Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili

I had a week or two when I was craving chili. It was during our 'cold snap' here in Arizona. It actually got down to 32 degrees!!

Also, I *love* sweet potatoes. Strange? Maybe, but so what. They are tasty, okay?!

Enter---> Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili. *cue heavenly music*

You may think it sounds really weird, but just try it, okay? You won't be sorry. I got this recipe from Life Blessons.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili
via eat me, delicious, adapted from The Clueless Vegetarian

Serves 3-4 as a meal.

1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 cup vegetable broth
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 28-oz (796mL) cans diced tomatoes
2 19-oz (540mL) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp crumbled dried oregano

Heat the oil in a large saucepan* or Dutch oven. Add the onions and cook, stirring, over medium heat until the onions are soft - about 5 minutes. Add the chili powder and the cumin and cook for another minute or so. Add the vgetable broth and the cubed sweet potatoes, reduce the heat to low and cook, covered, until the potatoes are almost tender - about 10 minutes.

Add the tomatoes with all the juice from the can, the beans, salt, and oregano. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then let simmer until the potatoes are completely tender - about 20 minutes.


Go for the Dutch oven if you can, unless your saucepan is really very large. (Jillian note: I just made it in a big pot, and it worked out just fine.)


**Jillian note: To make it more of a 'meal', we added some of the leftover smoked turkey from Thanksgiving. Holy scrumptious, Batman! And, because my hubby is a better chef than I am, he had the brilliant idea of putting a couple of the smoked turkey bones in the chili while it was simmering to impart more of that yummy flavor. *drool*

Cranberry-turkey enchiladas

I was intrigued when I first saw this recipe. It sounded weird, but tasty at the same time. I love Mexican food, and you can't have turkey soup forever, so I gave it a try. I'm so glad I did. This will be a leftovers staple from here on out. It can even be made other times of the year, if (like me) you happen to have several pounds of leftover turkey in your freezer. We give four stars without hesitation.

I took some pictures of mine, but they actually make the meal look really gross, so I'll let you look at the photos on the site where I originally found the recipe. Here's a teaser for you:

The original recipe can be found here.

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Cranberry-Turkey Enchiladas

2 to 2½ cups shredded cooked turkey
16 oz can whole berry cranberry sauce
15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1½ cups bottled salsa
1 cup shredded colby and Monterey Jack cheese (4oz.) (or more, if desired)
½ cup sour cream
3 whole green onions, sliced
¼ cup snipped fresh cilantro
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground black pepper
Eight 7 to 8″ whole-wheat or regular flour tortillas
1 tsp bottle hot pepper sauce
cilantro, green onions and sour cream for garnish, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly coat a 13×9-inch baking dish with cooking spray; set aside.

2. For filling, in a large bowl stir together turkey, half of the cranberry sauce, beans, ½ cup of the salsa, ¾ cup of the cheese, sour cream, green onions, cilantro, cumin, salt and pepper. Spoon about 2/3 cup filling on each tortilla. Roll up tortillas around filling. Place, seam sides down, in prepared dish; set aside.

3. For sauce, in bowl stir together remaining cranberry sauce, remaining salsa and hot pepper sauce. Spoon over filled tortillas. Cover with foil. Bake for 45 minutes. Uncover; top with remaining cheese. Bake 5-10 minutes more or until heated through and cheese is melted.

4. Sprinkle with additional cilantro and green onions.

Yield: 6 to 8 enchiladas
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I didn't have hot sauce, and I didn't want to buy a bottle just to use on this recipe. I can handle Mexican heat, but I don't like the flavor of hot sauce. I did, however, have some green enchilada sauce leftover in a can in the fridge, and it had quite a bit of kick, so I added 1 1/2 tsp to the topping. It was way too hot -- you couldn't taste the rest of the food well enough. We always use medium heat salsa. If you use anything hotter than mild, don't bother putting hot sauce in the topping.

Leftover Turkey Hash (a la Guy Fieri)

I got the inspiration while watching Food Network. Guy Fieri made the most amazing looking/sounding turkey hash with leftovers, and I decided to give it a shot but change it up a little so my pregnant taste buds could handle it. Here is the original; I left out the jalapeno, used a milder onion and only a green pepper, and no salt or pepper. I also didn't make fried potatoes -- I served it over leftover dressing/stuffing and there was plenty of salt and pepper in that. And I made a lot less than his recipe because the kids are being stinkers and I knew I didn't want a ton of leftover hash.

2 Tbs olive oil
1 onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced (you can dice and freeze the other half to use later)
1 to 2 c diced, cooked turkey breast
2 roma tomatoes, diced
2 limes, sliced
leftover dressing or stuffing

In medium skillet over medium heat, saute onion and green pepper until desired doneness (I like mine sort of caramelized). Add turkey and heat through, use more or less turkey depending on your tastes. Reheat dressing or stuffing and place individual portions in the center of individual plates. Divide turkey hash evenly over top, then add tomatoes. Juice the limes over each plate and enjoy!

*This probably would serve 3-4 normal grownups, but my husband is a big eater, so he got quite a bit of it, and I couldn't finish my plate because I'm still in the icky phase of pregnancy. It was delish; I'm just limited to how much of anything I can eat. Five stars.