A nightshade-free chili built with ground beef, beet, sweet potato, and carrots in bone broth, made in the Instant Pot or slow cooker

Chili feels like it belongs to nightshades, tomato and chili pepper doing most of the identity work in a normal pot of it. Both are excluded during the elimination phase. Beet gives you the color and the body, sweet potato and carrot give you the sweetness, oregano stands in for the chili spices, and inside the Instant Pot, in under an hour, all of it settles into a bowl that reads as chili in every way that matters: warm, thick, and satisfying.

Beet does something specific here: it is a real source of dietary nitrates, and your body converts those into nitric oxide, the signal that tells blood vessels to relax and open. That matters for circulation, and it is not something the sweet potato or the carrots in this pot are doing. Beet alone is carrying that particular job.

Make a big pot of this on a weekend and keep it in the fridge through the week; the flavors only deepen as the days pass. Store it in glass, since beet will stain plastic for good. Choose ground beef from a source that raised the animal with care, and let that be one more thing this bowl is carrying, quietly, underneath the color and the warmth.

Ingredients

• 1 lb grass-fed ground beef
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 medium to large sweet potato (about 2 cups), peeled and chopped
• 1 large beet (about 2 1/2 cups), finely chopped
• 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 4 cups bone broth (clean-label, no nightshade-based seasoning)

Optional garnish

• Fresh cilantro
• Avocado, sliced

Method

Instant Pot

1. Set the Instant Pot to Saute. Add the ground beef and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until browned. Drain any excess fat if you prefer a leaner result.
2. Add the garlic, sweet potato, beet, carrots, onion, sea salt, oregano, and bone broth. Stir to combine.
3. Secure the lid and set the valve to Sealing. Cook on Manual (High Pressure) for 35 minutes.
4. When the cooking time is done, carefully quick-release the pressure.
5. Stir the chili - the sweet potato and beet will have softened into the broth. Taste for salt.
6. Serve warm, topped with cilantro and avocado if using.

Slow cooker variation

Brown the ground beef first in a skillet, then transfer to the slow cooker with all remaining ingredients. Cook on Low for 6-8 hours or on High for 3-4 hours, until the vegetables are completely soft and the flavors have melded. Adjust salt before serving.

Notes

• Beet will turn the broth a deep red-purple, which is what gives this chili its visual cue. Finely chopping the beet helps it fully soften into the bowl.
• Tomatoes and chili peppers are excluded throughout the AIP elimination phase. This recipe is designed to give you the comfort of chili without them.
• Use a bone broth that is clean-label with no nightshade-based seasonings or seed spices.
• This recipe was part of the Paleo AIP Instant Pot Cookbook (2016), a community ebook organized by Eileen Laird of Phoenix Helix with over 140 recipes from 37 AIP bloggers - an early and significant moment of community resource-building in the AIP world.

*Adapted from unboundwellness.com*