Sweet Potatoes Are The Missing Ingredient In Your Vegetarian Chili

Sometimes there's only so much space in your brain for dinner ideas, especially if you're trying to limit your meat intake, so a good vegetarian chili recipe is a staple. Not only is it a delicious main dish any night of the week, but chili can also perform all kinds of culinary magic, like topping nachos, spicing up mac and cheese, filling out burritos, and even making a zesty shakshuka-style egg breakfast. The one drawback to making homemade vegetarian chili is that sometimes it's lacking the savory, hearty qualities that you'd get with a meatier version. If your plant-based recipe could use a boost, don't settle for thin-tasting chili. Instead, try adding some sweet potato to the pot to up the umami ante. 

This extra ingredient is packed with flavor and starch to give you a one-two punch of flavor and mouthfeel that will take a so-so batch of chili to the next level. Depending on the size of your dish, just one small or medium sweet potato can make a big difference without changing the overall flavor profile of the chili itself. Even if you're not a sweet potato lover, give them a chance in your next round of vegetarian chili. We're pretty sure after one taste you'll be a convert.

Sweet potatoes are not just good for sugary sides at Thanksgiving. Their earthy, mild flavor blends well with chili powder and cumin, and the starchiness will give a batch of chili more texture. Sweet potatoes also contain glutamic acid, which our taste buds perceive as umami, so you can get a savory, complex flavor profile without adding any meat. Another nice bonus of adding sweet potatoes is that they can easily sweeten your chili naturally, so you can skip adding any extra sugar to taste. They'll also work well with lots of other potential ingredients, like corn, zucchini, hot and mild peppers, and carrots.

If you're skeptical about adding sweet potatoes to chili, start off small. It takes a lot of potato to really alter the flavor of a recipe that's heavily seasoned with multiple spices, but stick to one small- to medium-sized tuber for recipes that make around six servings of chili. If you really like the flavor of sweet potatoes, however, you can use a larger one to make it more of the main character in the chili. Just make sure there is some extra water or cooking stock on hand because sweet potatoes will absorb liquid as they cook.

If you're ready to try sweet potatoes in your veggie chili, there are a couple of ways you can approach it. First, you can toss peeled, chopped chunks into the soup pot along with any other raw veggies. Or, try stirring in pureed sweet potato for a silky, thick texture. You can also use a combination of the two methods. 

Peeled, chopped sweet potatoes will add some bulk and flavor to the dish. All you have to do is prep the potatoes and simmer them in the cooking liquid along with any other raw vegetables like corn and tomatoes. The sweet potatoes will soften and absorb the other flavors of the stew. Just be sure to cut the pieces into a similar shape and size as any other ingredients so that everything cooks in the same amount of time.

Pureed sweet potatoes, on the other hand, can be added toward the end of the cooking process. This is a great way to use up a leftover baked sweet potato, or cook one fresh in the microwave until it's soft and creamy (about 5 to 10 minutes). Scoop the cooked flesh out of the skin with a spoon right into the pot, stir everything around to combine, and then your veggie chili is ready to serve.