This thick and naturally sweet and savory crock-pot vegetable chili makes for some easy, healthy weeknight comfort food!
Ingredients
3 cups cubed butternut squash (fresh or frozen)
1½ C diced yellow onion
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 4 oz can diced green chilies
1 14.5 oz can black beans
1 14.5 oz can kidney beans
1 14.5 oz can pinto beans (or ¾ lb ground turkey or chicken)
1 28 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 Tbsp olive oil
1½ Tbsp chili powder
½ Tbsp paprika
½ Tbsp garlic
1 tsp cumin
Chipotle chili powder (none for mild, ½ Tbsp for medium, 1 Tbsp for hot)
1 C frozen sweet corn
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp molasses
Instructions
Prep all of the vegetables by dicing the onions as well as the red and green bell peppers. For the butternut squash, you can cube fresh squash or use frozen.
Combine the vegetables, beans, meat (if using), tomatoes, tomato paste, olive oil, regular chili powder, paprika, garlic, and cumin in a crock-pot that's 4 quarts or larger in size. Cook on high in the covered crock-pot for 8 hours.
Thirty minutes before serving, stir in the corn, molasses and apple cider vinegar.
Next, decide how much heat you would like your chili to have by adding different amounts of chipotle chili powder; Mild=add none, medium=1/2 Tbsp, hot=1 Tbsp. At this point, you also have the option to reserve some "mild" chili from the pot and then add chipotle to the remaining chili if you're serving some people who like spicy food and others who do not. Just remember - if you are dividing the chili in half, cut the amount of chipotle you use in half. For example, for medium chili use ¼ Tbsp of chipotle chili powder. Cook covered for another 30 minutes.
To serve, I recommend topping with shredded cheddar cheese and a little sour cream.
Recipe by Simple as That at https://simpleasthatblog.com/crock-pot-vegetable-chili/