like chili, either.
But I wouldn't call this a chili. Looks delcious-I'm crazy about sweet potatoes too.

grace said...

yes, that is a beautiful bowl of soupy chili stew. sili. chew. choup. eh, no matter what you call it, it looks delicious and i'll be making it for myself as soon as i can find some decent sweet potaters! :)

Anna said...

Mmm, I think I'd much prefer this to the meat version. Giving it a go!

LisaRene said...

Soup/stews/chili are always fun because they are an "anything goes" meal and a great way to get creative by adding untraditional foods like sweet potatoes.

Your Sweet Potato Badi recipe is really interesting and a must try for me. I love the unusual :)

I recently posted a recipe for African Pineapple Peanut Butter Stew on my blog and in the past I have served it over steamed sweet potatoes. Might be something you would be interested in trying!

BitterSweet said...

Looks delicious, and so hearty, too! It seems easy enough that I might even be able to make it in my dorm, so I'll try to pick up the ingredients next shopping trip. :)

La Cuisine d'Helene said...

I love the pictures and it looks good. I gave you an award on my blog. Have a good day.

Cakespy said...

Hearty and delicious, and healthy--sounds like you have a winner here!

Anonymous said...

this looks really, really good. i love oven-baked sweet potato fries with chili powder and cumin, so i'm not sure why i never thought to put the sweets into chili, which we make all the time around here. yum!

Deborah said...

I could definitely go for a big bowl of this!!

Jhianna said...

I love the chunks of orange in that! I'm a fan of sweet potato in anything, but the husband isn't. Great idea though...

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

Mmmm, lovely, stewy, soupy chilli! Good plan Ashley! It looks real tasty and very filling, Graham would love this!
Thanks for entering it into the challenge!
And now I have something for you in return! An Excellent Blog Award, come over to my blog to accept it!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

oh my goodness that stew looks SPECTACULAR!! I'll have a bowl-full, please :0)

winedeb said...

Chili is a big hit in our house. And sweet potatoes are so great, not only in taste but vitamins and minerals, etc. Yes, I will be adding cayenne to mine as we like it "Hot"! Your photos make me want to dig in right now!

jd said...

Fantastic!

I love sweet potatoes AND chili (without the meat/mock meat). I can't wait to try this - thanks for the great idea!

Mmmmm!

Anonymous said...

What a great entry--and a unique take on chili. Your photos are gorgeous!

eatme_delicious said...

gigi: Hope you like it. :) I'm really glad I came across this recipe!

mrspresley: Aw how can he not like sweet potatoes?? They're so delicious!

jennifer: You're welcome. :)

emiline: Yea this is more of a delicious stew like thing. :)

a grace: Great! :) Hope you like it.

indigo: Let me know how it turns out.

lisarene: Oh I love the sweet potato badi. That's definitely a favourite meal of mine. Thanks for the stew recommendation! I will check it out.

bittersweet: Excellent. :)

helene: Thanks!!

cakespy: Indeed. :)

michelle: Mmm yes sweet potato fries are so very delicious.

deborah: Me too I should make some more!

jhianna: Aw well maybe you can try it when he's not around.

holler: Aw thank you. :)

veggiegirl: Thanks!

winedeb: Yea I try to eat sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes because they're full of so much good stuff. :)

jd: Hope you like it!

ricki: Thanks. :)

cindy said...

this looks and sounds delicious, and its very pretty too! (AND i love sweet potatoes) my daughter has gone veggie too, and i am trying to find interesting things to make. i keep coming back and printing things off your site...thanks for the inspiring recipes.

eatme_delicious said...

cinderelly: Aw thanks. I'm happy that you've found some good recipes through me. :)

Matthew said...

This turned out excellent! I made a few modifications myself...
First, instead of just using onions at the beginning, I also used a chili pepper and two cloves of garlic.
Second, I forgot to pick up chili powder, so I ended up doubling the salt and using cayenne pepper powder along with the cumin. It still tasted like it was missing something, so I rounded out the flavor with a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, and a dash of Frank's red hot sauce. Needless to say, I like my chili spicier!

It came out so good! Excellent recipe!

eatme_delicious said...

Matthew: I'm really happy you liked it! =)

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