This Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Lentil Chili is a healthy, vegetarian spin on comfort food that's perfect for chilly weather! Dump everything in your crockpot and let the flavours mingle!
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Ingredients in sweet potato lentil chili
This Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Lentil Chili is here to break all expectations of what a proper chili should be. And coming from one meat-eater to another, you're gonna LOVE this stuff! Here's what you need to make it:
- onions
- celery
- garlic
- red and green peppers
- sweet potatoes
- brown lentils
- corn
- spices
- crushed tomatoes
- vegetable broth
- spinach
How to make sweet potato lentil chili
This sweet potato lentil chili is SO easy to make thanks to the help of your slow cooker! You pretty much just dump and press start. Here are the instructions:
- Dump all ingredients except for spinach in the slow cooker in the order they appear. Cook on low for 8 hours until sweet potatoes are tender and lentils are soft.
- Stir in spinach, then serve with toppings of choice.
Making it on the stovetop
You can easily make this recipe on the stovetop! Here are the instructions:
- Saute onions, garlic, celery and sweet potatoes with olive oil over med-high heat in a large pot for 5-6 minutes until softened.
- Stir in spices, then rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes with a lid on, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in spinach, then serve and enjoy.
Making it in the Instant Pot
You can easily make this recipe in the Instant Pot. The sweet potatoes may be a bit mushy, so I suggest you cut them into larger chunks before cooking under pressure. Here are the instructions:
- Add all ingredients to Instant Pot in order in which they are listed, besides spinach.
- Cook on high pressure for 2 minutes, then do a quick release of the pressure.
- Stir in spinach, then serve and enjoy.
Ingredient substitutions
This recipe is pretty versatile and you can switch it up very easily. Here are some ingredient substitutions you can make.
Lentils – I used brown lentils in this recipe, but you can easily use green lentils instead. I don't recommend red lentils because they will turn mushy. Chickpeas, kidney beans and navy beans would also be great additions.
Sweet potatoes – Instead of sweet potatoes, you can use butternut or acorn squash. You can even use regular potatoes too!
Vegetables – I love what bell peppers add to this chili, as well as the corn, celery and onions. I recommend keeping the onions for flavour, but the rest you can easily swap out with other vegetables.
Spices – I use chili powder, cumin and smoked paprika as the main spices in this recipe, and you do need the chili powder. However, you can use regular paprika or add in coriander to the mix.
What to serve with sweet potato lentil chili
This sweet potato chili is super hearty on its own, but you can serve it with sides to make it a larger meal. Here's what I would suggest:
- Crusty bread
- Side salad
- Oven fries
- Roasted or steamed broccoli
- Cauliflower rice
- Wild rice
- Quinoa
Toppings for lentil chili
You can also top this chili to make it even more out of this world! Here's what you could use:
- Jalapenos
- Sour cream
- Cheese
- Cilantro
- Pico de gallo
- Avocado
- Lime wedges
Storing and reheating
You can easily store this chili in the fridge up to 5 days. I recommend storing in individual portions in glass meal prep containers so all you have to do is reheat in the microwave for 2-3 minutes.
Freezing lentil chili
You can also freeze this chili! Store in glass containers with lids up to 3 months. Reheat from frozen in the microwave for 6-7 minutes, stirring halfway through. You can also reheat on the stove.
More vegetarian slow cooker recipes
Meal prep tools
- I use brown lentils like these ones here
- Get your Slow Cooker here
- I also love these glass meal prep bowls for reheating this chili in individual portions
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Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Lentil Chili
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 yellow onions, diced
- 4 stalks celery, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
- 1 cup brown lentils
- 1/2 cup Corn
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 (750mL) can crushed tomatoes
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 2 cups chopped spinach
Instructions
- Dump all ingredients except for spinach in the slow cooker in the order they appear. Cook on low for 8 hours until sweet potatoes are tender and lentils are soft. Stir in spinach, then serve with toppings of choice.
- Will keep frozen up to 2 months - to reheat, microwave on high for 5-7 minutes, stirring halfway through.
Video
Nutrition
James | Thyme to Mango says
Ha, I have the same skepticism about vegetarian recipes, I’m always worried my stomach won’t fill as “full” as it would if the dish had meat in it (which is just silly). I’ve started really delving into veggie recipes just for fun (I cannot get enough lentils into my life right now) so definitely putting this on the list to try! 👍
Kerreena says
I read in another recipe using lentils and tomatoes that you should cook the lentils in the crock pot first for 2 hours before adding in the diced tomatoes because the lentils won’t fully cook. Did you not have this issue? I made a Crock-Pot vegan lasagna
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Kerreena! I have tested this recipe a couple times now and it works just fine – keep in mind I’ve used strained tomatoes in this recipe which are a lot more liquid-y than diced tomatoes so the lentils absorb those and the broth. As long as you cook the 8 hours you will be fine!
Kathy says
Can you use green lentils?
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Kathy – I’m sure you could but I just can’t guarantee that they won’t be a bit mushier since I haven’t tried it myself. But my instincts tell me you should be fine 🙂
Michelle says
Hi!
Are the nutrition facts for the entire pot of chili? If that’s the case, is the amount of sugar because of the sweet potato??
Thanks!
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Michelle – that’s a single serving size (371 calories). The 13g of sugar you are seeing is likely natural sugars from the sweet potato, corn and canned crushed tomatoes.
Debbie says
Do I peel the sweet potatoe before chopping? Or does the skin stay on?
Taylor Stinson says
Yes peel the sweet potato before chopping 🙂
Tom says
I just won my office chili cook-off using this recipe (competing against meat-filled chili). I did adjust a little bit adding a teaspoon of Garam Masala and a half teaspoon of cayenne.
Taylor Stinson says
WOOO HOOO!!!! So happy to hear it won against the meat chilis, that’s incredible! Thanks for sharing with me Tom, so glad you liked it 🙂
Andrea says
I made this stovetop yesterday and it was delicious! I didn’t have a green pepper so just used the red, used 3 sweet potatoes and red lentils instead brown (what I had). I also used half diced tomatoes and half crushed as personal preference. My daughter had some as well and gave it two thumbs up. It’s a great meal – so filling! Thanks for another yummy recipe 🙂
Taylor Stinson says
YAY!!! So happy you liked it Andrea the substitutes sound great!!! 🙂
Karla Park says
Hey this sounds delicious.. I’m planning on making this on the weekend.. I am wondering can you use canned lentils?
Taylor Stinson says
You could try! I haven’t tried it myself so I worry about them getting over-cooked but it may not be an issue. Let me know if it turns out 🙂
Thomas says
Thanks for the recipe.
I was wondering if there is any way this could be in an insta pot or some other medium that under an hour or two
Taylor Stinson says
Hey Thomas! I’ve tried cooking sweet potatoes in the Instant Pot before and they tend to fall apart unfortunately 🙁 I wouldn’t recommend the Instant Pot for this recipe, but you could dump everything in a pot on the stove and cook for an hour or so. I would imagine it would turn out similarly!
cf86713 says
Could you use fresh tomatoes for this one rather than in a can?
Taylor Stinson says
You probably could! I don’t know that the flavour would be the exact same but it’s worth a try 🙂