Homemade Vegetarian Chili
This simple vegetarian chili recipe tastes incredible! It's easy to make with basic pantry ingredients, vegetables and spices. Gluten free and easily vegan.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on October 3, 2024
It’s freezing cold outside, and has been for days. All I want to eat is cozy comfort food like this vegetarian chili recipe. It’s my favorite, and leftovers taste even better the next day.
This chili is perfect for watching football games with a crowd, since it’s a hearty meatless option that carnivores will enjoy. Plus, it can be vegan and gluten free if you choose your toppings carefully. This chili will satisfy everyone.
I originally published this recipe four years ago. Since then, it’s become your favorite chili recipe as well (four-hundred reviews and counting).
I’ve cheered when you’ve told me that it won your chili competition, and love hearing that it’s become a staple recipe in your kitchen. Hooray!
How to Make the Best Vegetarian Chili
While the ingredients in this chili recipe are super basic, the flavor is anything but. Simple ingredients can taste exceptional when they start off with aromatics like onion, carrot, celery and garlic.
I added traditional chili spices and some smoked paprika for an extra-savory, smoky note. Canned beans and tomatoes contribute delicious plant-based protein and heft.
Blending a small portion of the chili makes it look and taste like a chili that has been cooking all morning long, but it only needs about 30 minutes of simmering. That’s a little trick that I learned from my lentil soup, which is another cozy option for cold days.
Finishing off the chili with a little splash of sherry vinegar (or lime juice) and fresh cilantro makes it taste vibrant and fresh. The vinegar offers a little acidity and complexity, and it makes all the difference.
Watch How to Make Vegetarian Chili
Chili Toppings
This chili is dairy-free and vegan as written. You can keep it that way by choosing vegan toppings like sliced avocado and tortilla chips.
Here’s a full list of options:
- Grated cheddar cheese
- Sour cream or crème fraîche
- Sliced or diced avocado
- Tortilla chips (crumbled if desired)
- Additional cilantro
- Lime wedges
Leftover Chili?
This chili makes great leftovers, which keep well for four days in the refrigerator. Reheat your chili in a bowl, and it’s good to go.
You can also serve this chili as a protein-rich topping on nachos, baked potatoes or oven-baked fries. Stuff your burritos or quesadillas with chili. Why not?
Please let me know how this chili turns out in the comments! I always love to hear from you.
Stay warm out there, and if you love this hearty soup, be sure to check out the soup recipes in my cookbook.
Homemade Vegetarian Chili
The smoky, complex flavor of this simple vegetarian chili comes from basic pantry ingredients, vegetables and spices! It makes great leftovers, too. Recipe yields 4 large or 6 moderate servings of chili.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium red onion, chopped
- 1 large red bell pepper, chopped
- 2 medium carrots, chopped
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- ½ teaspoon salt, divided
- 4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- 2 tablespoons chili powder*
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 ½ teaspoons smoked paprika*
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 large can (28 ounces) or 2 small cans (15 ounces each) diced tomatoes**, with their juices
- 2 cans (15 ounces each) black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 can (15 ounces) pinto beans, rinsed and drained
- 2 cups vegetable broth or water
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for garnishing
- 1 to 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar or lime juice, to taste
- Garnishes: chopped cilantro, sliced avocado, tortilla chips, sour cream or crème fraîche, grated cheddar cheese, etc.
Instructions
- In a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, warm the olive oil until shimmering. Add the chopped onion, bell pepper, carrot, celery and ¼ teaspoon of the salt. Stir to combine and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and the onion is translucent, about 7 to 10 minutes.
- Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika and oregano. Cook until fragrant while stirring constantly, about 1 minute.
- Add the diced tomatoes and their juices, the drained black beans and pinto beans, vegetable broth and bay leaf. Stir to combine and let the mixture come to a simmer. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally and reducing heat as necessary to maintain a gentle simmer, for 30 minutes.
- Remove the chili from the heat and discard the bay leaf. For the best texture and flavor, transfer 1 ½ cups of the chili to a blender, making sure to get some of the liquid portion. Securely fasten the lid and blend until smooth (watch out for hot steam), then pour the blended mixture back into the pot. (Or, you can blend the chili briefly with an immersion blender, or mash the chili with a potato masher until it reaches a thicker, more chili-like consistency.)
- Add the chopped cilantro, stir to combine, and then mix in the vinegar, to taste. Add salt to taste, too—I added ¼ teaspoon more at this point. Divide the mixture into individual bowls and serve with garnishes of your choice. This chili will keep well in the refrigerator for about 4 days or you can freeze it for longer-term storage.
