Vegan Sweet Potato Chili Recipe
Alright listen
I’m in my kitchen right now. just made this chili yesterday actually. so lemme tell you exactly what I did. no recipe card. just memory.
first I pulled out two https://www.noracooks.com/vegan-sweet-potato-black-bean-chili/sweet potatoes from the basket. the orange ones. not the pale ones. the pale ones are liars. they don’t break down. you’ll be stirring forever.
i peeled them with my regular peeler nothing fancy. then i cut them. here’s the thing. i used to cut them big like idiotic big. and they’d stay hard. so now i cut them small. like half inch. smaller than a dice. like a small dice. you know what i mean.
onion. one yellow one. i chopped it. not pretty. just chopped. garlic. three cloves. i smashed them with the flat of my knife. skin came right off. chopped it rough.
then i opened my cans black beans kidney beans. dumped them in a colander. rinsed them with tap water. you gotta rinse the slime in the can makes the chili gray.
can of crushed tomatoes. plain. not the one with basil. I hate when people buy the basil one.
vegetable broth. I used two cups. actually , used water and a bullion cube because i forgot to buy broth. sue me.
spices. I grabbed cumin smoked paprika regular paprika is useless. chili powder. salt. pepper.
ok so pot on the stove. medium heat. olive oil. not a lot. just enough.
onions in. I stirred them. waited till they went soft. like four minutes maybe five. I wasn’t timing, they got a little brown on the edges. fine.
garlic in. stirred for like thirty seconds. you smell it? that’s when you stop. burnt garlic is bitter. i know from experience.
sweet potatoes in. stirred them around. let them sit for a minute without touching. one minute. just let them sit there on the hot oil.
then the spices. all of them. dumped right on top. stirred for one minute. you gotta do this, the smell changes. it gets smoky and deep. if you skip this step and just add spices to the liquid later, it tastes raw. like you’re eating dust. trust me.
then the tomatoes and broth. poured them in. stirred. scraped the bottom of the pot with my wooden spoon. that brown stuff stuck to the bottom? scrape it up. that’s flavor.
turned the heat up till it bubbled. then down to low. left the lid off. if you put the lid on, it won’t get thick.
set a timer on my phone for twenty minutes. but i didn’t just walk away. i stirred every five minutes. because one time i didn’t and the bottom burned. whole kitchen smelled like smoke. my wife opened all the windows in winter. cold air came in. she was mad.
after twenty minutes i poked a sweet potato piece with a fork. soft. good. still had shape. perfect.
then i added the beans. and i had some frozen corn in the freezer so i threw that in too. half a cup maybe. stirred gently so i didn’t mash the potatoes.
cooked five more minutes. tasted it. needed salt. added a pinch. needed more heat. added a little cayenne. not much. i don’t like spicy food that makes you cry.
turned off the heat. had half a lime in the fridge from who knows when. squeezed it in. cilantro? no. i hate cilantro. tastes like soap. but if you like it, go ahead.
then i ate it.
but let me tell you what went wrong in the past. first time i made this, i used white sweet potatoes. chili never thickened. i was so annoyed. i added cornstarch. made it weird and gluey.
second time, i added the beans at the beginning. they cooked for the whole time. turned into mush. looked like refried beans. tasted fine but texture was sad.
third time, i rushed. only simmered for ten minutes. ate spicy soup with hard potatoes. the next day the leftovers were actually good because they sat overnight. so now i try to make it a day ahead.
this chili is better the next day. i’m serious. the flavors hang out in the fridge together and get friendly.
storage? i put it in a plastic container. leftover chinese takeout container actually. fridge for like four or five days. freezer? yeah. two months. when you reheat, do it on the stove low heat. add a little water if it’s too thick. microwave works but stir every minute so it doesn’t explode.
what do you eat with it? i just eat it with a spoon. but sometimes i put it on rice. or dip bread in it. or crush tortilla chips on top. avocado if i have one that’s not too expensive.
look. this isn’t a fancy recipe. it’s a “i have forty minutes and i need to eat something warm” recipe. you can swap stuff. no kidney beans? use pinto. no crushed tomatoes? use diced and smash them with your spoon. no smoked paprika? use regular and add a drop of liquid smoke. liquid smoke is weird but it works.
the only rule is don’t rush the simmer. low heat. leave the lid off. wait.
that’s it.
now go make it. and if you mess up, tell me exactly what you did. i’ve messed up every way possible. i’ll tell you how to fix it.
