Weeknight Vegan Bean Chili

Letting go of summer never gets any easier, but this weeknight vegan bean chili has always made it that bit more palatable for me.

Chilli is one of those dishes that everyone seems to have a recipe for. In the world of gluten free, vegetarian food almost everything is a substitute, and that’s why beans are the star of the show here.

If there was a universally accepted recipe, this vegan bean chilli would stray even further from ‘Chilli con carne’ by creating a flavour base founded on smoked paprika. This is not, after all, a Spanish dish.

That said, it likely does owe something to 16th century Spanish colonizers in what is now modern-day Mexico, who added beef to chilli pepper stews consumed by Aztecs. Since then, beef has been the main ingredient in this dish. Beans – which we’ll use here – are a controversial ingredient in some circles. Tomatoes, too, are an ingredient that’s often traditionally omitted.

And we also want this to come together quickly on a weeknight, and so we’ll cut some corners here in pursuit of a fast and dirty meal!

We’ll also pad this out with some vegan mince, making this something of a vegan bean chilli con carne.

I love to keep some smoked paprika spice mix around for times like this. It might not get you a traditional meaty chilli, but to me it hits all the right notes in this recipe: it’s sweet, hot, smoky, and truly packs a punch.

How to make Vegan Bean Chilli

Peppers, onions, celery and garlic

Since this is a quick and easy vegan chilli, we’re going to pack all of our flavour in early.

To do so, we’ll need to fry up bell peppers, celery, onions and garlic, which takes some of the flavours of the southern States of America, before diverting to Spanish smoked paprika!

Tomatoes

I’ve made this recipe with fresh and tinned tomatoes as well as tomato puree, and I ultimately prefer the latter.

To me, this dish should have a deep and complex flavour, and fresh tomatoes bring too much brightness for my taste. I actually feel the same way about tinned tomatoes too – they lend too much acidity.

If that’s what you have, and what you want to use then you’ll still get a tasty result. But below you’ll see I use tomato puree instead.

I also think it’s best to add the puree before adding spices, beans or stock. This allows you to cook the tomatoes for a few minutes in the oil and veg first, concentrating the flavour even more.

Spices

The spice mix I mentioned is effectively a blend of sweet and hot smoked paprika, onion powder and garlic powder.

Regular chilli powder will work here too, but the smoked parika adds, well, smokiness! Something that again packs depth of flavour into what is essentially a quick and easy vegan chilli!

Beans

Keeping it simple here, I’ve used tinned beans. If you want to soak some dried beans overnight then they will work really well – but remembed not to cook two different types of beans at the same time, as they’ll take different lengths of time to cook!

I love the mixture of black beans and black eye beans here. Pinto beans and kidney beans are more traditional here – ultimately, if using tinned beans, whichever variety you fancy will work.

Finishing touches

This is a great weeknight meal that comes together in under an hour. It’s flavourful, warming, and nutritious, and is the perfect winter-time comfort food.

It also freezes beautifully, making it a great meal-prep dish too. Scale up the recipe and portion it out for the freezer, it’ll last up to three months, and just needs to be heated through before serving.

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Yield: Serves 4

Easy Weeknight Vegan Chili

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

An easy weeknight vegan chili that's gluten free and comes together in around an hour.

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Ingredients

• 1 tbsp neutral oil, like vegetable
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 stick celery, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
• 1 tsp hot smoked paprika
• ½ tsp of onion powder
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• ¼ tsp oregano
• Chipotle chili flakes to taste
• 1 tin black beans, drained
• 1 tin black eye beans, drained
• 150g gluten-free vegetarian mince
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 500ml vegetable stock
• Salt, to taste
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp sherry vinegar

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a heavy bottom pot over a medium heat, and add peppers, onions and celery, and cook for around 10 minutes, or until the veg is soft.
2. Add the garlic, and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes, before adding tomato puree and stirring to combine, and cook for a further 2 minutes to allow the puree to become more flavourful.
3. Add spice mix and stir, then add the drained beans.
4. Add the veggie mince, and dust the cornflour over the top of the mince before stirring it into the stew. Be careful not to just add the flour to the pot or it will clump up.
5. Pour in the veg stock, season with salt and bring to a simmer. Cover and let the mixture simmer for 30 minutes.
6. After 30 minutes, remove the lid and, if the sauce hasn’t yet thickened to desired consistency, allow to simmer for 15 more minutes, or until it reaches the desired state.
7. Add sugar and sherry vinegar to taste.
8. Serve this bowled up with rice and a garnish of parsley – perfect for a warming meal eaten on the sofa!

Notes

This light stew can be whipped up on a weeknight, but can also be batch cooked in advance and stored in the freezer until it’s needed. The addition of sugar and sherry vinegar at the end makes for a slightly brighter end result - but neither are strictly necessary.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 311Total Fat: 11gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 33mgSodium: 772mgCarbohydrates: 37gFiber: 9gSugar: 10gProtein: 19g