This vegetarian chili is so flavorful, you won’t miss the meat! It’s also a vegan chili recipe, and a hit with plant based and meat eaters alike.
Chili is one of those things that’s easy to make, but hard to perfect. Especially vegetarian chili – we’ve tried many variations, but often they end up just tasting like bean soup. We’ve even tried secret ingredients like beer and cocoa powder, but haven’t met with much success. They’ve been tasty, but not quite right. The combination of a reader request and a Super Bowl party prompted us to try another attempt at vegetarian chili. And man did it come out right! It’s also a vegan chili recipe: but eaters of all kinds love it, especially meat eaters! Keep reading for the recipe.
Related: Top Healthy Dinner Ideas | 12 Easy Dutch Oven Recipes
How to make a vegetarian meatless chili
For this vegetarian chili, we added bulgur wheat for some texture, green chiles (or jalapeños) for some spice and flavor, and amped up the chili powder. Once we combined everything, we used a bit of chipotle powder to add a bit of complexity, and it made for the perfect touch! All that experimentation finally paid off, and we think we’ve come up with a vegetarian chili that’s hearty and not just “bean soup”. Give it a try for a casual evening with friends, or an upcoming big game!
Making it a vegan chili recipe
Did you know this chili is also a vegan chili recipe? The only thing that’s not vegan about this chili is the toppings. To make this vegetarian chili into a vegan chili recipe, just omit cheese and instead top with Vegan Nacho Cheese. Or, omit all the toppings and just enjoy it “naked”! We love eating this as a vegan chili recipe with just a few dollops of hot sauce.
Related: What is a Vegan vs. Vegetarian Diet?
Looking for other vegetarian soups?
This website is full of vegetarian soups and vegan soups! Here are a few other vegetarian soups we’d recommend:
- Cozy Farro & Brussels Sprouts Soup
- Instant Pot Wild Rice Soup Recipe
- Cauliflower Soup with Moroccan Spices
- Italian Vegetable & Gnocchi Soup
- Tomato Artichoke Soup
- Creamy Vegan Tomato Soup
- Golden Vegetable Soup Recipe
- Tomato Artichoke Lentil Stew
- Creamy Vegan Tomato Soup
This recipe is…
This Vegetarian Chili recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant based, dairy free, naturally sweet, and refined sugar free. For gluten free, use quinoa (see special instructions in note). For a vegan chili recipe, top with Vegan Nacho Cheese.
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Classic Vegetarian Chili
(73 votes, average: 4.52 out of 5)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
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Pin RecipeDescription
This vegetarian chili is so flavorful, you won’t miss the meat! It’s also a vegan chili recipe, and a hit with plant based and meat eaters alike.
Ingredients
- 2 medium yellow onions
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 15-ounce cans beans or 4 1/2 cups cooked dried beans (black, pinto, and kidney), drained
- 2 32-ounce cans diced tomatoes
- 2 4-ounce cans roasted green chilies
- 1 cup bulgur wheat (for gluten free, see below*)
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 1/3 cup chili powder (standard, not spicy)
- 3 tablespoons dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
- 1/8 teaspoon chipotle powder
- Hot sauce, sour cream, cheese, cilantro, or chives for garnish (for vegan, garnish with vegan nacho cheese)
Instructions
- Chop the onions. Mince the garlic.
- In a large pot or dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until softened, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and saute, stirring, for about 1 minute.
- Add the remaining ingredients: beans, tomatoes with their juices, green chilies, bulgur wheat, frozen corn, chili powder, oregano, garlic powder, kosher salt, black pepper, maple syrup or honey, and chipotle powder. Mix to combine. If necessary, add a bit of water to make sure everything is covered (we added about 1 cup).
- Bring to a boil, then simmer until the bulgur is soft, about 20 to 30 minutes. Taste and add additional seasonings as desired. Add hot sauce to taste; and serve with sour cream, shredded cheese, and cilantro or chives. For a vegan chili, garnish with our Vegan Nacho Cheese.
Notes
For gluten free, you can also substitute quinoa: however, use 3/4 cup quinoa and use the instructions listed in Step 1 of our Quinoa Vegan Chili to cook the quinoa separately. Then add 2 cups of cooked quinoa to the final step when simmering (save any leftover quinoa for future use).
The chipotle powder is a bit of a hard to find, but it adds great complexity and flavor; we recommend using it if at all possible. Ancho chile powder also can add a nice bit of smokiness.
If 1/3 cup chili powder seems like a typo, it’s not! While it’s a large quantity, it did bring the flavor we were looking for to the dish. The resulting chili is not overly spicy (though it would be if you use spicy chili powder, jalapeños, or more chipotle powder than specified below); we like our chili with moderate spice and then adding spiciness at the table with hot sauce.
