Nightshade-Free AIP chili made with ground turkey, pumpkin puree, ginger, vegetables and more. This bean-less chili recipe is low-inflammatory, easy to prepare, and so comforting!
If you follow an Autoimmune Paleo diet (AIP), or are cognizant of the amount of inflammatory foods you eat, this chili recipe will please you silly!
It has that same comforting, filling essence as regular chili, but is made nightshade-free and bean-less.
This low-inflammatory rendition of chili hits your essential macronutrients and leaves you feeling so pleasantly full.
For anyone who enjoys a clean, home-cooked meal, this AIP chili recipe is fantastic! You don’t need to follow a strict diet like AIP, paleo, or Whole30 in order to enjoy this delicious chili recipe!
It is guaranteed to please all the palates.
So what do we need to do in order to make chili AIP-friendly? WELL…
How to Make Chili AIP-friendly:
Nightshades like chilies, tomatoes, and bell peppers provide a mild heat, tang, and acidity in chili.
In order to replace them and still make a chili that’s nice and thick and flavorful, with the sweet tang, I use pureed pumpkin, ginger, a lot of dried herbs, onion, garlic, lemon juice, and coconut aminos.
When all is cooked together, you still end up with a chili that has a natural sweetness, a tiny kick, big bold flavor, and that tang.
Other ingredients you can use to make an AIP chili are beet puree (for thickness, sweetness, and color), cider vinegar (to mimic the acidity of tomatoes), and nutritional yeast (for cheesy/creamy flavor).
Because beans can be pro-inflammatory and are usually avoided on AIP, Paleo, and Whole30, we replace them with chopped veggies.
I use carrots, zucchini and yellow squash, but you can choose any low-inflammatory (AIP-friendly) vegetable you would like.
So let’s make this recipe!
How to Make Nightshade-Free AIP Chili:
Heat the avocado oil in a large Dutch oven or pot over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté, stirring occasionally, until it has softened, about 5 minutes.
Add the garlic and carrots and continue sautéing another 2 minutes.
Scoot the vegetables off to one side of the pot and add the ground turkey, ginger, oregano, basil, parsley, turmeric, and sea salt. Brown the turkey for 2 to 3 minutes, flip, then brown on the other side for an additional 2 to 3 minutes. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to break up the meat into smaller pieces and stir it into the vegetables.
Add the remaining ingredients, cover the pot and bring to a full boil.
Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook 20 minutes, until the vegetables have reached desired done-ness and the turkey is cooked through.
Serve chili with fresh chopped parsley, chives, and/or your choice of toppings.
Is This Recipe Low-FODMAP?:
As you know, I discuss gut health quite a bit on this site, and the majority of the recipes I make are Low-FODMAP. This recipe is not low-FODMAP due to the onion and garlic.
The onion and garlic are pretty pivotal when it comes to providing flavor to this recipe, since we are already omitting tomatoes, bell peppers, and chilies.
If you follow a Low-FODMAP diet, you may certainly omit the onion and garlic and add something else to replace the tang, such as 2 to 3 tablespoons of dijon mustard (if you don’t follow a strict AIP diet, as mustard is not allowed on AIP), more lemon juice, and/or cider vinegar.
Recipe Adaptations:
- Make recipe Low-FODMAP by omitting the onion and garlic.
- Replace the canned pumpkin with two cups mashed butternut squash and/or mashed/pureed beet.
- Add more onion, garlic, lemon juice, etc to taste.
- Replace the ground turkey with ground beef, pork or chicken.
- Add your favorite vegetables, like broccoli, cauliflower, celery, parsnips, turnips, celeriac, or bok choy.
More AIP Recipes:
- AIP Salmon Curry
- Nighshade-Free AIP Curry
- Turkey, Beet, and Zucchini Hash
- Zucchini and Ground Turkey Skillet
- Instant Pot Beef Stew
Enjoy this big bowl of protein and veggie bliss!
My cookbook, Paleo Power Bowls, is now available! CLICK HERE to check it out. Thank you for your support!
If you make this recipe, please feel free to share a photo and tag @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
AIP Chili Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp coconut oil or cooking oil of choice
- 1 small yellow onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 3 large carrots peeled and chopped
- 1 lb ground beef or ground turkey
- 1 Tbsp minced ginger
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp sea salt to taste
- 2 small yellow squash chopped
- 1 medium zucchini squash chopped
- 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 3 Tbsp coconut aminos optional
Instructions
- Heat the coconut oil in a large dutch oven or pot over medium heat. Add the onion and saute, stirring occasionally, until it has softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and carrots and continue sauteing another 2 minutes.
- Scoot the vegetables off to one side of the pot and add the ground turkey, ginger, oregano, basil, parsley, turmeric, and sea salt. Brown the turkey for 2 to 3 minutes, flip, then brown on the other side for an additional 2 to 3 minutes. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to break up the meat into smaller pieces and stir it into the vegetables.
- Add the remaining ingredients, cover the pot and bring to a full boil.
- Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook 20 minutes, until the vegetables have reached desired done-ness and the turkey is cooked through.
- Serve chili with fresh chopped parsley, chives, and/or your choice of toppings.
Nutrition
This website is my new go to! I’ve suffered from a nightshade allergy my whole life! It’s amazing to see my favorite foods converted to something I can actually eat without a reaction. Trying one of your recipes tonight! Thanks so much!