Notes
Recipes consulted during the making of this recipe: vegetarian chili with winter vegetables (The New York Times), vegetarian chili (Saveur) and winter vegetable chili (Food and Wine).
Make it vegan/dairy free: This chili recipe is vegan as written. Just be sure to choose vegan/dairy free toppings, such as avocado and tortilla chips.
If you love this recipe: You’ll also love my butternut squash chipotle chili and sweet potato chili. You might also enjoy my hearty lentil soup and black bean soup.
*Spice note: If you are sensitive to spice or using particularly potent spices (I hear that chili powder purchased outside of the U.S. can be very hot), you might want to scale back on the spice here. Start with half of the amounts listed and add more to taste. That said, I enjoy spicy food and found this chili to be well-balanced as written.
**Canned tomatoes note: I recommend Muir Glen brand—they have the best flavor and their cans are BPA-free!
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This was really easy to make and I didn’t miss the meat at all. I loved it. Served it with 2 minute polenta because it was easier and the kids loved it (a 4 and 2 year old).
I only reduced the amount of cumin and added some frozen corn because I had some.
We didn’t use canned beans. I prepared them a day before to reduce sodium intake. I will make this again for sure as we are trying to cut back on red meats. Thank you!
I make a batch of this vegetarian chili every weekend for my weekday lunches. My whole family just loves it! Thank you so much for sharing it!
Thanks so much for the great recipe, I’ve made it a few times and my family always enjoys it! I even entered it in my office chili cook off today and it won out of 15 entries! I was so happy and surprised to see it beat out all the meat based chilis!
I recently became vegetarian and I loved this recipe! I added a can of corn as well and it was fantastic
I tried this recipe having never made homemade chilli before and it was absolutely delicious! I was so pleased with it and everyone enjoyed it. Thank you :)
Do you think it could work if I used it as a base topped with mashed potato browned in the oven?
I’m not sure, sorry! If you try it, I would be interested to hear how it worked for you, Gillie.
I made this about a month ago for the first time and my carnivorous husband LOVED it!! I won’t like, I was a big fan, too. I’m making it this week for one more time before the weather gets really hot around here.
2 thumbs up from my son who is vegan and also from my husband who is not!
I didn’t have carrot so I substituted sweet potatoes and added frozen corn. Served with cheese quesadillas!! Happy family here!!
Hooray! That’s great to hear. Thank you for your review, MA.
How many calories per one cup?
Hi Camila! The nutrition information is below the notes section. Thank you for your review!
Regarding the spice level, I made the recipe as written, and my 18-month old loved it! I thought it was a perfect level of heat and loved the smoked paprika, although would reduce the oregano in the future.
I should mention also that our 7-year old called it too spicy, but she thinks mayonnaise is spicy…
Thanks for a great vegan chili recipe!
Ok, I have made this several times and never been disappointed. The smoked paprika really brings extra flavor. Today I made it and used some chili powder made from Alton Brown’s recipe and a couple tablespoons of leftover red adobe sauce from a Rick Bayless recipe. Wow! So good. You can serve it on corn bread, over rice or noodles, use it in burritos. Make it today! This site has given us many tasty meals.
Hi there, I absolutely love this chilli. It’s delicious.
Is it ok to freeze?
Thanks for this beautiful recipe.
Hi PF! This recipe is great to freeze. Thank you for you review!
I’ve made this countless times and its so satisfyingly good! My husband loves it too. I’ve tried other chili recipes but this one outshines them all!
That’s great to hear, Erin! I appreciate your review.
This recipie is one of my favourites..it’s my go to when I’m entertaining casually!
I love this chili, and have made it several times. My vegetarian friends love it too!
Thank you for your review, Jan!
I am neither vegan nor vegetarian and love this recipe! It is a staple in my house. Delicious comfort food.
It was delicious!! We didn’t miss the meat.
Made this last night and it was delicious!! Definitely comfort food! Had to make some substitutions as I didn’t have everything on hand: used a green bell pepper instead of red, didn’t have any cilantro so omitted it (I love cilantro though, so next time I’ll make sure to get some!), didn’t have any chili powder (I know, I know ) so I used a little chipotle powder (super spicy stuff, but has a really nice smoky flavor), didn’t have black beans so used one can of red, one of garbanzo, and one of adzuki. My husband literally ate 5 whole bowls of it last night. Thank you for this recipe!
This chili was great!! My meat head husband devoured it. Was on his second bowl and said “ This is really good. But there’s not much meat in it.” He didn’t believe me when I told him there was no meat in it!! Tasted like chili. Only thing I added was a diced jalapeño as we like heat. Will def make again!!
Hello, Love love love this chilli, (and everything else you make!) You are my go to vegetarian reference and inspo. Have even bought the recipe book.
