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Instant Pot sweet potato chili with black beans, buckwheat, and chipotle in a white bowl garnished with lime, sour cream, and cilantro
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4.85 from 32 votes

Sweet Potato Chili (Instant Pot Recipe)

This hearty vegan Instant Pot sweet potato chili with black beans, buckwheat, and chipotles tastes like it took all day to make — but thanks to the magic of pressure cooking, it's ready in about 30 minutes.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time6 minutes
To Pressurize10 minutes
Total Time26 minutes
Course: Stews
Cuisine: American
Keyword: gluten free, instant pot, vegan, wfpb, wfpbno
Calories: 298kcal
Author: Carolyn Gratzer Cope

Equipment

Ingredients

For the chili

  • 1 medium onion diced small
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 2 medium sweet potatoes about 1 ½ pounds total, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes
  • 1 cup WHOLE buckwheat groats see important ingredient note below, rinsed well and drained
  • 2 ½ cups (600 ml) vegetable broth
  • 1 28- ounce 793-gram can (or 26.5-ounce box) diced tomatoes
  • 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce minced
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 2 15.5- ounce 439-gram cans black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 tablespoon (15 ml) freshly squeezed lime juice, more to taste

To serve

  • Lime wedges
  • Chopped fresh cilantro
  • Vegan sour cream

Instructions

  • Place all chili ingredients except lime juice into an Instant Pot and stir to combine.
  • Cover, seal vent, and cook on high pressure for 6 minutes.
  • You can release the pressure manually or let it release naturally.
  • Stir in lime juice.
  • Chili is ready to eat right away but, like all chili, will only get better over the next 24 hours. I like to make it at least an hour in advance if possible to let the juices absorb.
  • Ladle into serving bowls and garnish with lime wedges, cilantro, and vegan sour cream.

Video

Notes

  1. You can use any variety of sweet potatoes (sometimes sold as "yams" in the U.S., though they aren't yams). ½-inch dice is small, so keep that in mind when you're cutting up the sweet potatoes. This will help ensure they're perfectly tender.
  2. Buckwheat is a grain-like seed that's gluten-free. It adds a mild nuttiness and lots of good texture and nutrition to this vegan chili recipe. Be sure to use raw buckwheat groats rather than toasted ones, which are usually sold as kasha. And be sure to use WHOLE buckwheat groats, not the cracked kind sold as buckwheat hot cereal. The cracked cereal will not work.
  3. Reduced-sodium Imagine No Chicken Broth is my favorite boxed veggie broth by far, since it somehow magically has the flavor profile of a good chicken stock rather than being weirdly red and tasting tinny or sweet, as some other vegetable broths can do.
  4. You can use one 28-ounce can or one 26.5-ounce box of diced tomatoes (sometimes sold as chopped tomatoes), including all their juices. Different brands vary in consistency — the liquid may be thinner or thicker. They'll all work just fine. If your brand is on the thicker side, you may end up scrubbing the bottom of your Instant Pot a bit while cleaning up.
  5. Chili powder means the American-style spice blend, and not pure ground chili.
  6. Canned black beans help make this recipe quick and easy. The two 15.5-ounce cans called for in the recipe equal about 3 ½ cups cooked beans. You can, of course, substitute beans you've cooked from dried.
  7. Canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce add smokiness and heat. If you use the two peppers called for in the recipe with just the sauce that clings to them, the heat is fairly gentle. You can add more peppers and/or more sauce if you like, and it's okay to do so after cooking.
  8. There's no substitute for freshly squeezed lime juice. I've called for just a bit, but you can use as much as you like.
  9. This recipe will work in any 6-quart Instant Pot or other similar electric pressure cooker. I have not personally tested it in an 8-quart pot, but it should work in that size as well. You may want to add another ½ cup broth (for a total of three cups) if using an 8-quart pot, just to be on the safe side.
  10. The broth will thicken up over the first hour after cooking, so I like to let the chili rest for a while if possible. The flavors, too, only improve over time. You can keep the chili in an airtight container in the fridge for a week or freeze it for up to a year.
  11. You can make this recipe on the stovetop if you like. I'd recommend starting with four cups of broth, since a pot set on the stovetop is not a sealed environment, and you'll lose more liquid to evaporation. Add all ingredients to a large pot, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until both the sweet potatoes and the buckwheat are tender, at least 25 minutes.

Nutrition

Calories: 298kcal | Carbohydrates: 60.1g | Protein: 13.7g | Fat: 1.5g | Fiber: 15.7g