Best Vegan Chili

Why Should You Try This Recipe?

If you are like me, married to a big meat eater, the idea of making homemade chili without meat may come off as a big goal to achieve. But believe me when I say, meatless chili can be just as delicious thanks to creative uses of a few simple ingredients. 

However, that’s not all, here are a few more reasons why this vegan chili recipe is awesome:

1. A plant-based chili recipe based on flavors and textures: When I set out to find the best vegan chili recipe ever, I had one thing in mind and that is to create a no meat chili recipe that mimics the flavors and textures of chili made with ground meat. This recipe achieves that thanks to umami-rich ingredients like tomato paste, soy sauce, diced tomatoes, and dried shiitake mushrooms. Using these ingredients helped me replicate the texture of ground beef by creating my own vegan ground meat mixture.
2. Easily Adaptable: This easy, low-carb, and low-fat recipe is made with pantry staples, but I made sure to share substitutions (including vegan meat substitutes) so that you know how you can achieve similar results even if you are missing a few ingredients here and there.

3. Actually healthy: This meatless chili recipe is made with wholesome, plant-based, and actually healthy ingredients, so go ahead and treat yourself to a second bowl.
4. Ready in under 1 hour: Thanks to canned beans and quick cooking time of vegetables, you can have this healthy vegan chili on the table in less than an hour making it the perfect cozy meal for meatless Monday dinner.

Need more inspiration for more easy vegan chili recipes? If so, be sure to check out my Vegan Chocolate Chili and Vegan Quinoa Chili recipes.

Ingredients:

The list for this veggie chilli ingredients might seem long but I promise that it will make sense once you see the below breakdown followed by various ingredient substitutions:

• For Umami Rich Plant-Based Meat: This simple vegan chili recipe uses a mixture of walnuts and dried shiitake mushrooms to mimic the flavors of meat. Later, mixed with umami-rich tomato paste and soy sauce, the flavors get so similar to regular chili that no one can tell that this is a no meat chili.

• Chili Ingredients: For deep flavor, I used vegetables like onions, celery, garlic and jalapenos. For additional creaminess and additional earthy flavors, I used Cannellini and black beans (pinto beans or red kidney beans would also work). I used canned beans (one of each kind) as I wanted to be able to make this dish in under one hour.
• Bulgur Wheat for the meaty texture: For added chewy texture, I used medium-coarse bulgur wheat. If you are new to cooking bulgur, be sure to check out my detailed post on Types of Bulgur Wheat and How to Cook Bulgur Wheat to learn more about it. I recommend this brand of bulgur  (affiliate link), if you can’t find it in your grocery store.
  While I know that some of you might think of Vegan Chili with Bulgur to be an unusual combo, I assure you that the added texture of bulgur brings this veggie chili recipe together.

• Spices: In terms of spices, you will need ground cumin and chili powder. Optionally, you can also add in a pinch of spanish paprika, cayenne pepper or even red pepper flakes.
• Toppings: In my version of vegan vegetable chili here, I opted for chopped red onion, sliced avocados, fresh corn, chopped cilantro, and thinly sliced radishes. The vibrant colors coming from the toppings turn it into what my niece calls, a rainbow chili.

Substitutions and Recipe Variations

• Use quinoa instead of bulgur: While I highly recommend using bulgur (and think that a quick trip to the store is worth it), you can use a cup of uncooked quinoa in place of bulgur, especially if you are after a vegan gluten free chili recipe. The end result will not be as chewy, but it will still be a delicious vegan chili.
• Other vegan meat substitutes: If you prefer not to use bulgur (or quinoa), you can try store bought soy or tofu crumbles or crumbled tofu. Impossible Ground Beef, Beyond Meat, and Hodo Mexican Crumbles are a few popular supermarket plant-based meat substitutes I recommend.
• Dried Shiitake Mushrooms: If you can’t get your hands on dried mushrooms, you can use fresh thinly sliced mushrooms instead. If you do so, you can add them into the pot while you are adding the veggies and skip the grinding step (with walnuts).
• Other topping ideas: As it is with any chili, any of your favorite toppings would work here.  If you want them to be all vegan, consider using vegan sour cream, vegan cheese, a squeeze of lime juice, and tortilla chips as toppings. Or, if you don’t mind turning it into a vegetarian chili, you can top it off with cotija cheese or crumbled queso fresco as well.

How to Make Vegan Chili From Scratch?

The process of making this easy vegan chili bean recipe has 4 folds. From start to finish (including preparation of ingredients), the whole process takes between 45-60 minutes.

1. Process walnuts and shiitake mushrooms in a food processor until finely ground. Set them aside. We will use them later.

2. Cook the veggies: Heat olive oil in a heavy bottom large pot (such as a large Dutch oven) over medium-high heat. Saute onion, celery, and jalapeños with a wooden spoon until they are translucent. Then add in the spices, tomato paste, and garlic and cook for a minute or so.
3. Stir in the rest of the ingredients & cook: Add in the diced tomatoes, black beans, kidney beans, vegetable stock, soy sauce, bulgur wheat, and the processed walnut-shiitake mushroom mixture. Put the lid on, bring the mixture to a boil, and then let it simmer until it thickens to your liking, 25-30 minutes.
4. Garnish & Serve: Ladle it into bowls and top each bowl with your toppings.

How To Store, Freeze and Reheat?

I think the best part of this vegetarian black bean chili is that it tastes better the next day. It also stores and freezes well.

• Storage: Bring the leftover chili bean soup to room temperature, place it in an airtight container, and keep it in the fridge upto 4 days. When ready to serve, heat it in a saucepan. If it is too thick, feel free to add ½ cup of vegetable broth or water.
• Freezing Instructions: Place the chili in a freezer-safe container after it fully cools down. Freeze for upto two months.
• Thawing Instructions: Let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Next day, transfer it into a saucepan, add in a little bit of vegetable stock or water, and heat it over medium heat until it is warmed throughly.

What To Serve With It?

This vegan black bean chili is a whole meal by itself, but if you want to take it up a notch you can serve it with one of the delicious dishes below:

• Savory Cornbread Muffins
• Corn Tortilla Recipe
• Vegan Cornbread 
• Spinach Quesadillas
• Vegan Coleslaw
• Olive Bread
• Mexican Street Corn
• Almond Flour Biscuits – GF option for bread

Expert Cooking Tips:

• Dried Shiitake Mushrooms: If you look at the recipe below, you’ll see that I listed ½ ounce dried mushrooms. Here in the US, dried mushrooms are sold in 1-ounce packets so it is more accurate to list them as ounces than in cups. If you get one of those packets, simply use half of the packet.
• For Spicy Vegan Chili: To add some heat, I used jalapeños. If you are serving your no-meat chili to kids, you might want to take the seeds off or use red bell pepper instead. But if you are a lover of spicy food and hot flavors of jalapeños, feel free to add them in with the seeds.

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