Sweet Potato Chili with Black Beans, Venison and Pork
In our home, we love chili. I will make some type of chili at least twice a month! It is easy…delicious…comforting…basically perfect for a chilly winter day! (Chili…chilly…you get it?) This sweet potato chili recipe with black beans sure did check the box of all the above for a great wintertime supper.
We invited a sweet family over for dinner, and I thought I would test this recipe out on them. Turns out they loved it! At least that’s what they told me! (“You should enter this in the chili cook-off,” were the exact words.) 😉
Jump to RecipeWhat Makes This Chili Special
I love using our garden produce. If you follow along with me on this blog, or Instagram, you’ll figure out pretty quickly that we are all about using what we grow ourselves.
There is a box of sweet potatoes from our summer garden that we are still utilizing from last year’s harvest. Naturally, I wanted to use them in a sweet potato chili recipe!
Sweet potatoes make chili a little more special and sweet. Yum!
I also added black beans instead of my usual pinto beans. Something about the colors just spoke to me. Of course, if you are a loyal pinto or kidney bean person, you could use them instead of black beans.
THM Notes for Sweet Potato Chili with Black Beans
If you are following along for my THM recipes, then this chili would make a great THM-E! If you use lean meat, which I did, and less than a tablespoon of fat throughout, you will fit into healthy carb territory.
You can top the chili with 0% Greek yogurt or a small sprinkling of skim mozzarella cheese.
However, if you are in Crossover (healthy fat + healthy carb) mode, then you can choose to use a fattier meat, such as ground beef. You can then top with cheddar cheese or sour cream.
I’m a pregnant mama right now, so I choose the Crossover option.
Do I Have to Use Venison and Pork?
I chose to use half ground venison (deer) and half ground pork in this recipe. You certainly do not have to! Ground turkey, ground beef, or even the full amount of ground pork would be great.
The reason I chose venison is because that is what we have the most of right now, and I am conserving our beef until the spring.
Can I Cook This in the Slow Cooker?
Absolutely! My only pointers would be to make sure you brown the meat first. (But if you don’t want to, it’ll cook the meat, just not the lovely browned flavor and texture that I prefer.)
If you want to do the slow cooker, another tip would be to add the sweet potatoes about an hour before serving, just like in the original recipe. If you cook the sweet taters all day…they will be nothing but mush.
What You’ll Need
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I cook my chili in my 6 quart enameled Dutch oven, much like this one from Amazon.
I love this thing. It is super versatile!
Perfect chili cooking pot.
Ingredients:
2 lbs ground meat. I used 1 lb ground venison and 1 lb ground pork. I love this combo. But you could use whatever 2 lbs of ground meat you like.
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp each of chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika
2 tsp of mineral salt, and more if needed after you taste.
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 quart water
1 quart tomatoes. I used my home canned tomatoes that I had canned in quart jars. You will need two cans of 15 oz crushed tomatoes in place of the home canned, if you don’t have any.
1 6 oz can tomato paste
2 cups black beans, or 1 15 oz store bought can of black beans.
And last but not least,
1 medium sweet potato, cubed, to add 30 minutes before serving.
Directions
First, you will need to brown your meat. I cook the meat in the same Dutch oven that I will be cooking the whole pot of chili in. It saves dishes!
When the meat is almost done, add the onions and garlic and cook for a few minutes more, until the onion is nice and soft.
Add the spices, water, tomatoes and tomato paste, and black beans.
Cover your pot, and let the chili simmer together for 15-30 minutes. This is the least amount of time that you would want to let it cook. I cooked mine longer, maybe an hour and a half, to meld the flavors together even more.
Thirty minutes before it’s time to serve, you will add the cubed sweet potato. Note: I kept the peel on the potatoes. Mainly because I’m kind of lazy…but also because I love to know there are vitamins and good stuff in the skins!
Cook for 30 more minutes to soften the sweet potatoes. Add more water if needed. Depends on how thick you like your chili.
Taste your chili, and add more salt if needed. Mine needed more salt. But just maybe 1/2 tsp.
And that’s it! Serve with your desired chili toppings.
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili
Ingredients
- 2 lbs ground meat. I used 1 lb venison, 1 lb pork
- 1 onion chopped
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tbsp each of chili powder, cumin, and smoked paprika
- 2 tsp salt plus more for adding after tasting
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 quart water
- 2 15 oz cans crushed or diced tomatoes I used a quart home canned tomatoes
- 1 6 oz can tomato paste
- 1 15 oz can black beans
- 1 medium sweet potato cubed
Instructions
- First, brown the meat in your chili pot.
- Add the onion and garlic when the meat is almost done.
- Pour in the water, spices, tomatoes, tomato paste, and black beans. Stir well.
- Simmer the chili for 15-30 minutes.
- Thirty minutes before serving, add the cubed sweet potato. Add more liquid if desired.
- Taste and add more salt if needed. (I added a bit more salt to mine.)
- Enjoy!
Notes
For more delicious and healthy recipes, please visit Farm Fresh THM!
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