Quinoa /kin-wa/ Sweet Potato Chili

This Quinoa Sweet Potato Chili is loaded with flavor and vitamins and works perfectly with our Allure Meritage. Everyone will ask for a second bowl. It’s easy to prepare, takes just over a half hour to get on the table, and the best part - there’s only one pot to clean!

Ingredients

• Olive oil  ·  2 tablespoons 
• Large Sweet Potato, peeled cut into 1” cubes  ·  1 
• Yellow onion, chopped  ·  1 
• Garlic Cloves, minced  ·  3 
• Chicken Apple Sausage Links, sliced  ·  3 
• Chicken or Vegetable Stock  ·  4 cups 
• (6oz) Cans Tomato Paste  ·  2 
• Cans Black Beans , rinsed  ·  2 
• Herbie's Cumin Seed (ground)  ·  3 tablespoons 
• Oregano  ·  1 tablespoon 
• Quinoa, dry  ·  1 cup 
• Herbie's Chili Powder Mild  ·  4 tablespoons 

Instructions

We can get a bit bored with the usual meals so it's nice to have easy options that come together quickly. This lovely chili is healthy and tasty and is a really easy one pot meal that is ready in under an hour.

In a large sauce pot heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onion and cook until they just start to brown.

Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes.

Add the tomato paste along with chili powder, oregano, and cumin until they are incorporated with the onions.

Add the black beans, sweet potato, apple sausage, and chicken stock. (for vegetarian, leave the sausage out and use vegetable stock)

Bring to a boil then add the quinoa and reduce the heat to a simmer for 40 minutes while stirring frequently.

Recipe Note

Kat, one of our chefs, made this recipe as a vegetarian dish one day in the office. When Bill tasted it he said "add chicken apple sausage and this is a dish everyone will love with our Allure Meritage." Kat added the sausage and we began serving it with Allure in the tasting room. Bill was right, everyone loved it and wanted the recipe, so here it is.

Chef Kat's Tip

Already gluten free, to make this recipe as vegetarian or vegan use only vegetable stock and leave out the sausage.

Quinoa

The recipe uses Quinoa, Chenopodium quinoa an annual herbaceous flowering plant (herb). Prounced kin-wa, quinoa is a part of the goosefoot family, like spinach, it is native to the Andean highlands and is cultivated for its starchy seeds which have a high nutritional value and good antioxidant properties. Nutritional evaluations of quinoa indicate that it is a source of complete protein.

Quinoa has been called a superfood. Its protein content is very high and the processes of boiling, simmering, and steaming quinoa do not appear to significantly compromise the quality of quinoa's fatty acids, allowing us to enjoy its cooked texture and flavor while maintaining this nutrient benefit.

Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest. Furthermore, it is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is also a source of calcium, and thus is useful for vegans and those who are lactose intolerant.

Because of all these characteristics, quinoa is being considered a possible crop in NASA's Controlled Ecological Life Support System for long-duration human occupied spaceflights.