5 Unique and Healthy Chili Recipes
Stay warm (and healthy) with these delicious chili recipes. (Photos: Ariane Resnick/Livestrong.com)
When winter weather strikes, chili saves the day: It’s comforting, filling and has enough spice to warm you from the inside out. This collection of chili recipes caters to a full spectrum of dietary needs, from vegan to Paleo, with selections to satisfy an array of tastes and preferences. They should help you let go of the idea that chili needs to be greasy to be good! These recipes are full of interesting veggies like celery root, nutrient-rich and unusual cuts of meat like beef shanks, and beans you may not have tried before.
My go-to cooking oil in some of these recipes is not vegetable oil, but algae oil; this is because its neutral flavor won’t interfere with the hot, sweet and fresh ingredients. Additionally, algae oil contains the highest level of monounsaturated fat (one of the “good fats”) of oil options: One tablespoon of algae oil has the same amount of MUFAs as an entire avocado. I also recommend using jarred tomato products, not canned. The flavor of jarred is better, and the high acid content of tomato products can cause them to pick up more of the “canned” taste. So try one of these 5 chili recipes to keep the chill away!
1. Buffalo Chicken Mini-Meatball Chili
If you love the taste of chicken wings, this is the recipe for you. With a quarter-cup of Louisiana hot sauce, you get the taste of hot wings without the need to fry anything. Making little meatballs out of ground chicken creates a fun and unusual element, and the cilantro adds a Tex-Mex factor. A small serving of cilantro provides more than half of the RDA for vitamin K and is used in many natural-health communities as a detoxifying agent. For the chicken, you can use ground white or dark meat; I prefer dark meat because it stays more moist and has a bit of extra flavor, but many people prefer white meat. Due to the saltiness of the hot sauce, I don’t find it necessary to add any salt to the chili outside of what goes into the meatballs. Get the recipe here.
2. Paleo Creamy Chicken Chili Verde
The concept of using root vegetables to thicken a sauce isn’t a new one, but this may be the first time the idea is employed in chili. Here, a velvety chili verde has the unusual additions of celery root, parsnips and rutabaga. Left in pieces, they work as an alternate source of carbohydrates for a chili that contains no beans, and one set of chopping works for both applications. The tomatillos contain niacin, potassium and vitamin C. The chicken is cooked on the bone for flavor’s sake as well as gelatin content; if you prefer breast meat, use bone-in chicken breasts instead of legs and follow the same process. Get the recipe here.
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3. Vegan Lentil Chili With Olives and Figs
Black lentils are known as the caviar of lentils due to their small appearance and delicate flavor. They are my choice here mostly because I love that they remain intact like a bean when cooked, rather than disintegrating as pink lentils do. Olives lend a meatiness to the chili, and when combined with the monounsaturated fats in algae oil and high fiber content of the lentils and figs make this a heart-healthy dish. The heartiness of this chili belies its simple, whole-food, plant-based ingredients. Get the recipe here.
4. Paleo-Friendly Chocolate Habanero Chili
This recipe is labeled Paleo-friendly instead of strictly Paleo because the guajillo chocolate contains sugar, which is not a Paleo ingredient. If you’re on a 100 percent Paleo diet, replace it with unsweetened baking chocolate and add a half-teaspoon of guajillo chile powder instead. (Since guajillo isn’t a common grocery-store chile powder, I use chocolate that is flavored with it, which is available nationwide.) Generally chocolate is thought of in conjunction with Central American cuisine in the context of mole.
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Here, it’s used as a flavoring tool, without the bread that mole sauce tends to have in it. Habanero peppers are very hot, so make sure to wash your hands well after cutting them and refrain from touching your eyes for some time afterward. The inherent sweetness of habanero pairs deliciously with chocolate and cinnamon, and they all help to mellow out any gaminess in the taste of grass-fed beef, which I highly recommend over factory-farmed. Get the recipe here.
5. Paleo-Vegan Cheesy Butternut Chili
A cheesy chili with no meat, no cheese and no beans? Yes! Through a combination of spices and nutritional yeast — which provides a hit of both B-6 and B-12 vitamins — the sauce of this vegetable medley takes on a cheddar cheese-like quality. Turmeric adds additional orange color while lending a boost of antioxidant power. The use of dried garlic and onion instead of fresh is intentional: In simple, vegetable-based recipes, dried vegetables bring out a great “commercial” food flavor that deepens the overall taste of a dish. Feel free to add fresh onion and garlic in addition, but don’t skip the dried versions here. The roasted squash gives the chili a thick texture, plus lutein for eye health. Get the recipe here.
For 5 more amazing chili recipes from Ariane, click here!
By Ariane Resnick
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