Hi everyone, Jess here.This week’s CSA has a lot of beautiful colors to brighten up the winter! With the Superbowl coming our way, I’ve decided to make a Game Day comfort food using some of these beautiful items!
Time is limited, so I’ll be relying on my slow cooker to bring it all together.
I love that my slow cooker has the ability to brown built right in.
The root veggies picked for this recipe can be mixed up pretty easily. Try carrot, turnip, sweet potato, or whatever you have on hand. Dice the longer cooking veggies on the smaller side (1/2 inch) and the others can be a bit larger. The peppers and celery pictured here are from the summer and fall CSA, and happy to finally come out of the chest freezer!
The orange substance in this recipe is a delicious veggie-filled tomato sauce that I received from the canning swap this fall. I’m using it in place of diced tomatoes and without regret. The chunks in the right-hand side of the picture are small cubes of frozen stock, which will melt into the recipe in no time.
Here we are about an hour into the recipe.
Half-time report…
And here is the final product! The beets obviously add a bit of color, which mellows a bit by the next day.
The beets in this recipe make sour cream a complimentary garnish.
Winter Root Vegetable Chili
This is a very flexible recipe. Turnips, small diced sweet potatoes, and carrots would also work as your primary veggies. Substitute the beef for ground pork, chicken, goat (chorizo!), turkey or tofu (though I’d recommend adding the latter about 30 minutes from the end of cook time). As always, make it your own!
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium to large diced onion
- 2 minced garlic cloves
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- handful of celery, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
- 1 bunch parsnips, 1/2-3/4 inch dice (depending on how chunky you like it)
- 8 small beets, peeled and diced (about 2 cups)
- 1 quart tomato sauce (could use diced tomatoes as well, but may need to adjust the spice)
- 1/2 cup stock (I used turkey, but any stock would work)
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1⁄2 tsp ground coriander
- Salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 1 can’s worth of beans (I used black beans but red kidney beans are good too)
- Sour cream for garnish
Heat a drizzle of your olive oil to temp in your skillet (or slow cooker if it has browning capability) and sauté your onion for a few short minutes until just getting tender but not browned. Add your garlic to the onion and continue to sauté for about 30 more seconds. Stir in your meat and brown it.
Drain excess fat if necessary (not usually if working with Springdell beef). If not already operating out of the slow cooker, add the meat and onion mixture to the slow cooker now.
Add the celery and pepper, root vegetables, stock, tomato sauce, and spices. (leaving out beans and tofu if using).
Cook on low heat for 6 hours (or high for 3-4 if needed). Add beans and tofu (if using) 30-60 minutes from the end of cook time.
Enjoy! In my opinion, this one is even better the next day!