vegetarian chili

​Recently The New York Times in their “Here to Help” column a recipe for Spicy Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili; it sounded interesting. For the recipe you’ll need coconut or vegetable oil, yellow or red onion, kosher salt, pepper, fresh garlic, light brown sugar, ground cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, orange juice, chipotles, adobo sauce, sweet potatoes, black beans, crushed or diced tomatoes (fire-roasted if possible), lime juice and frozen corn. 

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​One of the comments left by a cook questioned the need for both onion and garlic powders when you’re already using fresh. I decided to eliminate the powders. A good suggestion was to peel the sweet potatoes as the skin sometimes comes away from the potato. The recipe creator also suggests sweet winter squash (butternut or kabocha) in place of the potatoes.
 
The recipe is quite easy to prepare. The process has you layering flavors until it all melds together after 30-45 minutes of stove top cooking. The unusual addition of brown sugar and orange juice helped to offset the spiciness. However, some cooks felt the brown sugar and orange juice made it too sweet for their palate, we didn’t find that. You be the judge and make your own adjustments.
 
Overall, we were quite surprised as to how delicious this vegetarian chili was. I did forget to add the frozen corn at the end, but we have leftovers in which to try it on.

Spicy Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili    
By Sarah Digregorio
From NYT Cooking App
Yield: 6 Serving
Time: 1 hour

Ingredients
1/4 cup coconut oil or vegetable oil
1 large yellow or red onion, finely chopped
Kosher salt and black pepper
6 garlic cloves, smashed and roughly chopped
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
3/4 cup orange juice
1 to 4 chipotles from a can of chipotles in adobo, finely chopped, plus 3 tablespoons adobo sauce
1-1/2 pounds sweet potatoes (4 to 5 small-medium or about 2 large), scrubbed and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 (15-ounce) cans of black beans, rinsed
1 (28-ounce) can crushed or diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted
Juice of 1 lime (about 1-1/2 tablespoons)
1 (10-ounce) bag of frozen corn
Sliced avocado and red onion, for topping

PREPARATION

1. In a 6- to 8-quart slow cooker, combine the sweet potatoes, black beans, tomatoes, orange juice, oil, chipotles and adobo sauce, brown sugar, lime juice, garlic cloves, and dried spices. Stir in 2 teaspoons salt, a generous amount of pepper and 1 cup water. Cook on low until the sweet potatoes are tender, about 8 hours. The chili holds well on the warm setting.
2. Just before serving, stir in the corn and let it warm through, about 5 minutes. Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Top with avocado and red onion.