Sweet potato chili is the ultimate, healthy comfort food. This hearty recipe is packed full of nutritious vegetables, legumes, lean protein and delicious seasonings. It comes together in under an hour, perfect for a busy weeknight. Plus, it tastes even better the next day and makes the best, easy lunch.
There’s truly nothing better than a big bowl of warm chili on a cold fall or winter night. When the crisp air makes it difficult to warm up, a hot meal is ideal. Not to mention, it’ll make your home smell like a dream as it simmers away on the stovetop.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll certainly be making gluten-free chili and soup to enjoy all throughout the cold months! Thankfully, I’ve got a lot of recipes to get you through the season. Be sure to check out my Classic Chili Recipe, Slow Cooker Chicken Chili, Butternut Squash Chili, Healthy Meatball Soup or this classic Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe.
How To Make Chili With Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- Extra virgin olive oil — Avocado oil is another good option.
- Veggies — Onion, red bell pepper, celery, carrots and fresh garlic.
- Protein — I normally use lean ground beef, but ground turkey or chicken also work well in this recipe.
- Sweet potatoes — Naturally sweet potatoes pair perfectly with savory spices and veggies. Cut them in inch cubes.
- Tomato — Canned, diced tomatoes with juices and a cup of tomato sauce.
- Beef broth — Vegetable or chicken broth can be substituted in a pinch.
- Seasonings — Red pepper flakes, ground cumin, smoked paprika, ground coriander, salt and black pepper. If you like a spicy chili, you can also add chili powder, ground chipotle or adobo sauce.
- Black beans — Drained and rinsed.
- Chopped Fresh Cilantro — Optional for garnish, you can also include some chopped green onion and/or tortilla chips! And don’t forget to squeeze a little bit of lime juice before serving.
Instructions
Prep work:
- Start by dicing onion, bell pepper, celery and carrots into small pieces.
- Finely mince 2 fresh cloves of garlic.
- Peel and dice sweet potato into small, even cubes.
- Drain and rinse your can of black beans.
Sauté veggies and meat:
- Measure olive oil into a large pot on the stovetop and turn heat to medium-high. Add diced veggies and sauté for about 3 minutes, until the onion softens and starts to become translucent.
- Add minced garlic and sauté 30 seconds longer.
- Add ground beef and break it apart with a spoon while it browns.
Add remaining ingredients:
- Once beef is fully browned, add all other ingredients (except for black beans) and stir until well combined.
- Turn heat to high until the mixture begins to boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
Add beans:
- Last, add drained and rinsed black beans to the pot. Stir well and let the beans warm through, this will about 5 minutes.
Serve:
- Finally, garnish chili with chopped cilantro and green onions, if desired.
- Ladle into serving bowls and enjoy!
Recipe Tips
- When you dice up your sweet potatoes, try your best to cut them into small, even sized pieces. This will help with quick, uniform cooking.
- If you’re feeling adventurous, you can play around with the ingredients in this flexible sweet potato black bean chili! Try kidney or pinto beans instead of black beans or substitute a different color bell pepper. You can also add other veggies like zucchini or chopped cauliflower.
- If you like spicy food, you can add some more heat to this recipe with a freshly diced jalapeno, extra red pepper flakes or a pinch of cayenne pepper.
- If you’re worried about high salt content, choose a low-sodium broth for your chili.
- This recipe is dairy free, but if you’re not following a no-dairy diet, this chili is delicious when topped with a bit of shredded cheese or sour cream.
How To Store Leftover Sweet Potato Chili
- To Store: Allow leftovers to cool completely and place them in an airtight container. Store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- To Reheat: Reheat your chili in the microwave (be sure to cover it with a paper towel so it doesn’t splatter everywhere)! You can also reheat it in a pot, on the stovetop, over medium heat until warmed through.
More Sweet Potato Recipes
Sweet potatoes are delicious, nutritious and a great ingredient to include in your meal planning on a regular basis. Here are some recipes for inspiration:
- Sweet Potato Green Beans Shrimp Skillet
- Spicy Salmon Sweet Potato Skillet
- Sweet Potato Chicken Soup Recipe
- Savory Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely. Adding sweet potatoes to chili results in a spicy and sweet flavor combination that is undeniably delicious. You can use orange, white or even purple sweet potatoes!
If you feel like your chili doesn’t have enough flavor, you can add some more salt and seasonings. Keep in mind that the longer chili sits, the more flavorful it gets. This is because ingredients have time to marinate in all of the various spices.
Yes, you should always drain and rinse canned beans before adding them to chili.
Chili is normally quite thick, but it’s really up to your personal preference!
Watch the Sweet Potato Chili Web Stories.
Sweet Potato Chili
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup diced onions
- 1 cup red bell pepper seeded and diced
- 1/2 cup diced celery
- 1 cup diced carrots
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 lb extra-lean ground beef
- 2 cups sweet potato diced
- 1 cup (10 oz) diced tomatoes undrained
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- Salt and pepper
- 1 can (19 oz/540 ml) black beans drained and rinsed
- Chopped fresh cilantro for garnishing
Instructions
- Add onion, bell pepper, celery, carrot and sauté for 3 minutes, then add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds longer.
- Add ground beef and cook, breaking up the beef with a wooden spoon, until the beef is cooked through, about 5 minutes.
- Add sweet potato, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef broth, red pepper flakes, cumin, paprika, coriander, salt, and pepper to taste.
