Gluten-Free Recipe of the Week #3: Sweet Potato & Quinoa Chili

If you’ve read my Monthly Meal Plan posts, you know I like to experiment with new recipes. Sometimes these experiments work out really well…and sometimes they don’t. Whenever I modify a recipe, I take lots of notes so that I can recreate it in the future if it turns out well.

For my reference and yours, I’ve decided to post my recipe experiments on this blog. I plan to post at least one recipe per week. I will include a link to the original recipe as well as allergen/special diet information, notes about my changes and lessons learned, pictures from various stages of cooking, and my overall impression of the dish. Most recipes will be main dishes, but I may also include desserts or snacks as well.  

Leave a comment below if you think there’s a recipe I might like to try for a future post!

This week’s recipe is The Simple Veganista’s
Sweet Potato & Quinoa Chili
(served with Positively Free™ Gluten-Free Cornbread).

*Please click HERE for a printable copy of this recipe*

Information for Top 8 Allergens

• Free From:
  • Dairy (Chili pictured above is topped with feta cheese, but that is not part of the original recipe)
  • Egg
  • Gluten
  • Fish
  • Crustacean Shellfish
  • Tree Nuts
  • Peanuts
  • Soy (check labels on cooking oil, broth, and spices)

Notes

• This dish is totally gluten-free, vegan, and adaptable to a variety of substitutions to eliminate the need to do extra grocery shopping during the week. I purposely chose this dish because I had most of the ingredients in my pantry already! I substituted garbanzo beans for kidney beans and used water instead of broth because that’s what I had in my kitchen.
• I garnished my chili with feta cheese and red pepper flakes because I didn’t have any avocados, lime, or cilantro. Garnish with whatever you have on hand.

• This chili is not spicy on its own, but it does benefit from heat (if you like spicy!).
• It takes about an hour to prepare both the chili and cornbread, but you could prep these steps in advance to save time on cooking day:
  • Dice onions and sweet potato (up to 2 days in advance) → store in fridge
    NOTE: the smaller you cut the sweet potato, the faster it will cook (I chose a rustic dice and the chili was done about 30 minutes after it started to simmer)
    
  • Mince garlic (you could also sub more garlic powder if you’re out of the fresh stuff) → store in fridge
  • Drain and rinse beans, combine in covered container → store in fridge
  • Combine chili powder, cumin, oregano, garlic powder, and onion powder → store in covered container or plastic bag
• I recommend cooking the cornbread the day you plan to serve the chili because nothing beats fresh-out-of-the-oven cornbread.

• The recipe outlines the cooking steps really well. I followed her instructions with no problems. The chili started off very thin, but it thickened nicely once it was finished simmering:

Substitutions

• Any beans you have will work in this recipe
• Add an additional sweet potato for more heft
• Use lentils instead of quinoa if preferred
• This recipe will most likely also work in the slow-cooker → let me know if you try it!

Additional Meal Components

This chili paired beautifully with Positively Free™ Gluten-Free Cornbread.

Verdict

This dish was (relatively) fast, easy, cheap, and nutritious! My husband was skeptical about a vegan chili, but even he was impressed with the flavor and heartiness of this dish. This is a great dish to make if you’re running low on time or haven’t been to the store in awhile. I’m definitely keeping this recipe as a go-to for busy weeknights or weeks when I need to use up what’s in my pantry!