Easy Vegetarian Black Bean Chili

This easy vegetarian black bean chili recipe is a great meatless meal to throw together with pantry staples when you don’t know what’s for dinner! Naturally gluten free.

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Here’s a simple yet flavorful recipe to add to your Meatless Monday meal planning options: Easy Vegetarian Black Bean Chili! This one is both super affordable and super easy to throw together with ingredients you probably already have in your pantry, making it a good last-minute weeknight option when you’re trying to figure out what’s for dinner.

Even the avowed carnivores in the family enjoyed this recipe! Chili is a great way to help ease into meatless meals, because you still have the familiar flavors and textures going on — so sometimes it’s easier to start by adapting recipes that use meat as an ingredient, rather than as the main dish.

Be sure to browse through the Meatless Monday category for additional vegetarian main dish ideas, too.

Easy Vegetarian Black Bean Chili

Ingredients

2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 a medium yellow onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne (halve or omit if you are sensitive to spice)
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 cans black beans, drained, rinsed, & divided
10 oz can diced tomatoes with green chiles
2 cups vegetable broth
1 Tbsp lime juice (about 1 small lime)

Directions

Mash one can of beans (or give it a short whirl in a food chopper), then set aside. Saute onion in olive oil over medium heat in a Dutch oven or soup pot until softened.

Stir in garlic and spices and cook another minute. Add broth, tomatoes, and both whole and mashed beans, then simmer chili for one hour on medium-low, stirring occasionally. Stir in lime juice and serve.

Optional but recommended: Garnish with avocado, cilantro, cotija, tortilla chips, lime wedges, sour cream or plain Greek yogurt, diced green onions, and/or other fixings of choice.

Note: If you don’t like your chili too spicy, you’ll want to omit the cayenne.

Spicy & filling vegetarian chili, anyone?

Yum! This easy vegetarian chili recipe is both spicy and satisfying. I used my little Ninja food chopper for the onion, garlic, and black beans here to help everything come together very quickly — love that thing so much — and chopping or mashing up half of the beans also helps thicken up the chili and gives you that “meatier” texture.

You will want the longer simmering time to give the chili a chance to thicken up and for the flavors to mingle, but the actual hands on prep time in this recipe is fairly short. This week we enjoyed our black bean chili with quesadillas on the side, but it’s also great with cornbread or served over cooked rice or quinoa. Easy vegetarian black bean chili is naturally gluten free.

Easy Vegetarian Black Bean Chili, printable recipe

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Easy Vegetarian Black Bean Chili

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This chili is both super affordable and super easy to throw together with ingredients you probably already have in your pantry.

Course dinner

Cuisine chili

Keyword black beans, chili, meatless monday, vegetarian, vegetarian chili

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Rachel Singer

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 a medium yellow onion diced
• 4 garlic cloves minced (about 2 tsp)
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne (halve or omit if you are sensitive to spice)
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 cans black beans drained, rinsed, & divided
• 10 oz can diced tomatoes with green chiles
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 Tbsp lime juice about 1 small lime

Instructions

• Mash one can of beans (or give it a short whirl in a food chopper), then set aside.
• Saute onion in olive oil over medium heat in a Dutch oven or soup pot until softened.
• Stir in garlic and spices and cook another minute.
• Add broth, tomatoes, and both whole and mashed beans, then simmer chili for one hour on medium-low, stirring occasionally.
• Stir in lime juice and serve.

Optional but recommended: Garnish with avocado, cilantro, cotija, tortilla chips, lime wedges, sour cream or plain Greek yogurt, diced green onions, and/or other fixings of choice.

Notes

If you don’t like your chili too spicy, you’ll want to omit the cayenne.

Recipes in the real world

Be sure not to miss the free ALDI meal plans, which show you how to use these easy family recipes to meal plan affordably and realistically for your family. Or, find more recipe ideas with the Recipe Search!