Season (In)appropriate: Slow Cooker Turkey Chili

In a sea of summer soups like gazpachos and celery veloutés, turkey chili doesn’t exactly have an obvious place in the summer repertoire, but I like turkey chili and I like my slow cooker so who’s to say I can’t make a classic winter dish in summer?  I’m not entirely sure if my turkey chili is healthy, but I use ground turkey instead of beef and add tons of beans and peppers which are good for you so…let’s say it’s healthy.  There’s a lot of great slow cooker turkey chili recipes out there which are helpful reference, but I mostly wing it and adjust flavors every few hours. That being said, check out my basic recipe below in case you too want to add some extra heat to your summer in the form of turkey chili!

Slow Cooker Turkey Chili

•  1lb ground turkey
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 cans crushed tomatoes
• 1 can kidney beans, drained
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1.5 T chili powder
• 1 T smoked paprika
• Salt and pepper to taste
• hot sauce (my recipe here)

Heat skillet to medium-high heat and brown ground turkey. Drain and add a drizzle of olive oil and mix in 1 of the chopped onions to the turkey. Cook until softened. Transfer the onion and turkey to the crock pot and add the peppers, crushed tomatoes, crushed garlic, chopped onion and seasonings.  Mix well. Cook in crock pot for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high.  In the last hour, add drained and rinsed can of beans. Fold in a few shakes of hot sauce before serving for some extra heat.

Serve with a dollop of low-fat sour cream or Greek yogurt and a few cubes of avocado (if you have one miraculously handy).