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Vegetarian Chili, Chili, Healthy Chili, Vegetarian, Vegan, Chili Recipes, Healthy Recipes
About the Authors
Sonja Overhiser
Cookbook Author and writer
Sonja Overhiser is author of Pretty Simple Cooking, named one of the best healthy cookbooks of 2018. She’s host of the food podcast Small Bites and founder of the food blog A Couple Cooks. Featured from the TODAY Show to Bon Appetit, Sonja seeks to inspire adventurous eating to make the world a better place one bite at a time.
Alex Overhiser
Cookbook Author and photographer
Alex Overhiser is an acclaimed food photographer and author based in Indianapolis. He’s host of the food podcast Small Bites and founder of the recipe website A Couple Cooks. Featured from the TODAY Show to Bon Appetit, Alex is author of Pretty Simple Cooking, named one of the best vegetarian cookbooks by Epicurious.
35 Comments
Anonymous
January 30, 2012 at 9:34 amI love bulgur wheat and a good and hearty vegetarian chili. The meat based chili’s can sometimes taste like a big bowl of meat so I like that this one is meat free. You also got to have a little spiciness in your chili so the chipolte powder is a must!
genevieve
January 30, 2012 at 11:48 amThis looks absolutely amazing! And I love the fact that you can make it gluten free if you want/need to. Yum!
Sylvie (A Pot of Tea)
January 30, 2012 at 1:10 pmWhat a great idea to add bulgur for some extra texture. I’ll definitely give that a go.
Heidi @ Food Doodles
January 30, 2012 at 1:37 pmI’m a huge fan of chili and this looks awesome! I love the bulgur. I’ve never tried adding that to my chili, but I can see how it would be perfect! Must try next time :)
Denise
January 30, 2012 at 4:05 pmNow this looks like the ultimate bowl of comfort food. Love the addition of bulgur, need to try that soon!
Christi's Chirps
January 30, 2012 at 4:50 pmSounds absolutely fantastic! I haven’t cooked with bulgur wheat before! Sounds great! I also love your addition of honey!
This will be simmering in my kitchen this Sunday! Thanks for the delicious recipe!
Cheers,
Christi
Russell at Chasing Delicious
January 30, 2012 at 6:40 pmYum! This recipe looks scrumptious. I love chili because its one of the few dishes you can throw a lot of ingredients into and it will still turn out.
Lindsay @ Pinch of Yum
January 30, 2012 at 9:48 pmLove the pic with the jersey on! I saw it on FG and thought, that’s cute, I wonder what person is posing with the chili… and then I saw it was yours. :) Which one of you was the model?? The chili looks great, BTW!
Alex
January 30, 2012 at 10:19 pmHaha! Thanks :) That is Sonja as the model – she has much more lovely hands than I! The chili is great, big time food photographer, you should try it!
Mara @ Elemental Custard
February 5, 2012 at 12:06 pmI have been dying for a good vegetarian chilli recipe. This looks exactly how I want mine to turn out – like a hearty, meaty chilli!
Ashlae
February 8, 2012 at 10:03 amThis looks like such a delicious, hearty chili. And I’m happy I’m not the only one who adds copious amounts of chili powder to my chili :)
Samantha
February 19, 2012 at 7:05 pmDelicious recipe. It was my first go at vegan chili, so I can’t compare anything, but I thought it turned out well. I omitted the honey / sugar. Instead of 2 32oz cans of diced tomatoes, I cut up five c. of roma tomatoes, then added 15oz of tomato sauce. I also used 15oz of canned corn because that’s what I had on hand. I only used one large jalapeno, and my batch wasn’t spicy at all. I’d recommend a different pepper if you want a kick (or simply more jalapenos). I used half of a large red onion, but could’ve used the whole thing– I was cooking quite modestly to make sure I didn’t ruin it. I personally omitted the cheese and sour cream, but used plenty of cilantro. Thanks for the recipe!
Erika
February 27, 2012 at 4:18 pmI made this yesterday and simply love it! Thanks for such a wonderful recipe!
Alex
February 27, 2012 at 8:49 pmI’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for letting us know :)
Liz
February 29, 2012 at 12:53 pmEven on leftovers night (round 2 of this chili), my husband had to comment (again) how good this was for being meat-free. Thank you!
Sonja
February 29, 2012 at 10:32 pmOh, I’m so glad you enjoyed it (AND the leftovers)!
Alecia
December 24, 2012 at 11:52 amThis was wonderful…thank you for the easy and delicious veggie chili…not bean soup!!
