Creamy White Bean and Apple Chili

This was delicious! A different take on chili. We ate it without meat, but if you wanted to add chicken or turkey, they would both work well in this recipe. I got it from the crockpot lady over at crockpot365.


2 cans of white beans, drained and rinsed (I cooked a whole crockpot of black eyed peas last weekend and then froze them in ziploc sandwich bags. If you do this, just pull out one bag full. They can be any kind of white bean, I just happened to have black eyed peas so that's what I used.)
1 onion, chopped
2 apples, cut in tiny chunks, no need to peel
3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
3 T butter (first time I've ever put butter in my crockpot!)
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground thyme
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3 cups vegetable or chicken broth, depending on whether or not you want this to be a vegetarian meal (I used vegetable, and I added a bit more because 3 cups didn't look like enough)
1/2 cup plain non fat yogurt
shredded cheese (optional ~ add after cooking, while serving)

The crockpot lady suggests using any crockpot over 4 quarts. I used a 6 quart crockpot and wish that I had doubled this recipe. It made enough to feed our whole family, but just barely. My husband loved this and was disappointed there were no leftovers to eat for lunch this week.

Put the butter in the bottom of your crockpot. Dump in the drained and rinsed beans. Chop up the onion and apple and add to pot. Add the spices and pour in the broth. Stir in the yogurt (be sure to stir this in well! there were little globs of yogurt floating in my broth because I didn't stir this in good enough. it didn't affect the flavor, but they looked strange). Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4-5 (mine was done in 4). This is done when the onion has reached desired tenderness and the flavors have melded. Stir in the cheddar cheese before serving (I sprinkled a little cheese on the tops of the individual bowls). We ate some of my homemade bread with this chili, but any hearty bread or muffin would work great. The spices gave this just enough "kick" to taste really good, but not too spicy that the kids wouldn't eat it. And the cooked apple pieces were a nice texture. No-one knew they were apples until I told them!

Verdict: My husband, myself, and 3 of the children loved this. Two of the children tolerated it. I will definitely make this again!