Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Lentil Chili

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:

1. 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.
2. 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:

1. Saute onions, garlic, celery and sweet potatoes with olive oil over med-high heat in a large pot for 5-6 minutes until softened.
2. 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.
3. 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:

1. Add all ingredients to Instant Pot in order in which they are listed, besides spinach.
2. Cook on high pressure for 2 minutes, then do a quick release of the pressure.
3. 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

• Slow cooker African peanut stew
• Slow cooker butternut squash dal
• Instant Pot/slow cooker minestrone

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

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!

4.4 from 28 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Keyword: brown lentils, celery, chili, corn, sweet potato

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 8 hours

Total Time: 8 hours 20 minutes

Servings: 6 servings

Calories: 371kcal

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

Calories: 371kcal | Carbohydrates: 55g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Sodium: 766mg | Potassium: 926mg | Fiber: 15g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 12600IU | Vitamin C: 61.9mg | Calcium: 60mg | Iron: 4.9mg