Hello there, and Happy Thanksgiving pals!
As a foodie, I'm sure you can imagine that this is very nearly my favourite holiday of the year. Christmas is my actual favourite, but only because it's LONGER. Because Turkey Day is just one day I feel like Thanksgiving never really gets its proper due, so when I grow up, I plan to host quarterly Thanksgiving dinners at my house. There's just too many cool recipes I want to try, with only one chance per year! Bollocks, in my opinion. (That plan hinges on the obviously faulty logic that I will, in fact, one day grow up--but nevermind.)
Surprising to no one I've been planning my Thanksgiving menu since sometime in September, and I ultimately decided that sweet potatoes were axed from this year's menu. Since it's just my Dad, my 20-year-old body building brother Champ and I for dinner this year it's quite the small party and thus I had to be painfully limited with my side dishes. Champ, of course, threw a hissy fit when he found out I wasn't doing a sweet potatoes because of course he doesn't care about anything ever but the **second** I say no to something it's immediately the most important thing ever ever ever--but I'M IN CHARGE HERE DAMMIT!
To yield to the sweet-potato-based pressure, I cooked up this vegan sweet potato and black bean chili for dinner. None of us are vegans here, I assure you, this is completely by chance--but it's so lean, filling, and chock full of wholesome things, it's something to feel good about eating before you dive in face first unapologetically into the gluttony and gravy-induced stupor that is Thanksgiving.
As a foodie, I'm sure you can imagine that this is very nearly my favourite holiday of the year. Christmas is my actual favourite, but only because it's LONGER. Because Turkey Day is just one day I feel like Thanksgiving never really gets its proper due, so when I grow up, I plan to host quarterly Thanksgiving dinners at my house. There's just too many cool recipes I want to try, with only one chance per year! Bollocks, in my opinion. (That plan hinges on the obviously faulty logic that I will, in fact, one day grow up--but nevermind.)
Surprising to no one I've been planning my Thanksgiving menu since sometime in September, and I ultimately decided that sweet potatoes were axed from this year's menu. Since it's just my Dad, my 20-year-old body building brother Champ and I for dinner this year it's quite the small party and thus I had to be painfully limited with my side dishes. Champ, of course, threw a hissy fit when he found out I wasn't doing a sweet potatoes because of course he doesn't care about anything ever but the **second** I say no to something it's immediately the most important thing ever ever ever--but I'M IN CHARGE HERE DAMMIT!
To yield to the sweet-potato-based pressure, I cooked up this vegan sweet potato and black bean chili for dinner. None of us are vegans here, I assure you, this is completely by chance--but it's so lean, filling, and chock full of wholesome things, it's something to feel good about eating before you dive in face first unapologetically into the gluttony and gravy-induced stupor that is Thanksgiving.
Chili never looks particularly appetizing, but damn if it isn't delicious. And yes, my father ruined the "vegan" aspect by topping it with a mountain of shredded cheddar cheese.
Vegan Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili
serves 4
What You Need:
1 very large, 2 medium, or 3 smallish sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into a small dice
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 red or green bell pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 green jalapeno, seeds removed and flesh diced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
3 1/2 cups cooked black beans (that equals 2 15-oz tins, or see my note below if you want to try cooking them from scratch)
4 teaspoons adobo sauce from a tin of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (if you like your chili more on the spicy side, feel free to add in one of the chipotle peppers, chopped)
1 28-oz tin diced tomatoes with their juice
1 teaspoon white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup water or vegetable broth, to thin it out
Optional, To Screw Up The Whole Vegan Thing: Sour cream or shredded cheese, to serve
***On black beans from scratch:***
My Mother, God rest her soul, was born and raised in Guatemala on the traditional staple diet of black beans and rice. Do you think they use tinned beans down there? LOL, no. That's an American convenience, but after cooking my own beans from scratch this weekend I understand WHY it's such a convenience. Holy shit, cooking dry beans from scratch takes forever. Now, research on the great wide Internet tells me the age of the beans has a lot to do with the cooking time and I'm not kidding when I say that because I dug this particular batch of beans up from the back of my Dad's pantry, I am therefore estimating their age at AT LEAST 6 years old. But, cooking the beans is not that hard, just time consuming: In order to yield about 3 1/2 cups of cooked beans, I used just about 1 1/4 cup of dry beans. I rinsed them under running water in a sieve, and then soaked them in cold water overnight. The next day I drained the water and tossed them in a small pot, covered with water, added 1 teaspoon of salt, and let them simmer merrily away...for SIX HOURS. Six hours! I had to top off the water a couple of times to make sure the beans stayed properly covered, and stir a few times, but that's about it.
So, is it a hassle to make your own beans from scratch? Yes, I think so, because it requires advanced planning and more effort. That said, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Why? Because as the beans cook they release starch and flavouring into the cooking water, yielding this black salty broth that acted as my liquid in the chili recipe, and tastes AMAZING. Like I could sip that from a mug all day in bliss. These are the beans I remember from my childhood, and if you did a taste test of beans from scratch next to tinned beans, I absolutely guarantee without a doubt that the beans from scratch will come out on top, every time.