Katherine
October 21, 2013 at 8:54 pmThis is the best vegetarian chili recipe! I added some green pepper and carrot for and replaced one can of diced tomatoes with a can of whole peeled tomatoes (roughly chopped), but the bulgur really makes the dish. I found your site by searching for vegetarian chili recipes and I’ve already bookmarked a dozen other of your recipes to try!
Alex
October 21, 2013 at 8:55 pmGlad you enjoyed it! Thanks for letting us know :)
Sonja
October 21, 2013 at 10:48 pmSo glad you enjoyed it, Katherine! You additions sound delicious. Let us know if you try any other recipes out!
Gray
May 14, 2014 at 1:27 pmHi! thank you for the recipe! i was just wondering if you knew around how many calories was in this chili. Thank you! I’m excited to try it.
Alex
May 14, 2014 at 1:30 pmAny time you are interested in the info about one of our recipes, you can just copy and paste the ingredient list and number of servings into the calculator on this website: http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
Lindsay
February 15, 2015 at 7:26 pmI thought this recipe was really good. I loved the addition of bulgur. However, I thought the oregano was over powering. I was also missing the cumin. Might add that next time. I also made it in the slow cooker since we just moved and I have no idea where my big stock pot is. I cooked it on high for 2 hours and low for 3 hours.
Stacy McClain
April 18, 2016 at 9:45 pmHad a chili cookoff at my Masonic Lodge last Sat. Saw this recipe online thought it looked good and gave it a shot. Well I won first place with about 20 entries. A lot of people loved it and quite a few wanted the recipe.
Thanks.
Alex
April 19, 2016 at 7:53 amHa! That’s amazing :) Thank you for sharing!
Cheryl
April 11, 2017 at 9:25 pmMy husband and I enjoyed your recipe tonight. It’s a keeper! I have to admit, I didn’t think it needed a 1/2 cup of chili powder so I estimated what I thought seemed right. It was the right tweak for us. Will make this one again!
Teresa Gatto
August 18, 2018 at 10:35 amDoes this freeze well?
Sonja
August 20, 2018 at 8:10 pmYes this does freeze well! Since it’s a chili, the textures and flavors all melding together is even better! Go for it and let us know what you think!
Joan
November 13, 2018 at 8:24 amDelicious! I have a family of 6 with three carnivores, 2 vegetarians and a vegan. So needless to say when I find a recipe for a meal that makes everyone happy, I am happy! We all loved this — even the carnivores did not need to add any meat! The only thing I did different is I nade brown rice on the side rather than mixing bulgur in (I just didn’t have any on hand and needed he letover rice for lunches). I think this would be good on just about any grain. Thank you for sharing!!
Linda Treige
November 22, 2018 at 6:43 amWe love this recipe – thank-you! This was my first try at vegetarian chili & it was delicious! My meat-eater man loved it too so it is an amazing help in our moving towards becoming vegetarians. For my second batch, I added pan-fried extra firm tofu chunks. The chili freezes well but not so with the tofu. Also, I don’t add any sweetener and it’s just fine.
One word of caution – on the second batch, I made the mistake of substituting crushed tomatoes for the diced tomatoes. As soon as I opened the can, I could see the crushed tomatoes were more like a sauce with way less liquid so I had to add water for the bulgar to absorb. Nice work and I look forward to trying more of your recipes.
Dorinda
December 29, 2018 at 2:45 pmReally flavorful chili! I used quinoa as you recommended for substitution but also added
Trader Joe’s Beef-less ground beef. I didn’t have the chipotle powder so I felt better using spiced chili pepper but used less than the 1/3 cup. Thanks for this intensely flavored but not too hot chili! I think the green chilies help give you the heat that disappears. So the heat is there that you crave but you don’t feel injured! Using the yogurt , cheddar cheese, green onions , and especially cilantro to top it makes it a flavor fest! Fresh cornbread with butter is a great accompaniment. I’m enjoying it enough to bring it to our annual meeting for my spiritual group. Well done! Thanks again for sharing!
Sonja
January 4, 2019 at 12:57 pmYour additions sound great! We’ll have to try it that way. So, so glad you enjoyed it and thanks for making it!
Valerie
January 26, 2019 at 1:16 pmThis recipe looks great! I’d like to make it as one of the entrees for a party of 20 people (3 of whom are vegetarian, but everyone will like it). Does it keep well if prepared a day in advance? And will doubling it work well, too? Thanks!
Sonja
January 26, 2019 at 1:27 pmHi! Yes, this works great prepared in advanced and doubles well. It does absorb some liquid as it sits, so when you reheat you can add a bit of water or broth and then adjust seasonings as desired. Hope you love it!
SRS
June 26, 2019 at 1:37 amI made this chili tonight and it is delicious. Next time I would make the following modifications: less oregano, add cumin, and add some chopped peppers.