I grew up helping my dad make his “famous” chili for special occasions like Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. If there was a holiday party going down you can be sure his chili was the main event (often paired with his “famous” Caesar salad and garlic bread – his 3 staple recipes that we ate time and time again). A love of chili is definitely in my blood and rarely does a winter go by when I don’t make a couple batches of it. Of course, my versions are free of animal products, but I can promise you they are just as tasty as the originals (you can also find my version of Caesar salad in my cookbook, by the way).
I have a couple chili recipes on the blog already, but this one is my favourite by far. I see recipes as works in progress; I’m always tweaking and improving the flavour and the method each time I make them. A recipe is never the final word even if it feels that way at the time. Isn’t that what makes cooking fun? I think so. Plus, it gives me a chance to try and improve upon the last batch of photos!
This time I served the chili with a homemade vegan sour cream and now I can’t believe that I’ve been eating my chili without it for all this time. It’s like a creamy ribbon of heaven dispersed throughout the bowl, taking a bit of edge off the spices. Where have you been all my life?
I’m always asked about recipes that freeze well and chili is definitely one of them to prepare in bulk and freeze. It’s also packed with protein and fibre so you really don’t need to serve it with much else if you don’t have time. Sometimes just a crusty roll or crackers will do. It’s a meal that leaves you feeling satisfied for hours and hours.
If you are like us and caught in winter’s wrath yet again this week (nooooooo!), I hope this dish brings you the comfort it’s brought us during this snow storm. Stay warm!
My Favourite Vegan Chili
Yield
8 small servings
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Hearty, satisfying, and veggie-packed, this vegan chili will leave you feeling full for hours. I recommend pairing it with a big scoop of my Cashew Sour Cream for the ultimate chili experience.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cups (280 g) diced sweet onion (about 1 medium/large)
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic (about 4 large cloves)
- 2 medium jalapeños (80 g), seeded (if desired) and finely chopped
- 1 cup (115 g) finely chopped celery (about 2 large stalks)*
- 1 large red bell pepper, seeded and diced**
- 1 (28-ounce/796 mL) can diced tomatoes, with juices
- 1 cup (250 mL) low-sodium vegetable broth
- 6 tablespoons (90 mL) tomato paste
- 1 (14-ounce/398 mL) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (14-ounce/398 mL) can pinto or navy beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt, to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (optional)
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce (optional)
Toppings:
- Cashew Sour Cream
- Chopped green onions
- Fresh cilantro, chopped
Directions
- In a large pot, sauté the onion and the garlic in the oil over medium heat until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Season with a pinch of salt and stir.
- Add the jalapeños, celery, and bell pepper and sauté for another 5 to 7 minutes or so, until softened.
- Now add the can of diced tomatoes (with the juice), broth, and tomato paste. Stir to combine. Increase heat to medium-high.
- Add the drained and rinsed beans, along with the chili powder, cumin, oregano, and salt. Simmer the mixture, uncovered, until thickened, about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Add the cayenne and hot sauce to taste, if using. Taste and season with additional salt if desired.
- Serve with Cashew Sour Cream, chopped green onion, and cilantro leaves, if desired.
Tip:
- * I recommend finely chopping the celery so it cooks faster.
- ** Try swapping the raw red pepper for jarred roasted red pepper. It makes the flavour simply out of this world!
- A few of my go-to jarred or canned bean and tomato products are as follows: For canned beans I buy Eden Organics, for canned diced tomatoes I buy Ontario Natural Food Co-op, and for tomato paste I try to buy it in a glass jar whenever possible (Bioitalia is one brand I use). I try to buy glass jars for tomato sauces and pureés too.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
Hi Angela!
Beginning in January, I have made dinner (and desserts, of course) using your recipes exclusively. I made this chili and sour cream for dinner tonight, and it was a SLAM DUNK. Amazing. My beau and I will bring it for lunch tomorrow too. I FINALLY GOT A VITAMIX!! It has opened up a whole new world of culinary possibilities. My green monsters have never been so velvety. Thank you for your constant inspiration. :)
Homemade sour cream?! Are you serious??? I love the Tofutti stuff but feel a little guilty eating processed stuff more than a couple of times a week. This will be a new staple in my house ;)
This is great! I made it tonight, it was so easy and really delicious. I went easy on the chili and cayenne, but still would be a bit more conservative with it in the future (we had some runny noses). But I love it. The perfect go-to chili recipe. Thanks so much!
