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My husband Jack and I have one more week to go on the Whole30 program and I have to say, recipes like this Whole30 Chili have been a lifesaver!
First of all, this Whole30 Chili is absolutely fantastic! A combination of ground beef and pork are combined with a mix of vegetables like zucchini, white turnip, bell peppers, celery and onions in a perfectly seasoned tomato sauce that has a hint of heat and spiciness. (To be Whole30 compliant, we left any beans off the ingredient list.) We topped the chili with sliced black olives and chopped scallions for extra flavor.
Second, this recipe makes a generous amount of chili which is great for leftovers the next day. And when it comes to staying on a program like Whole30, meal planning is key – so it’s very helpful to have already prepared food that you can grab and eat when schedules are hectic.
I tell ya – this Whole30 Chili is a delicious recipe anyone will love – even if you aren’t on the Whole30 program!
One last note: In the recipe below, we use organic vegetables and meat, and grass fed ground beef to be Whole30 compliant, but feel free to swap in conventional meats and vegetables if you are not following the program.
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Whole30 Chili
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
- 1/2 pound organic zucchini, cut into bite sized pieces
- 2 cups diced onion
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 stalk organic celery with leaves, diced
- 1/2 cup celery root diced
- 1/2 cup white turnip diced, about one small turnip (AKA purple turnip)
- 4 cups diced mixed organic bell peppers (green, red, orange and yellow)
- 1 medium organic jalapeno, stemmed, seeded and minced fine
- 1 pound ground beef (to be Whole30 compliant, should be grass fed or grass finished ground beef)
- 1 pound ground pork (to be Whole30 compliant should be organic ground pork)
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 14.5–ounce can organic fire roasted tomatoes (to be Whole30 compliant, only ingredients should be tomatoes and salt)
- 1 28–ounce can Cento kitchen ready tomatoes (to be Whole30 compliant, only ingredients should be tomatoes and salt)
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste (to be Whole30 complaint, only ingredients should be tomatoes and salt)
- 1 pound organic plum tomatoes, cored and diced
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon dry basil
- 1 tablespoon dry oregano
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 can pitted black olives sliced, to use as garnish
- 1 small bunch organic scallions minced for garnish
Instructions
- Set a large Dutch oven on the stove but do not heat yet. Have a spider or other kind of strainer standing by.
- On an adjoining burner, heat a very large skillet over medium high heat and add ½ cup of the olive oil.
- Add zucchini and cook for four minutes, turning with a wooden spoon. With the strainer or spider, move the zucchini to the Dutch oven but do not add heat yet.
- Keep the skillet hot and add onions, garlic, celery, celery root and turnip.
- Cook for three minutes and add bell peppers and jalapeno.
- Cook for two more minutes and pour mixture into pot with zucchini.
- Add remaining oil to skillet and once hot, add ground beef, ground pork and fennel seeds. Break apart with a wooden spoon and cook until all pink is gone.
- While beef is cooking, add both cans of tomatoes to Dutch oven along with tomato paste, fresh tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, basil, oregano, salt and pepper.
- Place a diffuser under the pot and turn heat to medium high.
- Once beef and pork are cooked, add to the Dutch oven including all fat and liquid from the skillet. Stir into other ingredients.
- Once the mixture starts to bubble fast, lower to a medium simmer and cook for 30 minutes uncovered stirring occasionally.
- After 30 minutes, stir in chopped cilantro and serve with garnishes of sliced olives and chopped scallions.
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My husband and I Love this chili. I don’t put in turnips or celery root, but other than that I followed the recipe. It is so delicious! If you can post the nutrition facts that would be awesome!
★★★★★
Hi Jean! Glad you enjoy the chili – I just added the nutritional information to the bottom of the recipe card (we’re slowing and manually adding it to all of our recipes).
What can be substituted for the bell peppers? Can’t eat them.
Ronda – You can just increase the amounts of the other Whole30-compliant vegetables and meat. Having said that, the peppers add quite a bit of flavor so your chili will taste different.
This is a delightful and very tasty recipe! It’s a little work to chop the many vegetables but worth the effort you’ll yield about 16 cups of chili and this one freezes nicely. I put at least half the chili in baggies and freeze them flat to save on freezer space. You cannot go wrong with this recipe.
Thanks Patty!