I was looking for a vegetarian chili since my husband has decided to stop eating meat for awhile. I wondered if I should just do my regular chili recipe, which I love, and leave out the meat, or just explore. So, I decided to google. What did we do before google?
Our most favorite chili is this Award Winning White Chicken Chili Yep-- it really did win an award.
Anyway, I adapted this lovely recipe from The Picky Eater. I loved the name of that blog. It describes me! Well, I've branched out a lot over the years, but I do still have things I'm particular about. 🙂
For the beans in this recipe, I usually use dried, and prepare them in my slow cooker. You can certainly use canned beans as well. If you go that route, rinse and drain them. And, feel free to use whatever your favorite beans are, I just happen to like a variety, I think it adds more flavor and more texture.
If you cook dry beans in your slow cooker, I would recommend you do it the day before, or sometime before hand. Depending on the variety of beans you use, they can take 6 hours.
Rinse the beans and remove any pebbles. Place them in the slow cooker and cover them with about 3 inches of water. Set it and forget it. 🙂 Cook them on low for 6 to 8 hours.
Check them along the way. They say never to open your crockpot while cooking because you will lose 30 minutes of cooking time, but, this is one of the exceptions. Well, one of my exceptions.
Once I didn't add enough water and I checked it and the beans had absorbed everything and were starting to dry out, so I added more water. You may also need to check and see if they're done. You don't want mushy beans! I've also cooked them on high for 4 hours and have had great results. Just depends on how prepared I am.
You can also make the vegetarian chili in the slow cooker. If you do, I would recommend still sauteing the onions and peppers. But you don't have to, I just like the flavor better. Also, don't try to cook dry beans in your slow cooker along with tomatoes or any tomato based product, they will not soften. Yes, I speak from experience!
📋 Recipe
Vegetarian Chili
Ingredients
- 2 cups prepared Kidney beans
- 2 cups prepared Black beans
- 2 cups prepared Cranberry beans
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 1 orange bell pepper diced
- 1 jalapeno finely chopped
- 1 sweet onion diced
- 28 oz canned diced tomatoes
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 5 cloves garlic crushed in a garlic press
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- 1 teapsoon Ghirardelli cocoa powder unsweetened
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon Black pepper
Instructions
- Saute onions and peppers over medium high heat in 1-2 teaspoon olive oil.
- Once the veggies have sauteed for about 5 minutes, add everything else into the pot.
- Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 min or longer as needed.
Notes
Nutrition
My whole family LOVED this vegetarian chili! Please, let me know what you think!
chellie
We think alike Susan! There are so many different ways of eating and food sensitivities these days. I love to have something for that person so they still feel welcome in my home. Thanks for a great link party!
Susan
I collect vegetarian recipes so that when I have friends and family over who are vegetarians, I can serve a meat-free meal. Can't wait to try your chili recipe. Thanks for sharing at the #ThisIsHowWeRoll Link Party.
chellie
Ha! I like the way you think. Cranberry beans are a lot like a pinto, but bigger, and a little different flavor. I use them all. the. time. My friends dad is a bean farmer, so I buy all my beans from them and it is one of the varieties they offer. It's a reddish and white color. Kind of hard to describe, but if you've seen a pinto dried bean, it has some variation of color. The cranberry bean is like that, but the colors are read and white. They're really pretty, but the colors all blend after you cook them. I don't mind kidney beans, but I prefer the cranberry, so I mostly use it for chili or in a blend of some sort.
Nikki Frank-Hamilton
I am pinning, this sounds delish! My daughter is vegetarian and so many of her favorite soups need to be altered, and her favorite is 15 bean and ham. The second is chili. I can use this and kill 2 birds with one stone! What are cranberry beans? Sounds interesting!!!