Black & White Bean Butternut Chili - Featuring Celeriac

Recipes abound for Black Bean Butternut Chili, but rarely do you see celeriac in chili.  Come to think of it you rarely see any recipes for celeriac.  

So I figured why not just throw my celeriac in the chili I was already planning to make?  And hey, it turned out awesome!  Turns out celeriac is pretty easy going and adapts well to new situations.  I’m going to keep on adding it to things I already make since it’s abundantly available through much of the winter here!  And the white beans in the chili?  I wanted to be able to call the chili blacKWhite chili and honour our two cities.  However, it makes for an awkward name so I just made an even more awkward long name as seen below.

Black and White Bean Butternut Chili featuring Celeriac

·        1 cup each dried black and white beans (or other), cooked until just soft (you can also use canned beans)

·        3-4 onions, diced

·        1-2 cups frozen chopped sweet/bell peppers

·        3-5 cloves garlic, minced

·        1-2 Tbs. oil

·        1 butternut or other winter squash, peeled, seeded, and diced

·        ½ large celeriac, peeled and diced

·        2 litres canned tomatoes

·        1-2 Tbs. chili powder

·        1-2 tsp. cumin

·        ½ tsp. cayenne or crushed red peppers

·        Salt and pepper

·        (optional) 1 cube vegetable bullion

Cook the beans (this may take a while…).  While the beans are cooking prepare the rest of the veggies.  Heat oil in a pan and fry the onions, peppers and garlic for 5 minutes.  Drain the beans and add everything to a slow cooker or large pot and simmer for 3-4 hours, or until the squash and celeriac are soft.  Adjust seasoning to your liking (or in my case hold back on the heat and add hot sauce to my own serving).  Top with shredded cheese and yogurt (or sour cream or La Vaquita Crema) and serve with local tortilla chips (or whatever you like!).

This makes a pretty large amount—it completely filled our large slow cooker and left our family with leftovers for lunch and the freezer. 

Guest Recipe Post by Jon Spee

The Local Kitchener