This recipe for easy vegan chili tastes just as meaty and savory as classic chili. As one reader put it, even her meat-eating friends couldn’t believe it was vegan. One pot, 30 minutes, and mostly pantry ingredients. Top it with a generous dollop of vegan sour cream and some tortilla chips for scooping.
There are already a few chili recipes on the site, but I wanted to offer my version of a classic meaty plant-based chili. I know that veggie sausages are not typical, especially given all of the vegan “beef” substitutes available. To me, they have a better texture and are loaded with flavor, which helps to shorten the cooking time. These are the only vegan “meats” that I use somewhat regularly and I do enjoy them as a treat!
Once you sauté the chopped sausages, the remaining steps are pretty typical. I finish with a dash of apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, and Tamari. These add-ins might sound a bit unusual, but they really help achieve a complementary flavor balance that makes for the best vegan chili.
I love to serve this with chopped green onions and cilantro, and tortilla chips for scooping. It is also very fun and game day-appropriate to ladle this chili over some fries. Homemade or frozen, the vegan sour cream and herbs are great on top in this configuration too.
The flavor of this veggie chili only gets better as it sits and marinates, which makes it excellent for weekly meal prep.
30-Minute Hearty Vegan Chili
Ingredients
Spice Blend
- 1 tablespoon ancho chili powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional
Vegan Chili
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, small dice
- 2 vegan sausages, chopped (see notes)
- spice blend, see above
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 15oz can red kidney beans, drained & rinsed
- 1 15oz can black beans, drained & rinsed
- salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 28oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 cup vegetable stock, plus extra
- 1 tablespoon Tamari
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Garnishes
- vegan sour cream
- chopped green onions
- chopped cilantro
- tortilla chips
Notes
- My favorite veggie sausages for this recipe: Beyond Meat or Gardein’s brats.
Instructions
- Make the spice blend. In a small bowl, stir together the ancho chili powder, ground cumin, chipotle chili powder, oregano, cocoa powder, smoked paprika, ground coriander, and cayenne pepper. Set aside.
- Start the chili. Set a heavy-bottomed pot (like a Dutch oven) over medium heat. Once hot, pour in the oil and swirl it around. Add the onion and chopped veggie sausages. Stir and cook this mixture until the onions are very soft and the veggie sausage bits are starting to brown, about 5 minutes. I recommend breaking up the pieces of veggie sausage with your spoon.
- Once the sausages have stopped letting off liquid, add the spice blend and garlic and stir for about 1 minute. Add the tomato paste and cook it out, stirring constantly, for another full minute.
- Add the kidney and black beans, and then season with salt and pepper. Add the fire-roasted diced tomatoes, and 1 cup of vegetable stock. Stir, scraping up all browned bits on the bottom of the pot. Bring this mixture to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Let the chili simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes.
- To the chili, add the Tamari, brown sugar, and apple cider vinegar, and stir. Give the chili a taste and adjust seasoning as necessary (more salt, pepper, Tamari, vinegar etc). Add more vegetable stock at this point if the chili is too thick for your liking.
- Serve the chili hot with garnishes of your choice.
This recipe is perfection, and this San Antonio girl is pretty picky about her chili. 5 stars for sure. I preferred it slightly more before I added the tamari, sugar and cider but both variations are incredible. I made it exactly as written but ended up using 2 1/2 cups of homemade veggie broth for the consistency I was looking for and I smushed the diced fire roasted tomatoes with a fork while it was cooking. Thank you for the recipe. Yum, yum and yum!
I didn’t have fire roasted tomatoes or tomato paste, so I used one 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes and one of crushed tomatoes. I also didn’t have cocoa powder and subbed the brown sugar for maple syrup, and subbed the sausage for one block of tempeh. Lots of changes but turned out great nonetheless.
Chili smothered french fries. I never thought of that. Yum . Happy New Year. You’re a highlight to my Saturday morning .
Your spice blend is spot on.
Only had black beans and Rollin Greens crumbles on hand, but made the spice mix as written and followed the rest of the recipe…added a bit of smoked salt to compensate for the lack of sausage. This is hearty enough for any omnivore (which I am; spouse has been vegan for 40 years.) Delicious!
What a great hearty vegan chili. Have been veg for a decade and this is the first chili I have found that hits all the marks of a great chili. Thank you!
Could I use tempeh chopped up instead of the sausage? As I don’t like using alternative meats
Thank you
I used plain (not flavored) Impossible burger “meat” because the market was out of all other alternative ones. I was afraid the chili wouldn’t be as flavorful but it was very good! I also omitted the brown sugar, as Im trying to cut down, and I would imagine it didn’t make a difference. So delicious and perfect on National Chili Day! Thank you for another great recipe!
This is so delicious! Great idea with the vegan sausage. I used my favourite apple sausages from field roast and it turned out so good.
I love those Field Roast veggie sausages! So glad that they worked in this vegan chili :)
-L
I absolutely love this.
Thank you.
Your flavours are amazing.
XObW
It’s my pleasure! Thanks for this review, Wilma!
-L
Laura, I made this tonight and it was so good I almost cried. I’ve been looking for this kind of ‘meaty’ chili for some time and this was perfect. I only had regular chili powder on hand so I’m excited to try this again with ancho chili powder. Thank you and please keep up the great work for our vegan community!