Ingredients
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- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil.
- 1 large onion, diced.
- 1 green bell pepper, diced.
- 1 red bell pepper, diced.
- 2 medium carrots, diced.
- 2 celery stalks, diced.
- 4 garlic cloves, minced.
- 2 tablespoons chili powder.
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin.
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano.
- 1 teaspoon paprika (or smoked paprika).
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt.
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste.
- 1 (15oz can) black beans, drained and rinsed.
- 1 (15oz can) kidney beans, drained and rinsed.
- 1 (15oz can) pinto beans, drained and rinsed.
- 1 (28oz can) fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained.
- 1 (4oz can) roasted and diced green chilies, undrained.
- 2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth.
- 1 bay leaf.
- For garnish: chopped cilantro, diced avocado, sour cream, and/or grated cheese.
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I can’t wait to share the best vegetarian chili recipe with you today. It’s a dinner sensation packed with three different kinds of beans, a variety of healthful vegetables, and earthy, robust spices. This delicious bowl of comfort will warm you from the inside out and fill you up with healthy plant-based ingredients.
A few basic grocery items and fresh vegetables are all you need. It is quite simple to make. I especially appreciate that it is a freezer-friendly meal prep recipe that you can quickly reheat in the future. This recipe is fantastic for a ton of different reasons. So allow me to demonstrate how to make it.
You’ll need to slice and dice a few vegetables to get started, and I’m going to start with one medium onion. As a result, I’m chopping up my onion for today’s vegetarian chili recipe and placing it in a bowl that I’ll set aside. Two bell peppers will be the next vegetable you prepare.
Additionally, although you could use any hue, I’m using red and green today. Simply cut off the top and bottom, scrape the membrane and seeds with your knife along the inside edge, and then cut it into strips before slicing across for a dice. However, the top and bottom parts should not be overlooked because they contain a lot of edible vegetables. Therefore, cut out those parts and dice them as well.
Bell peppers taste sweet and delicate. However, you could also cut up a serrano or jalapeño pepper if you prefer a flavor that is especially hot. In addition to being a fantastic meatless main dish that can easily compete with my classic chili recipe or my white chicken chili recipe, vegetarian chili is also cost-effective because it employs canned beans as its primary source of protein.
After you’ve finished preparing the bell peppers, put them to the bowl with the onion. We’ll talk about the beans in a moment. Two huge carrots are the next item, and they only need a quick peeling. Carrots are most easily diced when they are split in half. On your cutting board, cut those halves in half with the flat edge facing down, and then just cut across. Before discovering this technique, I never enjoyed slicing carrots and celery.
They are now really simple for me to prepare. Therefore, sometimes all it takes is some practice. Carrots should be added to your prep bowl along with the other vegetables once you are finished with them. The identical method you used to slice the carrots will be used to cut two celery stalks.
Additionally, if your celery is really wide, you can cut it into dice by first slicing it across into thirds rather than halves. How big and hefty you want the pieces to be is entirely up to you. Lastly, how big and chunky you prefer your chili to be overall. Also, take a look at that. You can prepare an entire dish of vegetables in just a few minutes. The rest of this recipe is now quite simple to put together. Four garlic cloves should be broken and their peels peeled before you remove the cutting board.
The majority of you know how much I adore garlic and how it frequently appears in my savory recipes. But my god, those papery skins! They slightly irritate me since I frequently discover tiny fragments of the papery skins on my kitchen floor. It’s time to rinse your canned beans, so move your bowl of vegetables and garlic over to the burner. Then, get out your colander.
In this recipe, I use three different kinds of beans. There is also a 15-ounce can each of red kidney beans, pinto beans, and black beans included in the total. Out of the can, canned beans are usually gloppy. And the starchy water they are sitting in is the reason why. Therefore, be careful to clean them well every time. You’ll see a reduction in the formation of those starchy water bubbles once they’ve been fully cleaned.
Take these over to the stove after that. On medium-high heat, add two teaspoons of olive oil to a big pot and add your bowl of diced onion, bell peppers, carrots, and celery. The inclusion of bell pepper elevates the standard mirepoix mixture.
And the chili gains a ton of flavor from it. Give it a toss for four to five minutes, or until the vegetables are softening and the onion is beginning to become translucent. The spices and aromatics follow next. So add two tablespoons of chili powder after mincing the four garlic cloves and adding them directly to the saucepan. One tablespoon of cumin powder. One tablespoon of tomato paste, one teaspoon of paprika, one teaspoon of dried oregano, and one teaspoon of kosher salt.
Stirring continuously for a further minute will make it fragrant and start to smell really great. Add the three different varieties of drained beans to the pot along with 28 ounces of diced fire-roasted tomatoes. You can use standard chopped tomatoes, but I think that the addition of fire-roasted tomatoes elevates this dish to a higher level. So, if you can find them, use them without a doubt.
Add four ounces of diced green chiles after that. I should also mention that only the beans should be drained; the tomatoes and green chilies should not. Then whisk everything together after adding two cups of vegetable broth to the pot. The last step is to add one bay leaf and stir. The chili will then come to a boil.
Once it begins to boil, lower the heat to medium-low, cover the pan, and let the mixture simmer for 30 minutes while occasionally stirring. I adore a chili that is quite thick. However, you may also add an additional cup of water or veggie broth at any stage during this procedure if you like your chili to be more brothy.
By repeatedly spot blending the chili with an immersion blender, you might also make it a little creamier in texture. You can always make adjustments to homemade recipes to suit your preferences, which is fantastic. However, if you follow the directions on my website when making this dish, it will turn out like this and your kitchen will smell delicious.
When the chili is finished cooking, take it off the heat and remove the bay leaf, since nobody wants to inadvertently eat that. After one last swirl, serve the mixture. On a chilly fall or winter day when I’m seeking comfort food, I love to create this kind of dish since it’s so warm and comforting. It won’t make you feel sluggish, yet it is simple to digest.
Additionally, the fact that it only requires one pot means that there are fewer dishes to clean up afterward. Because even though I enjoy cooking on my own, I detest cleaning the dishes. Put a good ladle’s worth of chili in each bowl. Then, if you’d like, top with your preferred garnishes. You can include cheese or sour cream in the form of a dollop or sprinkle.
I also enjoy including diced avocado. Additionally, I would generally add chopped cilantro, but I had just used it all up on another dish I was testing. So I’m substituting chopped chives today.