This easy vegetarian black bean chili recipe is one of the fastest and easiest soups you can make. It takes 20 minutes to make enough food for a family of four, and it’s incredibly flavorful, too! You’ll find yourself stashing black beans in your pantry just to make it again!
Our family likes this chili with shredded cheese, sour cream, and Fritos on top. Chili is traditionally served with cornbread, like this easy version or this gluten-free cornbread. It’s also wonderful over a baked potato!
Why You’ll Love This Easy Vegetarian Black Bean Chili
- Incredibly fast - The best thing about this veggie chili recipe is that it’s ready in only 20 minutes! That’s faster than you can get dinner delivered to your door.
- Inexpensive - Vegetarian chili is always a budget-friendly choice! You just need a few pantry staples, some spices, and a couple of red peppers for a hearty, filling dinner that won’t cost an arm and a leg.
- So flavorful - By using two types of peppers, fresh garlic, whole cumin, and diced tomatoes, this super quick vegan chili has tons of flavor in almost no time at all.
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- Red peppers - Start by removing the stem and seeds, then cut the peppers into bite-sized pieces.
- Green chili - Choose your favorite type of green chili. Hatch chili works great. Either fresh or canned chili will work.
- Garlic - If possible, use fresh garlic because it has much more flavor.
- Cumin - Start with whole cumin seeds for a really savory flavor.
- Tomatoes - Add either regular diced tomatoes or upgrade to fire-roasted tomatoes for a smoky note.
- Black beans - Drain and rinse the beans well.
- Salt
- Pepper
Variations
- Add sweet potatoes - Sweet potatoes taste wonderful with black beans. Peel and dice one sweet potato or garnet yam and cook it with the chilis and garlic.
- Try a different bean - This might be called black bean chili, but it’s so forgiving. Feel free to replace the second can of beans with pinto, kidney, chickpea, or whatever else you have on hand!
- Make it spicy - Adjust the heat of the chili peppers and add ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper and 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes.
- Add soy chorizo - Brown some soyrizo to add a spicy, meaty texture to each bite.
How to Make Easy Vegetarian Black Bean Chili
- Heat the oil in a large pot (like a Dutch Oven) until hot. Add the onion. Cook for about 5 minutes until the onion is transparent.
- Add the peppers, cover, and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add the chilis, garlic, cumin seeds, and tomatoes. Stir.
- Add the beans, water, salt, and pepper, and bring it to a boil.
- Cover, reduce the heat, and simmer until the mixture is heated through about 15 minutes. If you want the soup a little thicker, mash a few of the beans or use an immersion blender to smoosh some of the beans.
Expert Tips
- Boost the flavor - One of the best ways to make chili taste like it’s been cooking all day is to use ingredients with extra flavor, like fire-roasted tomatoes or roasted garlic. Any time you can use an ingredient with extra flavor, go for it!
- Drain and rinse the beans - This is technically optional, but the purple, starchy bean water has an unpleasant taste and can be harsh on the stomach. Rinse it away for best results.
- Make it in the slow cooker - If you want to let the flavors build all day, you can easily slow-cook this chili on low for 3-4 hours. Be sure to add a little extra liquid to compensate for the evaporating amount.
Recipe FAQs
Absolutely! There are no hard and fast rules about the types of beans to use in chili, and black beans are a pretty common choice. They have a great, size, color, and texture and pair well with savory flavors.
A good chili can handle almost any type of bean. Try adding Great Nothern, cannellini, black beans, butter beans, lentils, pinto beans, or even chickpeas to your next batch of chili!
It’s a good rule to always drain and rinse the beans for any recipe. This will remove the starchy liquid, which doesn’t always taste very nice, and it will prevent the bean liquid from changing the color of the broth. For example, the liquid in a can of black beans is purple and can change the color of your dish if you don’t drain it away.
More Chili Recipes To Try
- Black Bean Chili
- Black Eyed Peas White Chili
- Coconut Chili
- Cincinnati Vegetarian Chili
- Traditional Chili with Ground Beef
Easy Vegetarian Black Bean Chili Recipe
Author: Recipe Idea Shop
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 red peppers seeded and diced
- 2 fresh green chilis seeded and finely chopped, or 2 tablespoons canned chopped chilis
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
- 2 14-ounce cans diced tomatoes with juice
- 2 14-ounce cans black beans drained and rinsed
- ⅔ cup water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large pot (like a Dutch Oven) until hot. Add the onion. Cook for about 5 minutes until the onion is transparent.
- Add the peppers, cover and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add the chilis, garlic, cumin seeds and tomatoes. Stir.
- Add the beans, water, salt and pepper, and bring it to a boil.
- Cover, reduce the heat and simmer until the mixture is heated through, about 15 minutes. If you would like the soup a little thicker, mash a few of the beans or use an immersion blender to smoosh some of the beans.
Nutrition (may vary depending on ingredients and amounts used)
