Autoimmune recipes: flavoursome winter chipotle chilli
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chilli
Feeds 6, takes 50 mins (15 mins prep, 35 mins cooking time)
This recipe is taken from the Bold Bean Company. It is surprisingly tasty for such a simple (and cheap) recipe and has even gone down well with people who don’t usually like sweet potato. It is the long cooking time on the hob that reduces the sauce and brings out the flavour. This is a lovely recipe for winter, when you can get everything into the pot at the start, then leave it to cook while you do something else and let the aroma stimulate your appetite.
It can be easily batched cooked and frozen, then reheated when required. There are a number of ways to serve it so that it doesn’t feel like you are having the same meal again. Jacket potatoes, rice, wedges, tortillas with guacamole, yoghurt and salsa on the side are all good serving options.
Black beans are particularly nutritious, being high in protein, fibre, and many particularly useful micronutrients for autoimmunity, including magnesium, calcium, iron, folate, choline and manganese.
Sweet potato is especially high in vitamin A, which can often be low in autoimmune conditions.
I have no links with the Bold Bean Company, but mention them here as their beans are cooked in a tasty stock and they use glass jars, rather than tins which can cause problems for some people sensitive to aluminium. They have some good recipes on their website Bold Bean Company.
Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp chipotle paste
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into small nite-sized chunks
300ml stock
400g passata or chopped tomatoes
2 x 400g tins black beans or one jar of the Bold Bean Co Queen Black Beans with their bean stock
Handful of chopped coriander
Method
Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over a medium heat. Fry the garlic until lightly golden, about 1 minute. Stir in the tomato puree, paprika, cumin and chipotle with a splash of water. Stir to create a paste. Cook off for a couple of minutes until fragrant.
Add the sweet potato and toss to coat in the spices. Pour in the passata or chopped tomatoes and stock and simmer for 25 minutes over a low-medium heat to allow the sweet potato to soften.
Once the potatoes are soft, add in the black beans. Stir to combine and simmer for a further 10 minutes. Let it bubble until the sauce has a rich, glossy consistency.
Serve with a side of rice, jacket potato, wedges or tortillas, perhaps with guacamole, yoghurt or salsa, and a sprinkling of coriander.