Easy Vegetarian Slow-Cooker Sweet Potato Chili

Who doesn’t love a good chili, slow-cooked throughout a winter day?!

But sometimes chili can just be a a bunch of meat, a little beans, and no vegetables!

Choose this recipe because it puts more plants in your diet using these great ingredients:

• Beans: pumped full of fiber, they are also a great way to encourage vegetarian protein from a shelf-stable source. I use the brand Eden Organic because it’s pressure cooked with kombu, which really eases the digestion process. (Want to know about digestion beans? Head here!)

• Sweet potatoes: a sweet addition with a gorgeous orange hue. Every time you choose orange in your produce, you’re getting essential vitamin C and vitamin A which supports our immune system. Plus they really satisfy that need for sweet, but in a fiber-rich way.

• Cacao or Cocoa: who knew you could put cacao in a chili recipe?! It provides depth of flavor, a pretty color along with the tomatoes, and chocks this stew full of flavanols and resveretrol. Cacao is definitely the way to go, as it is the more pure form of chocolate and doesn’t go through as much processing.

Prep time 10 minutes

Cook time 4 - 8 hours

Serves 12

Ingredients

1 medium red onion, chopped

2 green bell peppers, chopped

1 - 2 sweet potatoes, chopped (about 2 cups)

6 garlic cloves, chopped

1 1/2 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa or cacao powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Generous amount of freshly-ground black pepper

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

1 cup water

1 tablespoon grade A dark maple syrup

2 (15.5-ounce) cans Eden Organic beans of choice (black, kidney, pinto, garbanzo)

For serving

Full-fat organic Greek yogurt or coconut yogurt

Avocado

Cilantro leaves

Sliced radishes

Casava flour tortilla chips (like Siete brand)

Directions

Combine all of the ingredients in a slow cooker and stir well. Cover and cook until sweet potatoes are tender, generally about 8 hours on low or high for 4 hours. Serve 1 cup chili with a dollop of yogurt, 1/4 cup avocado and toppings as desired.