I am going to make this chilli 2 days in advance, is there anything I should leave out and add on the serving day?
Thnaks!
Hi Hillary! I’m delighted you enjoy this chili. This is great leftover! No need to adjust. Enjoy!
This is my family’s favourite chili recipe.
We make it in our instant pot.
Freezes so we’ll, too.
We use combinations of beans we love and have on hand. (pinto, kidney, assorted, lima, chick peas, black beans)
Always works perfectly.
Thank you so much for sharing.
I’m delighted to hear that! Thank you for sharing, Ayelet.
I am officially a vegetarian chilli believer!!!!
I have to say I was skeptical making a vegetarian chilli but this recipe has completely changed my mind. I did make a couple small revisions: 1) used chicken broth instead of veg, 2) added 2 heaping table spoons of cocoa powder for a subtle mole flavour, 3) added about a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to add a bit of a tang, 4) added a pinch of brown sugar to balance the salt & vinegar. Spectacular!!! My husband who is a heavy meat eater LOVED it!
Thank you so much for the amazing recipe Kate!
Hooray! Thanks for sharing how you adapted it, Michelle.
Made this today, the awesome smell as it was cooking was fantastic!!
Absolutely delicious !!
Thank you, Debbie!
What are the nutritional facts
Hi Deb! The nutrition facts are below the recipe notes.
Tried it. It was fantastic. I used kidney beans instead but the chili was great
OMG!!!!!! I’ve been sacked as chef after making this chilli.Did you really mean 2 TABLESPOONS of chili powder? We like hot food but this was outrageously hot!! I had to remove half the beans etc, adding more tinned tomatoes, stock, lemon juice…what a performance!!
Hi Linda, be sure to see the note at the bottom of the recipe. Sorry it was so hot!
We like it chunky so we skip the blending and mix in 1 cup of TVP Super yummy!
I made this chilli for the second time in one week-the first time I gave it to a friend as part of a meal train. My daughter and I sampled a bowl and loved it. Tonight, we’re having it all to ourselves. Both times, I used fire-roasted canned tomatoes.This is an excellent, flavorful chili. Both my friend and her family, and my non-chilli-eating daughter liked it very much. Thanks for another delicious and easy recipe, Kate!
This is an AWESOME recipe. I just made the commitment to stop eating meat and this is the second recipe I’ve tried for dinners. Makes me optimistic about the tastiness of veggie food. Thanks Kate!
You’re welcome, Sarah! I appreciate your review.
Love this recipe. Hubby hates veg dishes normally but loves this one. I add a ton of other veg like baby marrow and mushrooms are my favorite additions.
I made this for a Cub Scout camping trip. Thank you! It was great and definitely will be making it again!
Great to hear, Stephanie! I appreciate your review.
I have made this recipe four times and really like it. I live in London and so canned ‘pinto beans’ are a little hard to find. However, it is easy to substitute other beans. The recipe is very robust and so the measure for beans and vegetables doesn’t have to be exact. I like hot food, but the spices may be too hot for some. I would use the exact amounts listed (or slightly less) and use regular curry powder and smoked paprika (rather than hot versions).
Hi Kate. Can I suggest that you tone down on the amount of pop-up ads that viewers get from your website. It’s infuriating trying to read a recipe whilst receiving an uncontrollable amount of pop-ups.
With the above said, this was a delicious recipe.
Hi Cat, I’m sorry to hear you are frustrated. Can you send an email to hello@cookieandkate.com with screen shots that you are referring to so I can understand more? I don’t have pop-up ads on my recipe, only in content and side bar. I’m glad you were able to enjoy this recipe!
This turned out SOOOOO great! We left out the bay leaves (because we didn’t feel like buying them) and it was totally fine without. We also used garlic cubes from the frozen section, instead of fresh garlic, and that worked fine! This meal will be a staple for us moving forward. Thank you!
P.S. – For those 30 minutes of simmering, I did about 15 minutes covered and then 15 minutes uncovered and that worked fine. Curious what other people have done?
I’m glad you loved it, Julie! Thank you for sharing. I find it works best as written. I’m glad you found other simmering to help to flavor.
I’ve never left any comment before in a recipe but this one I need to give a testify. It is sooo delicious warm beautiful food. It deserves 100 stars. Thank you so much!
Absolutely love this chilli. Blending some at the end is a genius idea! Had great comments from this meal!
Thanks
I’m glad you loved it, Joanne! Thank you for your review.
I’m making this chilli at the moment, and it’s looking delicious. I have increased the spices a little, as I like things hot.
Thanks for a great recipe.