I made this chili last night. I wanted a quick, simple recipe to make after working all day. I was excited to see a new recipe on your website Angela! However, I was completely blown away by the “Vegan sour cream”. Easy to prepare and tasted even better than Tofutti non-dairy sour cream! Thanks again for another great recipe. I only have a tiny bowl of chili left for lunch today with a teaspoon of the vegan sour cream. I may have to make another batch!
I am so glad I saw your post in my email box before I left the office last night! After a cold, rainy day in Redondo Beach, I headed straight to the market, bought all the ingredients and made the yummiest chili! Thanks so much for the inspiration :)
I made this Vegan Chili last night and it was delicious. My British husband cannot eat anything too hot so I had to tone down the spices. :)
Our kids are grown and it is just the two of us so we had lots of leftovers. I froze some for later which I really like doing for no cook days!
I used some Tofutti sour cream that I had on hand but I will try your sour cream recipe in the future. I love using cashews for dips and creams.
Thank you Angela!
Absolutely love this chili! And that cashew sour cream sound fantastic!
This is wonderful! I’m making this now! I’m always looking for a good chill recipe. And thanks for the note about what kind of tomato sauce and pastes you use!
Yum, this is absolutely perfect for our weather today, I never get tired of trying vegan chili recipes. Thanks!
This is sooo yummy, like all of your recipes!
Thanks!
Made this today! So yummy. First time I’ve had “sour cream” in a very long time. Wow, I can’t believe how similar it tastes to the milk variety! Yours is quickly becoming my go-to recipe blog. My fiancé is not vegan, but I am, and until you posted your tex-mex spaghetti squash recipe, he hated squash. Now he requests it almost every week, and insists I make it for his family when they visit. Thank you for being so wonderful.
Beautiful! I love to see all the colors! I try and eat all the vegetable colors every day!
This looks fantastic! I LOVE vegan chili. I used to get wholefoods’ vegetarian chili from the hot bar. This def looks a lot more hearty & healthy. Don’t you think this would go well with your Super Power Chia Bread with melted earth balance on the side!!?!?. Btw, I’ve been meaning to make that as well. :-)
I made this chili last night and it was delicious. I increased the amount of jalapenos because I like it hot, and used 1 19oz can of chickpeas and 1 19oz can of black beans instead. I also added 3 large squares of 72% cocoa chocolate and simmered lower for longer. But wow!! So delicious. Thank you for this recipe.
everything about this is perfect! the food. the pictures. the sour cream. yum! thanks for sharing =)
Your food always looks so amazing. The photography is gorgeous.
Everytime I try to make Chili, it ends up being really meh. I’m not really sure why. Maybe I need to be more careful about measurements?
Made this chili tonight to combat a cold that came at me almost overnight. I paired it with some cornbread, and I am as happy as a girl with a cold can be!
Thank you for all that you do.
Made this for dinner tonight paired with a hemp dressing “Caesar” salad and sourdough toast. I added zucchini and corn kernels to the chili. My bf, who vehemtely hates sourcream was practically spooning the cashew cream from the blender into his mouth. He told me this was possibly the best meal I’ve cooked. Ever.
I’ve been making veggie chilli for years using veggies ground but this was the first recipe I’ve tried that consisted of all beans and vegetable. Great job!
This looks lovely! The vegan sour cream is really cool, great job Angela!
I just got around to making this, and OMG the sour cream is great! I never had sour cream on chili (before I went vegan I just topped it with cheese), but if the real thing is only half as good as the cashew sour cream was then I’ve been missing out! Thanks for the awesomeness, now I have to resist the urge to eat all of the sour cream with a spoon.
I love this site, and your recipes are delicious! Keep up the good work!
I just made this–sautéed the veggies and threw them in with everything else in a crock pot for 3 hours, because I’m lazy like that. Wowee this is good! Now it’s my favorite vegan chili too, thank you!
Mmmm. This chili is great! (Have to come clean, though. I didn’t have time to soak the cashews, etc. so I used the store-bought vegan sour cream.) The chili is spicy, but with the sour cream it’s magically transformed to nothing but yummy! And here I’ve been eating my vegan chili without the sour cream all this time…
Thanks for another keeper!
I made this chili for my boyfriend and myself tonight and we both loved it! Unfortunately I had to leave out the tomato paste because I didn’t have any, but it still turned out great! The sour cream was a wonderful addition. It was 72 here in Arizona today, which just goes to show that you don’t need cold weather to enjoy a great bowl of chili :)
Looks delicious and I didn’t know you could make sour cream out of cashews at home!