- Stir mixture, bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to low. Cover the pot with a lid and cook for about 15 mins or until the sweet potato is tender.
- Add black beans and allow to heat all the way through, about 5 minutes.
- Before serving, top with green onions.
Tips
- Make sure to cut your sweet potatoes as evenly as possible. You can buy pre-cut sweet potatoes if you want to save some time.
- Use another color of bell pepper, if desired.
- Feel free to swap black beans for kidney beans or pinto beans.
- Add diced jalapeno, extra red pepper flakes or a pinch of cayenne pepper for extra spiciness.
- Use low sodium broth if you’re worried about salt.
- This recipe is dairy free but if desired, you can top with cheese or sour cream!
- To store: To store leftovers, transfer the chili to an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 4 days.
- To reheat: You can reheat chili in the microwave or stovetop.
- To freeze: Freeze chili in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.
If you like this Sweet Potato Chili recipe, please share with your friends and family. Do you want to taste more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow Primavera Kitchen on Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook for all delicious recipes updates. As always, I really appreciate you stopping by.
sylvie says
Perfect dish for a cold winter evening. It’s so colorful it brings happiness at home on rainy days!
Chris @ Shared Appetite says
1) I love slow cooker meals
2) I love… LOVE chili
3) Sweet potatoes rock my socks
In conclusion… gimme this chili! Bookmarking so I remember to make this!
Stan Pauls says
Sounds like something I will really enjoy. I wish that this and all of the other recipes listed the nutritional values.
Lisa P says
This is so warm and hearty! We love it here! Do you think it would freeze well?
Olivia says
yes for sure!
Vivian says
Made this last night, and WOW it is delicious! I have enough chili to last me a full week of cold, rainy days. Thank you!
Olivia says
You are so welcome, Vivian 😉 I am glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Brandon says
Well, this recipe looks good, but enough kudos for the chef! Did anyone actually make this dish, and have some constructive criticsm or suggestions in order to improve it?
Brandon says
Sorry, that came off a little coarse. It’s a good looking recipe, and inspired me to buy some ingredients I don’t usually use. I’ll let everyone know how it goes!
Brandon says
This dish came out very nicely. A few notes: 1) it doesn’t seem necessary to mix the ingredients after tossing them into the slow cooker one by one. 2) I’d recommend tasting whole cumin and coriander before finding/adding to the browning step (not the slow cooker step) 3) I used chunky canned tomatoes instead of tomato sauce.
I’m gonna try this again today and substitute beef for turkey, and toss in some chipotle for a kick.
Thanks, and happy cooking!
Olivia says
Brandon, thanks for your notes. Chunky canned tomatoes is a great replace for tomato sauce. I made this recipe one time with chunky tomatoes and it worked well. Let me know how this recipe will taste with beef instead.
Wanda says
just wondering Brandon how this recipe turned out using beef instead of turkey??
Brandon says
Hi Wanda! I’m happy to report that it turned out quite well. The beef tended to retain more of the juices that stewed along with it after browning. When I attempted the recipe with lean turkey, the meat stayed dry even after cooking with all of the other ingredients for 8 hours. It was still good, but the texture was a little inconsistent to my liking. If you’d like to experiment, perhaps you can try doing a 50/50 mix of beef/turkey- I’ll bet it’d be pretty tasty! Lets us know 🙂
scott grogan says
Brendon ? please shut up arguing with yourself. This chilli was great considering how easy it is to make, thanks for the recipe.
Use the leftovers for nachos, add guacamole, tortilla chips and sour cream. Amazing.
scott grogan says
*brandon.
Brandon says
Thanks for the clarification, Scott.
As I said earlier, I felt like my initial comment came off with a little too much cynicism than was intended. This was mostly because I felt like others were just commenting on the photos and not the recipe itself. It tends to be a common trend these days- there are more cooking shows on than ever before, yet we have this historically low number of people actually doing the cooking! One can find evidence of this fact in the comments section of a simple recipe online, for example. With this in mind, I give you credit for putting the dish together.
That being said, Scott- I’d recommend refraining from any meager attempts to offend those who are having a constructive discussion about an art form such as cooking. If you choose not to follow that advice, of course that’s no skin off my back. After all, I apologized for any miscommunication some 8 months ago. However, if you do choose to troll, perhaps you could redeem yourself by exercising some originality when offering an adaptation of the given recipe so that it could present a boon to all who see the conversation. Perhaps, even, something beyond the fascinating and ingenious personal discovery you had when you made nachos.
In short, it appears you have some lessons to learn in and out of the kitchen. Good luck.
Stephanie says
May I ask what kind of ground turkey you used? Was it packaged ground turkey? I never have good luck with ground turkey or chicken. Thank you!
Olivia says
It was packaged ground Turkey, Stephanie.
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Jane says
My daughter and I both loved this chili! Absolutely delicious flavor! Only issue I had was it took longer to cook as my crock pot is a 6 qt one so I had to turn up the heat and cook for a few more hours before the sweet potatoes were cooked, as it was only half full. Also recipe doesn’t say when to add the bell pepper so I added them in step two, with the onion and garlic.
Dawn says
I made this tonight, substituting green peppers for the red because I forgot to buy red. It was FABULOUS! My whole family ate it and loved it!!
Olivia says
That’s awesome! I am so glad to hear that.Thanks for stopping by and giving me your feedback 😉