That's it for my rant on beans for now, but I'm planning on writing a whole separate blog post on them shortly about how to select and cook them, store them, and freeze them--and more importantly, why you should definitely, positively, should be putting them in and around your mouth.
What You Do:
1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with foil. On it, toss together your diced sweet potatoes, paprika, salt and pepper to taste with only 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and spread out into a thin layer. Roast for 25 minutes, stirring once in between. Remove from the oven and set...somewhere. Aside. Out of your way.
2. In a large pot over medium heat, heat your olive oil and saute up your onion, bell pepper, garlic, jalapeno, cumin, and oregano until everything is nice and soft. Add in the black beans, the tin of tomatoes, adobo sauce, sugar, and cocoa powder. Stir. (Note: at this point, I added 1 cup of the black bean broth because the chili was too thick to simmer properly. If you opted for tinned beans, add in a cup of water or vegetable broth here.)
3. Bring the mixture to a simmer, then reduce heat to low and let it simmer merrily away for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add in your sweet potato. Simmer for another 15 minutes-ish or until all heated through nicely.
Dunzo!
There are zillions of chili toppings, of course, but in my house we dig shredded cheddar cheese and saltine crackahs. Cheese is obviously not vegan, but there are vegan cheese options so if you're that into it, by all means, have at it.
1 very large, 2 medium, or 3 smallish sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into a small dice
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 red or green bell pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 green jalapeno, seeds removed and flesh diced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
3 1/2 cups cooked black beans (that equals 2 15-oz tins, or see my note below if you want to try cooking them from scratch)
4 teaspoons adobo sauce from a tin of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (if you like your chili more on the spicy side, feel free to add in one of the chipotle peppers, chopped)
1 28-oz tin diced tomatoes with their juice
1 teaspoon white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup water or vegetable broth, to thin it out
Optional, To Screw Up The Whole Vegan Thing: Sour cream or shredded cheese, to serve
***On black beans from scratch:***
My Mother, God rest her soul, was born and raised in Guatemala on the traditional staple diet of black beans and rice. Do you think they use tinned beans down there? LOL, no. That's an American convenience, but after cooking my own beans from scratch this weekend I understand WHY it's such a convenience. Holy shit, cooking dry beans from scratch takes forever. Now, research on the great wide Internet tells me the age of the beans has a lot to do with the cooking time and I'm not kidding when I say that because I dug this particular batch of beans up from the back of my Dad's pantry, I am therefore estimating their age at AT LEAST 6 years old. But, cooking the beans is not that hard, just time consuming: In order to yield about 3 1/2 cups of cooked beans, I used just about 1 1/4 cup of dry beans. I rinsed them under running water in a sieve, and then soaked them in cold water overnight. The next day I drained the water and tossed them in a small pot, covered with water, added 1 teaspoon of salt, and let them simmer merrily away...for SIX HOURS. Six hours! I had to top off the water a couple of times to make sure the beans stayed properly covered, and stir a few times, but that's about it.
So, is it a hassle to make your own beans from scratch? Yes, I think so, because it requires advanced planning and more effort. That said, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Why? Because as the beans cook they release starch and flavouring into the cooking water, yielding this black salty broth that acted as my liquid in the chili recipe, and tastes AMAZING. Like I could sip that from a mug all day in bliss. These are the beans I remember from my childhood, and if you did a taste test of beans from scratch next to tinned beans, I absolutely guarantee without a doubt that the beans from scratch will come out on top, every time.
That's it for my rant on beans for now, but I'm planning on writing a whole separate blog post on them shortly about how to select and cook them, store them, and freeze them--and more importantly, why you should definitely, positively, should be putting them in and around your mouth.
What You Do:
1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with foil. On it, toss together your diced sweet potatoes, paprika, salt and pepper to taste with only 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and spread out into a thin layer. Roast for 25 minutes, stirring once in between. Remove from the oven and set...somewhere. Aside. Out of your way.
Roasted sweet potato is the best sweet potato and there will be no debate on that fact.
2. In a large pot over medium heat, heat your olive oil and saute up your onion, bell pepper, garlic, jalapeno, cumin, and oregano until everything is nice and soft. Add in the black beans, the tin of tomatoes, adobo sauce, sugar, and cocoa powder. Stir. (Note: at this point, I added 1 cup of the black bean broth because the chili was too thick to simmer properly. If you opted for tinned beans, add in a cup of water or vegetable broth here.)
3. Bring the mixture to a simmer, then reduce heat to low and let it simmer merrily away for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add in your sweet potato. Simmer for another 15 minutes-ish or until all heated through nicely.
Dunzo!
There are zillions of chili toppings, of course, but in my house we dig shredded cheddar cheese and saltine crackahs. Cheese is obviously not vegan, but there are vegan cheese options so if you're that into it, by all means, have at it.
