Baby Bear
Woogie's Mama
Dec 6, 2007, 3:32 PM
Post #1 of 19
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RECIPE:Smokey Black Bean Chili w/ Sweet Taters
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This was something that I just made up this last weekend, when preparing freezer ready made meals for a friend who is going in for breast cancer surgery. I don't know if it was the love involved or just sheer luck, but I have been honing my black bean chili recipe for years and have really hit the spot with this one. One large tuppie was set aside for my roomie, my boss and my nextdoor neighbor who all raved and asked for more. So I will share it all of you!!
5 cans organic black beans, regular sized can - keeping two cans worth of bean juice and rinsing the other three cans
2 medium sweet potatoes/taters, cubed into 1/4" to 1/3" size chunks
1 large yellow onion, diced
6-8 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground chipotle powder
1 tsp epazote (optional, but very important for digestion)
1 can fire roasted organic tomatoes, diced or pureed
salt & pepper to taste
Makes 8 - 10 servings, perfect for the freezer or gatherings (non-veggies don't even care that its vegan!)
In a dutch oven (preferrably cast iron) or stock pot, sautee yellow onion until soft. Rinse three cans of the beans of all bean juice, and add to onions along with two cans of beans and their liquid. Add epazote, can of tomatoes, adding just enough water to cover the beans. Simmer for two to three hours in the oven if you have a dutch oven or watch it carefully if in a stock pot. When the chili is consistant dark brown/black and some of the beans are disintegrating. Add garlic, cumin, chipotle, salt and pepper and sweet taters. Do not add the sweet taters before otherwise they will turn to mush and will be unidentifiable. Simmer this business for about 20 minutes or until the taters are soft and serve in a soup bowl over a thick slab of cornbread or pile of brown rice!
This isn't a really spicy recipe if you add the chipotle in early and the epazote can be found at your nearest Mexican Specialty food store. The epazote really gives it this earthy flavor that is so subtle and hard to describe but it will kill most of the noxious fumes that most of us experience the beanage.
Enjoy!
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I made some changes, though. Because I grew my own sweet potatoes this year I have a mountain of them in the pantry. But none of them are cooked. So I added them to the soup uncooked at the same time as the beans along with the seasonings. There it will simmer until I decide it's done. Also, I don't have canned beans. I cook up dried beans and never keep any of the liquid. SO - what I did was use beer in place of the bean liquid. And I didn't have the fire roasted tomatoes that would have been *perfect* for this soup, so I just used plain old canned diced tomatoes. And I don't have epazote. Never had a need for it, but I may buy some on my next trip to Whole Foods so I can see what the difference in taste is with it added to the soup. I can't guarantee that Firefly will like it, but I think it's going to be delicious. I will let you know how it turns out! 