I made this yesterday and I have to say it’s delicious!! Yesterday I cooked up a veggie Italian sausage, sliced it lengthwise and then topped it with chili, Daiya ‘cheese’ and some spicy mustard. SO. GOOD!!!!
that sour cream recipe sounds really intriguing – I’d love to try it. wonder if it would make a good base for vegan tzatziki? just add some cucumber, mint and garlic… could be good!
My new favorite take-to-work lunch. It drives everybody else in the office crazy, it smells so good. I have handed out the website address.
Great recipe, my family loved it!
I made this for dinner tonight. We loved it. I was not expecting it to taste so good. We always rate dinners on a scale of 1 – 10 (10 being out of this world!) I never make anything that gets a rating of under 8 ever again. But this got a 9! It was really delicious. I forgot to soak the nuts so we did not have the “sour cream” with it but I am looking forward to trying that next time. I have tried about 8 of your recipes and decided after making this chili that I just had to have your cookbook. Thank you for the time and effort you have invested to help my family eat more healthy meals.
I don’t ever comment on blogs like this but this is SO GOOD i had to say something!! IT WAS AMAZING i am so happy i made it I couldn’t be happier with my first attempt at chili :) thank you!!! I added a few extra sweet colored peppers too, was delicious!
Hey Andrea, I’m thrilled to hear how much you loved it! Thanks for the feedback :)
I loved the way this chili turned out! Thank you for another great recipe, Angela!! Can’t wait to get your cookbook that I pre-ordered :) I put in one jalapeno and chili sauce instead of hot sauce since I didn’t have any. It was the perfect amount of heat for me. Your recipes never disappoint!
Hi there!
I am looking forward to trying this recipe and enjoying it, as I have loved everything else!
I couldn’t find a place to comment so I thought I would add to this thread….I enjoy all of your recipes! They are easy to follow, nourishing (for the mind and body), and extremely tasty! But I was wondering if you had a recipe for a Matzo Ball Soup (with a gluten free option) that you could share with us. I have found variations on other websites, but also turn to this site for any cooking project I take on! Being from the East Coast, and in the midst of all of this snowy weather, I find myself craving a comforting, classic, like that. :0)
Hey Katie! Thanks for your kind words…so happy to hear you are enjoying the blog + recipes!
I don’t have a Matzo ball soup recipe, but I will have to check them out online sometime and see what I can do. :) Take care!
did you ever come up with a recipe?
I made your chill this week and it is soooo amazing with the sour cream!!! Yum!! :)
Made the chili for dinner tonight and my god was it good! Here in Kentucky the weather has been morbid so a vegan lifestyle has been hard to acquire to and I was running out of ideas for warm hearty meals that weren’t already pre-made! Love and light to you and your blog. It is a godsend to vegans with no clue where to start when the unpredictable happens!
You are appreciated.
I just made this wonderful chili I had to substitute jalapenos with chipotle chiles. It was delicious – what a great blend of flavors. with the cold day today, this was the perfect ending – thanks so much for sharing!!
Best chili I ever had and soooo easy. Thanks for making me look like I could cook!
Hi Angela – LOVE your blog/site – I’ve ordered your book :). Question- I made the sour cream but didn’t measure the lemon/vinegar and must have put too much vinegar (never again) how can I mellow out the flavour? I’m out of cashews. Thanks!
Aside from adding more cashews, maybe try thinning it with a bit of unsweetened/unflavoured almond milk?
I made this last night for dinner for the rest of the week, so I haven’t tried it yet (though I have no doubt that it will be delicious), I wanted to mention that cutting the jalapeno peppers burned by hands for hours and hours – as if I had stuck my entire hand on a hot stove. Maybe I’m the last person in the world to not know of this phenomenon, but I definitely won’t forget for the future. No direct skin when dealing with jalapenos – EV.ER.
Mmmmmm… I love chili. I never thought to put celery in it but I bet it’s great. I always add a few teaspoons of cocoa powder and 1/2 a beer to give it depth… don’t know why but it totally works!
Hi Angela! I’ve come across your blog several times (usually following links from Pinterest) while researching alternatives to common dairy products for my daughter who has a dairy allergy. I’m always so excited to find recipes for things like vegan sour cream… and it’s always such a disappointment when they’re made with cashews, because I’m allergic to them! Given my history, and that my daughter already has a food allergy, I’m not going to try her with cashews until she’s older. I understand that cashews are a common base for many dairy-alternative recipes, so I’m wondering – is there another nut that I could soak that might yield similar results? Almonds? Macadamia nuts? Or does this really only work with cashews? I’d really appreciate your input, as cashew-based “dairy” recipes are all over the Internet, not just your blog!
