Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili

Posted in Beans & Legumes, Dinner, Lunch, Mexican, Vegetables, Vegetarian

This chili is a nice alternative to the meat variety and the smoked paprika and sweet potatoes contribute to it’s sweet, smokey flavour.

Ingredients

1 cup dried black beans or 1 – 19oz can of black beans,drained
2 cloves garlic
1 teas salt
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into bite size chunks
3 tbls olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
16 oz of crimini mushrooms or your favourite mushrooms
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teas ground cumin
1/8 teas cinnamon
1/4 teas cayenne
1 teas smoked paprika
1/2 teas salt
1 398 ml can Alymer Fire Roasted tomatoes
1/2 798 ml can crushed tomatoes
1 large fresh tomato, seeded and chopped
1 cup corn niblets
1 tbls brown sugar
Fresh cilantro or Vietnamese corriander
Asiago/Monterey Jack cheese

Directions

If using dried beans, soak for at least 4 hours or overnight in the fridge. Drain and put in a saucepan adding fresh water and the garlic. Bring to a boil then turn the heat down and simmer for about an hour. The beans should be cooked but not mushy. The cooking time will depend on the age of the bean, the older the bean the longer the cook time. Once the beans are cooked you can season with the salt and remove the garlic cloves.
Bring a pot of water to a boil, add sweet potato, return to a boil and cook 2 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool.
Heat the oil in a dutch oven and add the onion and mushrooms. Cook until most of the moisture has evaporated out of the mushrooms. Add the crushed garlic and stir a couple of times. Add the cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, smoked paprika and salt. Stir to combine. Add the sweet potatoes and cook for another 3 minutes or so over low heat.
Add the canned tomatoes, crushed tomatoes and fresh tomato, corn niblets and brown sugar. Stir and cook until well blended taking care not to mash the sweet potato but to keep mixture from sticking, about 10 minutes.
Add the beans using a slotted spoon, then add enough of the bean water to make a nice chili like consistency. Simmer 30 minutes.
Serve with fresh Cilantro and Asiago or Monterey Jack cheese.

If you are lucky enough to have lots of fresh garden tomatoes I would use them to replace the canned tomatoes in the recipe or if you have garden tomatoes in your freezer I would slip the skins off them by running them under hot water and add them to replace the crushed tomatoes. The brown sugar is added to take the “bite” off the tomatoes, you may need more or less depending on your taste.

This chili is great served over rice or with tortillas or corn bread.