Slow Cooker Turkey and Sweet Potato Chili / Curry (Tomato-less and Bean-less): Whole30 Approved

On the Whole30 diet, there are a few altered food lists for those of us with autoimmune issues, gut issues (the FODMAP list), and histamine issues. You can find the shopping lists here. I was going to combine all the foodlists, but it was so restrictive I knew I wouldn't be able to follow it, so I opted to start out with the autoimmune and low FODMAP lists. This means tomatoes are out for me, since they're an autoimmune no-no as a member of the nightshade family (as are bell peppers and white potatoes).

It's a nice chilly fall, and chili is a nice make-in-big-batches food, so I decided to try to make a chili without a tomato base. The results were delicious, but it might be more of a curry than a chili. Either way, see below for deliciousness:

Ingredients

48 oz ground turkey (I used 85% lean)

4 large sweet potatoes

1 can coconut milk (look for the stuff without sulfites and sulfates in it)

1/2 can pureed pumpkin

salt

pepper

garam masala

*Not in mine but you might add 2-3 tsp cayenne if you like spicy

Wash and peel the sweet potatoes, coarsely chop into cubes, toss into your 4-qt crockpot. Brown the turkey (at this stage, while browning, I add the salt and garam masala to the meat while it cooks to really bring out the flavor of the spices). Drain meat and add to crockpot. (I reserved a bit of the turkey fat juice and put about 1/4 cup into the crock.) Shake your can of coconut oil well, open it and pour into the crockpot. Ditto with the half can of pumpkin puree, which will help thicken things the same way tomato paste or pureed beans helps a sauce or chili. I added another 2 teaspoons garam masala, one teaspoon of salt (beware, I'm a very light salt user,you may want to double the salt), and a teaspon of pepper. Spices and peppers tend to work against my gut health, but here is where you might add your chili/cayenne pepper if you like it spicy. Stir it all up with a wooden spoon, cook on low 6-8 hours.

This was heavy on the meat, the way my husband and I like it; I made a second batch in my 6-qt slow cooker, and increased the sweet potatoes to about 6-7 and the balance was a bit better. You could also add cubed butternut squash; I'm going to try that when I make the next batch. We portioned it out into lunch-sized containers, labeled it with the date, and stuck it in the fridge. With the 4-qt and 6-qt crocks full, we portioned out 10 lunches plus two quarts for the freezer.

It looks a bit like cat food when you pull it out of the fridge and dump it into a bowl, but it's delicious. I was concerned the garam masala might be offputting since I am usually not a fan of Indian cuisine, but the combo of cumin, pepper, and cinnamon smells vaguely like autumn, and my husband and I both devoured the stuff. Bonus: it didn't offend my sensitive gut.

Coming Back: Doing the Whole 30 Autoimmune Diet

Since I've been struggling with gut health for the past few months, including a number of weeks in the hospital with ischemic colitis and C. Diff since the beginning of September, I have been seriously testing lifestyle changes. When I mentioned thinking about coming back to paleo habits, a friend of mine recommended the Whole30 regimen. I was impressed to see that the Whole30 site also offered an autoimmune food list as well as a low-histamine list and a FODMAP list (for those with IBS/IBD). It is very similar to paleo, so I decided to make the jump.

The other trouble with the gut issues is that when eating anything makes me so ill, I'm exhausted all the time and it makes it difficult to buckle down and cook. And so I return to the land of the slow cooker, where I can do the cooking on Sunday mornings and then rest while watching football.

Sunday I made my husband the Island Hash minus the onion and garlic, with lamb chops, while he was out grabbing groceries and running errands. After simmering for 12 hours, I strained the broth into a large pot, covered it in foil, ad refrigerated it. This time, I saved that top layer of fat (stuffed it in a container and put it in the fridge) that hardens at the top for frying veggies in, and portioned out the broth into small one-serving Rubbermaid containers.

I bought some frozen beef soup bones and made a large 6-qt crock of beef bone broth but without all the veggies in it (I didnt have any heels handy). I also bought a bunch of marrow bones, and Sunday night we had roasted beef marrow bones for dinner (I added a bag of steamed veggies to my plate). Not only was it delicious, we then tossed our bones into a 6 quart crock, I added a splash of apple cider vinegar and filled it with water, and voila, more bone broth. Ditto to the above - this one ran for 18 hours, cooled it, strained it, refrigerated it, and then separated the bone from broth, portioned into containers, and refrigerated it.

The real first success for the Whole30 recipe thing, however, is my turkey and sweet potato curry (it's really a tomato-free chili). More on that, with pics, in the next post.