Oh, and as someone who has been steadily moving towards a more plant-based diet over the past few years, I really appreciate all the great recipes on your blog as well! This chili looks delicious!
Hey Carrie,
Yes you certainly can! I made a macadamia cream in this post: http://ohsheglows.com/2012/06/12/layered-raw-taco-salad-for-two/
Thanks for your kind words! I hope you enjoy it :)
That’s wonderful! Thanks for letting me know! I will be embarking on making my own dairy-free creams, etc. in short order!
If macadamias can be used just as easily, I wonder why more cashew-based recipes don’t specify that other nuts can be used… maybe a taste or price difference? In any event, this is very helpful information to have – thank you again!
I would love to make this too, except with have a complete nut allergy in our house. Can this be made with sunflower seeds?
I made this last night for dinner & it was wonderful! My husband adored it & kept saying, “Wife. Seriously. This is so good!” And he is a meat eater! I served it with homemade whole grain corn bread. Thanks for making healthy so yummy!
I’m slowly going to go vegan and, thus, need to start somewhere. I made this chili tonight and it was delicious. Tastes just like the meat chili I grew up on. All the right spices/seasoning. I cut up avocado as a topping, instead of, the sour cream.
So happy to hear this Shelly!
I finally made this last night and it is the most amazing vegan chili I’ve had to date! Thank you Angela for being so awesome at what you do!
Thanks for the feedback Nicole! SO happy to hear you enjoyed it so much!
Is it even possible that someone could eat this as is ? I realized, while putting the first tablespoon of chili powder, that it would be spicy, so I didn’t put the second one. Even then, I was not able to eat it !!! So I made another recipe without any spices, and it’s still pretty hot… By chance I can eat bread and sour cream with it ! Please add a warning in big letters that this one is SPICY ! Thanks :)
Help please! My vegan sour cream sucks! I have made it twice now and both times were a complete failure. It never gets smooth for me. My poor blendtec has developed a hernia on account of my insistent pulsing..all to no avail! (High drama!) I soaked the cashews min 6 hours. I make cashew cream variations all the time and have never had this problem. Is there a trick to this one I’m missing? It’s the darnedest thing ;)
Thank you,
Chunky cashew in Vancouver :)
oh dear!! lol. I would suggest adding more liquid…it sounds like your blender isn’t digging the thick consistency!
I made this chilli this evening and it was absolutely amazing! Thank you so much!
First of all, I have to say how ecstatic I am that I found your wonderful blog. Its amazing and I am raving all about it since I made the No-bake Double Chocolate Torte for my mothers birthday a few days ago. Out-of-this-world FANTASTIC!!! I used hazelnuts and added 1 tablespoon of ground coffee in the Torte, and the Avocado moose was just as great with the natural sweetness from pure maple syrup. Raw and low glycemic, you cant beat that! I love that you are so creative and innovative, and best of all VEGAN :D You totally rock!!!
The one suggestion I want to make about this beautiful chili recipe is that I would like to see you encourage readers to go to the bulk bins and buy dried beans to soak and cook to help others feel more confident in making their own beans from scratch. I recently started doing this a few months ago, and I have to tell you it was a great decision. I can make almost 4 cups of cooked black beans from one cup of dry! It saves me time and money and I never have to worry about what cans are BPA free, which was my main reason for switching to making my own from scratch. The time and $ savings were just bonuses :) It is so simple to soak anyone can do it, and since the cashews are soaked over night it would be just as easy to soak dry beans at the same time as well. Also, if anyone is making this during tomato season it would be so lovely with some fresh heirloom organic tomatoes!(knocks the socks off canned tomatoes!) I cant wait to make a huge batch of this and freeze some! :) And I will be using this sour cream recipe religiously from now on! Cheers :)
Wow, great recipe! Delicious, fast, easy to prepare and I know I will have leftovers for lunch for several days. I am enjoying your blog very much- thank you for all the delicious recipes and the lovely photos!
Made this tonight. Very pleased wih the results. I was pressed for time so I let the cashews soak only for 2 hours. This resulted in a very fine grain in the sour cream, but equally as delicious. I am not a vegan but I wanted to add something vegan to my diet. This will remain a favorite of mine for years. It’s everything that I love in a chili. I am also a sour cream monster, so this was a nicer, healthier alternative to my severe-amounts-of-sour-cream ways.