I’ve been vegetarian for around 6 years now. I was craving a chili and this is the first recipe I tried. I am literally never trying another! I have added different types of beans, corn, and even soy meat. No matter the variations, the base for this recipe is absolutely delicious!
Hooray! Thank you for your review, Perla!
Love the vegetarian chili! Delicious.
The food nutrition label on your site though says 47% sodium.
Why that much?
Hi Dianne, more on my Nutrition Disclaimer. I try to provide as accurate of information that I can. You can always reduce by adding low or no sodium inputs and omit the added salt if you need.
Thank you for this easy, flexible and delicious recipe! Made it as described for my own lunch while on vacation with family and didn’t expect any takers from this group of meat eaters. I was surprised that everyone loved it, came back for 2nd’s and demanded the recipe. (Nearly everyone. A bean averse nephew refused to even try it.) No leftovers!
Served over rice with optional garnishes of lime wedges, cilantro, colby-jack, plain whole-milk yogurt.
Thank you for this great recipe and site!
I love to hear that, Ben! Thank you for your review.
Can you freeze this or will the beans be mushy when you defrost ?
Hi Joanne! This is a great option to freeze. I hope you enjoy it!
Cookies and Kate never disappoints! This recipe is so solid and delicious! I made a few changes per my preferences which also turned out phenomenal.
-Swap 1 can black beans for kidney beans
-Add 1 can corn (drained)
-Add 1 can mild Hatch green chili’s
-Add 1 Tbs no-salt seasoning
Things to try:
-Adding soyrizo
-Puree some of the beans for a creamier texture
Thank you for sharing how you made it, Jess! I appreciate your review.
Thank you for the recipe! I absolutely loved it!! The only modifiers I did was sub a green pepper for the celery (I was out of celery) and I added a small spoonful of cinnamon. I topped with nutritional yeast. I can’t wait to have it tomorrow, it was amazing on day one and I know it’ll only get better. Thank you!!!
Thank you for sharing, Amy! I’m happy you enjoyed it.
It’s delicious! I used half the ground cumin because I don’t like much of it and I added 1/2 cup of corn :). It’s fabulous! Thank you!
Thank you for sharing, Catarina!
I’ve made this more than a dozen times and its me and my friends favourite! Super tasty and nicely spicy. Great to eat the next day or 2
This is my go-to chilli recipe, to the point I can make it by heart. I was leaving a review on another recipe and realized I never ended up reviewing this one.
My family mainly eats processed, pre-made food. My first exposure to proper cooking was at my first job at 17. Up until then, I thought cooking was this arduous task that I was incapable of doing for myself. This chilli was the first recipe I made as I tentatively tried my own hand in cooking. It turned out delicious and continues to work perfectly every time I make it.
Since I moved out for university two years ago I’ve become much more confident in my cooking abilities. This recipe and Kate’s website were my guide as I expanded both what I cooked and ate at home. I received her cookbook for my birthday and love making the recipes from there as well.
This recipe has like 3000 comments so I don’t know if she will see this, but thanks so much for what you do Kate! I know it’s only cooking, but your recipes have impacted my life in a such a huge way. The ability to cook and eat well is so important, and I’m forever grateful for your website for teaching me these skills.
All this to say, this chilli is really good and you should definitely try it!
Delicious! I love a good chilli and this hit the spot! We’ve started vegetarian Sundays, and this was a great introduction meal for our kids who initially took one look at it and said yuck. After their first taste there was no more complaining as they licked their plates clean. Only change I made was, I only put in 1/4 tsp chilli powder, and added chopped sweet potato, then I blended the whole lot so they couldn’t identify any vegetables, as they usually don’t like onion, cooked celery or capsicum in an form lol
Turned out quite tasty! Happy with results. We usually use chili meat, but pandemic prices necessitated a meatless, filling alternative. Didn’t miss the meat at all. Sour cream and vinegar topped it off perfectly. Will ake this my go-to recipe-even when prices go down. Thanks so much for sharing
Turned out quite tasty! Happy with results. We usually use chili meat, but prices necessitated a meatless, filling alternative. Didn’t miss the meat at all. Sour cream and vinegar topped it off perfectly. Will make this my go-to recipe-even when prices go down. Thanks so much for sharing! By the way, I threw all ingredients into my instapot for 30 minutes. Also, your newsletter is great! I highly recommend it!
so excited to try this! can i make this recipe in a crock pot?
Hi Kelly! I haven’t made it in a crock pot, but I know others have. Check the comments to see what they recommend.
This chilli is nutritious and delicious. I love it topped with lime, corriander and avocado. Thank you for the recipe!
Is there any chance you know what the macros are?
Hi, I’m glad you enjoyed it! The nutrition information is below the notes section of the recipe.