My husband and I often find ourselves enjoying this vegan bean chili for a midweek dinner. Usually when
a) we either haven’t bothered to plan anything for dinner, or
b) haven’t made it to the grocery store yet.
This recipe is perfect for those nights as most of the ingredients are really common pantry items. For example, we usually have onions and garlic, and we always have cans of beans and tomatoes in the pantry as well as spices. The one thing we don’t always have is carrots, but it’s not a problem to leave those out.
In fact you’ll actually find that a lot of these ingredients can be swapped out. You could swap brown onion for red onion, or leave it out altogether. Mixed beans could easily be black beans or cannellini beans (or any bean!). You could use ground cinnamon rather than a cinnamon stick, or actual chocolate in place of cocoa powder.
That’s what I love about this vegan bean chili – you can easily change it up depending on what you have on hand.
What exactly is a “chili”?
Other than the spicy fruit, it’s also a meal.
It’s often also referred to as Chili Con Carne which means meat with chilli. However this is of course a meatless version which uses beans instead of meat. Other than meat, a chili is a spicy stew which uses chili peppers, and tomatoes. It often includes onion and spices such as cumin, coriander, cinnamon and paprika and sometimes even chocolate!
Even though it seems Mexican as it has lots of Mexican inspired flavours, it is actually thought to have originated in Texas and isn’t Mexican at all.
Did you say chocolate?
I sure did! I’ve added it to my version of a vegan bean chili.
Chocolate might not seem an obvious choice in a dinner, but it works really well in this Mexican style chili.
I actually just use cacao powder, but cocoa powder can also be used or you could put in 1-2 squares of dark chocolate and melt it in at the end.
Chocolate isn’t unheard of in Mexican cooking – it’s a key ingredient in a mole sauce, is sometimes used in a chili, and is also used in lots of sweet dishes. I know I said chili isn’t actually a Mexican dish, but as it’s still got so many Mexican inspired flavours I really wanted to have a go at adding in some chocolate.
I find it brings a really nice depth of flavour and richness.
What kitchen tools will I need to make vegan bean chili?
If you are a fan of Mexican flavours and enjoyed this chili, I think you’ll love my Mexican Stuffed Capsicums!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Heat a large pot to medium with 1 tbsp cooking oil (my preference is olive oil)
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Dice the onion and garlic and add to the pot along with the chilli powder, cumin and coriander. Cook for about 5 minutes until the onion is soft and spices are smelling good.
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Peel the carrots then slice in half lengthways, then slice into pieces about 1cm thick, so you end up with little half circles. Add to the onion and spice mix and fry for 3 minutes.
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Add the remaining ingredients and stir well. Bring to a simmer and cook for around 45mins - 1 hour until the chilli has started to thicken and the carrots are cooked.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
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Remove the cinnamon stick and serve hot with any sort of grain you like (quinoa, rice etc) or tortillas.
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