Vegetarian Chili – Bead Yarn & Spatula

I’ve posted a fair amount of chili recipes and today I am bringing you one more… A Slow Cooker Vegetarian Chili with Sweet Potatoes. This chili is loaded with kidney beans, black beans and chunks of sweet potato. And if you are not keen on spicy chili then this is the chili for you.

While I normally do most of my slow cooking on Sunday’s I ended up making this chili in my slow cooker overnight Saturday to Sunday since I had plans to go apple picking on this particular Sunday. I like to be home when my slow cooker is on, I know it’s completely safe and all, but, I just don’t like leaving it unattended. Also, if there happens to be a power outage I can always switch the dish to cook in the oven or on the stove as opposed to my entire meal being ruined because it didn’t cook properly, especially with a meat dish. I once read that if you do leave your slow cooker unattended and there happens to be a power outage and you’re cooking meat the best bet is to toss the food since you can never be sure of bacteria growing. And yes, I know it’s not any safer to have it on while I am sleeping, we can all recall how Jack died on “This Is Us” (even though the slow cooker wasn’t on but had a switch malfunction), in the back of my mind it’s safer thanks to my smoke detector and my keen nose. Speaking of my keen nose, the delicious aromas of this chili woke me prior to the 7-hour cooking mark and I couldn’t go back to sleep, so, I decided to check on it and happily discovered that the sweet potatoes were fork tender so I was able to turn it off and go back to sleep. If it had been on any longer the sweet potatoes would have turned to mush, but, as you can see from the picture below the sweet potato was intact.

Slow Cooker Vegetarian Chili with Sweet Potatoes

Servings: 4
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Ingredients:

1 medium red onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Kosher salt and black pepper

2 14.5 ounce cans of diced fire roasted peppers

1 15.5 ounce can of black beans, rinsed

1 15.5 ounce can of red kidney beans, rinsed

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Options for serving: sour cream, sliced scallions, shredded cheddar cheese, tortilla chips

Directions:

In the insert of your slow cooker combine the onion, pepper, garlic, chili powder, cumin, cocoa, cinnamon, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Add the tomatoes (and their juices), beans, sweet potato and 1 cup of water.

Cover and cook until the sweet potatoes are tender and the chili has thickened, 7-8 hours on low and 4 to 5 hours on high.

Serve with your favorite toppings or eat on its own.

Recipe from Real Simple

For today’s Slow Cooker Sunday dish I bring you one that is great for all you vegetarians who like a little kick to your dishes and also for you meat lovers who want the heartiness of your typical beef chili but want to take a break from the meat… A Slow Cooker Vegetarian Chili that has butternut squash, beans and corn as its main ingredients.

To begin I diced a red bell pepper and yellow onion. I opted to go the easy route and bought the butternut squash already chopped. You really don’t want your butternut squash to be chopped too small as it will break apart while in the slow cooker.

Next, I added the diced vegetables along with kidney beans, vegetable broth, corn, fire roasted diced tomatoes, garlic and the following spices; cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, oregano, salt and pepper. I also added in two minced chipotle peppers in adobo. If you want to turn down the heat on this dish you can omit the chipotle peppers.

I set my slow cooker to low for 8 hours. Truthfully this chili was probably done closer to 7 hours, but, I didn’t mind the texture of the veggies due to the extra cooking time.