I’m so happy you’re finding resources here, Cadence!! xoxoxo
LOVED this recipe. I am not very familiar with AIP cooking, spice substitutions etc and use of coconut aminos. However, this was great. I was maiking for my autoimmune sister to have in her freezer after knee replacement surgery.
I hate reviews that completely change the recipe and then review it. My basic change was that I used cubed pork shoulder. It was great. Then after making according to recipe, I loved the flavors but felt it needed a little more so I increased the seasonings a little(1/4 to 1/3) including the ginger, oregano and tumeric, lemon juice and coconut aminos (I loved the coconut aminos-they added so much). I also added quite a bit of black pepper because she can have that. And maybe one reason I wanted more seasoning is that I added a turnip and another large carrot (she eats tons of vegetables).
Thank you for providing such an excellent recipe.
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed it, Becky! Thank you for sharing your changes! This is always helpful for those who want to try similar adaptations, so it’s very valuable information. I’ll have to try the recipe with pork shoulder…sounds lovely!
This was so delish!! Going to put it in my regular rotation. I’m Low FODMAP so I subbed green onion tops and leek tops for the yellow onion and garlic. I ate 2 giant bowls 🙂 Mine thickened up just fine, but I did simmer it longer than 25 minutes without the lid on.
I’m so happy you enjoy it, Chrissy! Thanks for sharing your changes! xo
This recipe was great! Easy to make. So delicious. My kids even ate it. Thank you.
Amazing! So happy you and your kids enjoyed the chili, Katie! Thanks so much for swinging back around to share your experience! xo
Oh my goodness! My daughter found this and knew it was something I could eat! I made it tonight minus 2 ingredients–lemon juice and tumeric–and even my picky husband liked it! I used a combination of shredded chicken and shredded pork–I had it on hand–and the mixture did not need thickening. I definitely will get more than 5 servings out of this recipe! At least I have meals I can heat the rest of the week!
Thank you for a wonderful chili!
My pleasure, Sharon! I’m happy to hear you and your husband enjoy the chili and am thrilled your daughter shared the link with you! What a great idea using leftover chicken and pork! I’ll have to employ the same tactic the next time I have leftover protein! Thanks so much for the sweet note, and Happy New Year! xoxo
I can’t thank you enough for this AIP Chilli recipe!! I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s in May and it has been a struggle to find really tasty dishes so I don’t constantly feel deprived and bored. Too many of the recipes call for things that are hard to find or too expensive. I was used to a wide variety of spices like curry and cumin.
This is fantastic and will be a weekly regular for me all winter!! THANK YOU again!!
I’m so happy you like it, Nancy! I love how simple it is too. I appreciate the sweet note! xoxo
This was delicious! I’m getting used to AIP and missing a lot of foods. Thank you for sharing!
I hear ya! Food becomes pretty boring after a while on AIP. Definitely the key for me was to go with big bold flavors. So happy you enjoy the chili!
I made this tonight and it was absolutely delicious. I’m not a fan of pumpkin but I tried it anyway. I couldn’t taste the pumpkin at all. The flavor was delicious!! Thanks for the recipe.
I’m so happy you like it, Becky! Yes, I love how the flavor of pumpkin gets masked in the chili. It’s one of my favorites! 😀 xo
I LOVE this recipe! It turned out so good, and this is the comfort food I really needed! Thank you! I have been on the AIP diet and I feel so good!
I’m so happy to hear it, Kim! It’s one of my personal favorites to this day 🙂 xo
This was so good I couldn’t get enough and we’ll definitely make again. I used ground beef instead of Turkey, added an orange sweet potato and used 3 cups of water because i didn’t have broth (used 3 cups instead of four based on the reviews that said it was too liquidy). I was a little generous with the seasoning and salt because of the water for broth substitution. And I made it in the instant pot following the recommendations in one of the comments. Just love it, thanks for sharing this recipe!
I’m so happy to hear it! It’s one of my favorite chili recipes to date as well. So thrilled you enjoy it! 😀
We love this recipe. It’s different every time depending on the ingredients. Meat, no meat, switch the veggies. Always gets rave reviews.
This was absolutely delicious!! I NEVER can stick to a recipe to the T.. and I did with this one and I’m sure glad I did! Thank you!!
I’m so happy you like it, Jennifer! It’s one of my personal favorites 😀 xoxoxo
This was absolutely amazing! The aroma as it was cooking was delightful. My husband, who does not eat chili, loved this! I added tapioca flour after it finished cooking to thicken it. Thank you for this recipe! Although I just made it I can’t wait to make it again!
That’s so great to hear, Faith! Thank you so much for letting me know…so thrilled you and your husband enjoy it 😀 xoxox
I never comment on recipes, even though I cook a ton, but this was INCREDIBLE!! One of the best things I’ve ever cooked. Your chili will now be a regular rotation recipe for our family. That pumpkin created such a nice silky texture and even though there are a ton of veggies, it makes a hearty bowl. Thank you so much for this gem! Absolutely perfect winter dish.
Very interesting recipe thank you!
My pleasure!
Can this recipe be made in a crockpot?
Hi Rebecca!
Absolutely! I would just toss everything in and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 to 8. You can also sauté the onion first before adding it to the crock pot for more flavor. Hope you enjoy! xo