Sweet potato chili is the ultimate comfort food. This hearty recipe is packed full of hearty vegetables, legumes, 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 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.
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 works well in this recipe.
- Sweet potatoes — Naturally sweet potatoes pair perfectly with savory spices and veggies. Cut them into one-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 the onion, bell pepper, celery, and carrots into small pieces.
- Finely mince 2 fresh cloves of garlic.
- Peel and dice the 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 the 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 the beef is fully browned, add all other ingredients (except for black beans) and stir until well combined.
- Turn the 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 take 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.
Serve Your Chili With
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
- Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.
- 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.
Notes
- 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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?
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This recipe was absolutely delicious. I made it for all my coworkers and they gobbled it up!
Awesome to know that 😉
What size slow cooker did you use for the preparation of this meal? Thanks!
I doubled up the recipe and my 6qt slow cooker just barely fit that.
This was absolutely delicious! Thank you for posting!
That’s awesome! Thanks for your comment 😉
Great recipe my wife and I both really enjoyed it.
Sweet potatoes are nice touch for additional colour in Fall and tasted just right
Fast easy to prepare a great recipe.Six hours on low was just right in slow cooker.
Not too hot or too spicey.
My wife really enjoyed it and the sweet potato is nice
touch looks Autumnal and tastes good.
Glad you like it 😉
So I made this recipe today before leaving for work and put the slow cooker timer to 5 1/2 hours. When I got home this evening the sweet potatoes are still hard. 🙁 It’s pizza for dinner tonight I guess. I’m going to leave it cooking the rest of the evening and see. Fingers crossed.
Oh too bad! How it turned out?
Followed recipe exactly!! Delicious and even better the second day! A little too spicy for my young kids but they don’t really like chili anyhow unfortunately.
That’s sad your kids don’t like chili, but I’m glad to know you enjoyed this recipe!
Has anyone tried this using different beans or using a combination of beans?
Thanks for any feedback.
Has anyone tried this with other kind of beans or using a combination of beans?
Thanks for any feedback, if so.
I haven’t tried it, but I feel like black beans or even garbanzo beans would also work.
Made this today, followed the recipe almost to a t. Easy, healthy and delicious. My husband, 13 year old and picky 10 year old all went back for seconds. Thanks!
HOME RUN!! Amazing and healthy chili the whole family loved:)) usually it’s always so heavy and fatty feeling aka food baby, but everyone feels great and full. Thanks out for this recipe. Will use for years to come!
Happy to hear that 😉
2 tsp of red pepper flakes is too much. I only used 1 and it was too hot.
It’s because my family and I love spicy food. But I am happy you didn’t add 2 tsp. It would be a lot for you. Next time you can add only 1/2 teaspoon. Thanks for stopping by 😉
Great recipe! Had to add some sugar to it!! Chilli was way too spicy! However the sauce never thickened!!! Sweet potatoes never cooked! Had to put it on high for the last hour! Very hearty! More like eating minestrone not chili!
Sorry to hear you had few issues with this recipe, Jennifer. I really don’t know why this happened because I always make this recipe and it always ends up well.
I just bought a crockpot and this was my first ever recipe. Wow, turned out GREAT!! Thank you!
Wonderful! Happy to hear that 😉
I meant, when do you add the red BELL pepper?
When you add the celery. I just adjusted the recipe to clear further confusion. Thanks for pointing it out!
What size slow cooker did you use?
It’s a 6-Quart Slow Cooker.
If I have a 4.5 quart, do I need to cut down the recipe at all?
No you will be totally fine 😉
When it says tomato sauce, is this ketchup or chopped tomatoes?
Any tomato sauce of you preference. It’s not ketchup. I have a tomato sauce recipe here for you to take a look.
if my squash is frozen but cooked – can i put this recipe on high for four hours?
Sorry, Paige. I’m not totally sure. But I think it may work.
I scrolled most of the comments and didn’t see the answer to my question- how many cups is a serving? I am planning to make this for meal prep for about 10 people and need to know if I should keep the recipe as is or count on double servings…thank you for your help!
It about 10 cups. Hope it helps 😉
I loved the recipe for years, but it changed? It used to be a recipe for a slow cooker. I’ve had it saved for longer than I can remember. It’s been a staple in my house. I pulled it up today and it’s entirely different. Same ingredients, different style of cooking. What happened?
We had to update and retest this recipe to make it better.
I had the same problem just now but I have screen shots of the old recipe if you want them. Can’t believe I kept the pics! Eenelz@gmail.com