AKA Chili

Tomato Soup with Hamburger, Sweet Potato and Beans
AKA Sue’s Chili

The soup Sue calls chili.

On Facebook, I announced my first soup – making in the new house: chili with diced sweet potato. When asked for the recipe I was undaunted even though I have never made any soup the same way twice.

What has me humbled as I start writing down the ingredients, however, is the realization the person recipe-asking is from Texas. Texas, where chili is king. Oh dear, I had better confess. This is a slightly sweet chili with beans. Maybe I should call it Tomato Soup with Hamburger, Sweet Potato and Beans.

• 3 lbs ground beef, browned and drained
• 2 large sweet potatoes, cubed
• Although not in this batch, cubed celery root (celeriac) is a yummy addition

Simmered in

• 3-4 cartons of rustic cut tomatoes in puree
• ½ bottle ketchup (2 cups?) with an equal amount of water
• small carton (1 cup) unsalted chicken stock
• 1-2 TBS of Penzey’s Chili 3000 spice (I usually get more creative with the spice drawer—including cumin, cinnamon and chili powder—but last time I got too creative and didn’t love the result. Since the ingredients are high in sodium, I do not add additional salt.)

Add in

• 2 large onions, minced fine in food processor
• whole stalk of celery, diced fine
• 1 small can diced green chilies
• Usually add sweet peppers (green, orange or red) but didn’t this time
• 4-5 peeled cloves of garlic, smashed (so you can fish out again)
• Two large cans of red kidney beans, rinsed
• Two small cans of reduced sodium black beans, rinsed

Since my soup pot was full, I added the beans to the containers, not the pot. I’ve been known to do the same with the browned hamburger.

—Sue Edison-Swift
August 24, 2014