How to Make a Delicious Veggie Chili

A hearty, veggie chili. Eat the chili for dinner and then use the rest for a week’s worth of lunches. I like to top it with a nice piece of grass-fed steak or use it to make amazing chili fries.

I love chili. A good veggie chili is one of my favorite cold-weather dinners.

As we start to dip towards freezing temperatures here in the mountains, I decided to create a hearty, veggie chili.

I know chili traditionally has meat. But I usually prefer veggie versions. I think it forces you to make the chili more flavorful.

If I want meat with it, I’ll usually add some on top or serve it on the side.

Making Veggie Chili

Making chili is incredibly easy. It takes about an hour, but you can make tons of it at a time.

And it’s almost always better on the second or third day.

I always make at least a gallon of it and then eat it for the rest of the week. It takes care of my lunches for the week. That way I don’t make bad decisions while I’m tired.

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to cook every night, so I like leftovers that actually get better with time.

The Veggies

You can throw almost any veggies you want in chili.

I chose some aromatics, some greens, and some mushrooms because that’s what I had.

Other good additions would be zucchini, corn, or even eggplant. Go crazy.

Once you get all the vegetables into the pot, put a lid on so they can sweat for about ten minutes.

You want to get rid of most of their liquids or else you’ll end up with a watery mess instead of a hearty veggie chili.

After about ten minutes of cooking with a lid on, you’ll end up with something like this:

The Spices

It’s time to add the spices.

Chili is a really spice-heavy, flavorful dish. It’s not subtle or delicate. Use a lot of powerful, delicious flavors.

I always make my own spice mixture. If you grind your own spices, you’ll end up with a better final product.

If you don’t want to deal with this or don’t have space in your cabinets to build your own spice kingdom, then you can always use pre-made chili powder.

After adding the spices to the pot, stir to combine and then cook with the lid off for another 5 minutes or so. It will help get the raw taste out of the spices and it will also evaporate a lot of the excess water.

Stir every minute or two to make sure the spices don’t stick to the bottom and burn.

Beans and Tomatoes

Once most of the water has evaporated, add the beans and the tomatoes.

Make sure to drain and rinse the beans to get rid of that goop that lives in the cans.

Don’t drain the tomatoes though. You want that juice.

You don’t have to use that many different kinds of beans if you don’t want. I just like the variety.

You can also start from scratch and cook dried beans. I was prioritizing time over all else. If you cook them from scratch, it will be more flavorful. But it takes hours. I didn’t want to spend hours.

Finishing it Up

Once you’ve added the beans and tomatoes to the pot, stir it all together. Then turn the heat up and bring it to a boil. Then reduce the heat to low, add a lid, and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Stir it occasionally to make sure nothing sticks.

If you’re really short on time, you don’t have to do this. By this point everything is completely cooked.

But if you skip this step, the flavors won’t fully combine and the stew will be a little underdeveloped. I think the extra 30 minutes is worth it.

Once you’re done, you’ll have a nice, big batch of chili to get you through the week.

It Scales

This stuff lasts a while.

So if you want to make more and you have a pot big enough to handle it, you can double the recipe.

You can also go with three kinds of beans and two cans of tomatoes if you want a smaller batch.

Leftover Options

If you don’t just want to have a bowl of chili every day, you can serve this in a few different ways.

You could serve it over rice, quinoa, or a baked potato. These are completely vegetarian-friendly.

You could serve it with a steak or another piece of animal protein. This is usually my choice.

You could top it with cilantro and sour cream. Or you could replace the sour cream with yogurt.

My favorite, however, is chili fries. I found this great recipe for oven-baked french fries.
They’re not quite as good as perfectly fried potatoes, but they’re really close. And they’re so, so much easier. I like to toss the potatoes in a bit of extra-virgin olive oil and salt before baking, but they’re great no matter what you do.

I used them to make this:

Chili fries are amazing.

Work Now, Relax During the Week

This takes about an hour. That’s not too long, but it’s still a chunk of time in the kitchen.

If you put in an hour of work on your weekend, you don’t have to even think about lunches for the rest of the week.

Spend a little time in the kitchen on the weekend and it helps to remove some of the stress from the rest of your week.

You can even store this chili with quinoa in mason jars. Then you just take the mason jar to work and heat it.

Eating healthy doesn’t have to be hard. It just takes a little planning.