Smoky Paleo Chili

I "borrowed" something I have been coveting for a very long time from my mother. She has this Saladmaster gadget she uses for cabbage, potatoes and vegetables that I love. They are expensive and hard to come across. She bought one at an estate sale and gave it to MY SISTER. (I knew then that she was the favorite.) Now it is at my house, and I put it to work with this chili recipe.

That is sweet potato grated, by the way.  In this recipe, I used it to shred sweet potato, celery, onion and garlic.  I was in a hurry, another time I might only shred the sweet potato and dice everything else to give the final product a different texture, but I was fine with this. 

My original recipe for this chili came from Cooking Light magazine about 6 years ago.  It used a lot of lean meats (beef and pork) and called for 2 or 3 peppers that I just don't usually have on hand.  I used ground beef and only used the chipotle peppers and didn't worry about the rest.  I also used 3 different kind of beans, instead of just kidney.  We loved it.  Then I tweaked the recipe to be more vegetarian for a couple years.  Lots of chopped veggies, lots of beans.  Still loved it.  Now I am paleo (loving that), so tweaking the recipe once again to be lots of meat and lots of vegetables.  No beans.  Kind of sad about the no beans thing, but have tried to reintroduce them to my diet before and it does not agree with me.  So here is the result. Same flavors, same great chili!

I can't emphasize enough that you can put whatever you want in this chili, just follow the basic guidelines. Meat + Veggies + Tomato + Seasonings = It will turn out fine!

2 sweet potatoes, grated or diced

4 carrots, diced or grated

6 stalks celery, diced

1 zuchinni, grated or diced

2 onions, grated or diced

6 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 lbs beef and/or pork, ground

2 cups broth

1 chipotle pepper and Tbsp of adobo sauce (see below)

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 small can tomato paste

2 Tbsp cider vinegar

1 Tbsp mustard

1 Tbsp worchestershire sauce

1 Tbsp blackstrap molasses

1/2 tsp salt

1)Brown meat, move to another pan.

2)Saute veggies until soft

3)Add meat and veggies to large soup pot

4)Add rest of ingredients and stir

5)Simmer for 20 minutes, till veggies are cooked.

6) Top with avocado!

Chipotle peppers are in everything now, but when I first started using this recipe I had a hard time finding them.  They are in a small can with the other peppers/Mexican food.  There are several in a can, so I like to pour the whole can in a food processor.  I take the couple of teaspoons I need for this recipe and freeze the rest in ice cube trays.  Then pop the cubes in a freezer bag, label it, and you have chipotle peppers for this and other recipes.  I have used it to make a sauce for chicken, chipotle mashed sweet potatoes, a chipotle butter for steak, meatloaf and tacos. 

We go out of town for the weekend a lot in the summer. I have found that when I am cleaning out the fridge, if I take a minute to chop up leftover produce and stick it in the freezer, it comes in handy later.  I had a cup of zuchinni (see frozen chunk below)ready to go for this recipe.  Here is my bowl of veggies before I cooked them.