This vegan chilli has an amazingly complex, deep, and dark flavour. It’s an incredibly delicious, satisfying, and comforting meal. In addition to classic spices like chilli powder, cumin powder, and smoked paprika, I also added ingredients like cocoa powder, blackstrap molasses, and Marmite to achieve that depth of flavour you would typically get from using meat. If you prefer a lighter chilli, you can go easier on these three ingredients, but I love a deeper flavour.
This vegan chilli is an excellent source of protein. High-protein ingredients used in it are tempeh (which substitutes meat in this vegan version) and three types of beans: black, red kidney and pinto. I recommend sticking to these beans and not substituting them with others, as they provide the best flavour. The tempeh in this chilli loses its usual taste (which I’m not a big fan of otherwise) after an hour of cooking and becomes unrecognisable as tempeh.
Serve this chilli with toppings like avocado, vegan sour cream, and parsley, along with lemony brown rice as a side dish. These additions will make the dish a complete meal and add the textures and flavours, elevating this chilli.
Have you made this recipe? Let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear your feedback.
More delicious beans recipes:
Vegan Chilli sin Carne (V, GF Option)
Ingredients
- 15 ml (1 tbsp) olive oil
- 1 fresh chilli sliced
- 1/3 brown onion chopped
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1/2 (60g) red pepper sliced
- 2 tsp chilli powder
- 1 can (400g) crushed tomatoes in a can
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 tsp tomato paste
- 240-360 ml (1 cup – 1 1/2 cups) water
- 1/4 tsp salt or to taste
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 200 g tempeh crumbled
- 7.5 ml (1/2 tbsp) soy sauce gluten free if needed
- 2 – 2 2/3 tsp molasses or blackstrap molasses
- 1/2 – 2/3 tsp Marmite or gluten free Vegemite if needed
- 1/2 can (120g) black beans
- 1/2 can (120g) red kidney beans
- 1/2 can (120g) pinto beans
- 1 1/2 – 2 tsp cocoa powder
- 10 ml (2 tsp) maple syrup
- 1/6 tsp ground nutmeg
- a pinch of black pepper
Toppings:
- avocado sliced
- vegan sour cream recipe below
- parsley roughly chopped
Vegan sour cream:
- 64 g (1/4 cup) vegan greek style yogurt I used Sojade
- heaped 1/4 tsp lemon juice
Brown rice:
- 200 g brown rice
- 480 ml (2 cups) water
- 5 ml (1 tsp) olive oil
- 20 ml (4 tsp) lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp salt or to taste
Instructions
- First prepare everything that goes into the chilli. Slice fresh chilli, chop onion, mince garlic, slice red pepper, crumble tempeh with the back of a fork and prepare all other ingredients on the kitchen top so that they are easily reachable when you start to cook.
- Heat olive oil, then lower to medium heat and throw sliced fresh chilli, onion, garlic and red pepper in the pot. Sauté for about 3 min until the onion browns a little bit.
- Add chilli powder and pour crushed tomatoes in a can over vegetables. Mix together.
- Add cumin powder, smoked paprika and tomato paste. Pour water (a lesser amount) in a pot and while it is warming up add salt, oregano, tempeh, soy sauce, molasses (a lesser amount), Marmite (a lesser amount) and beans. Mix together.
- Bring the pot to boil, then put the heat to low and cook for 1 hour. Mix a few times in between and check if it needs more water.
- If serving chilli with brown rice on a side start cooking brown rice about 30 min into cooking chilli. Cook brown rice in water with olive oil which prevents the rice from sticking. Cook for about 25 min. After it is cooked add lemon juice and salt. Mix together.
- After 1 hour of cooking the chilli turn the heat off and add also cocoa powder (a lesser amount), maple syrup, nutmeg and black pepper. Mix together. Taste and add more molasses, Marmite and cocoa powder if desired.
- Prepare toppings if using. Slice avocado, mix together both ingredients for the vegan sour cream in a small bowl and roughly chop parsley (mostly the leaves part).
- Divide chilli between two bowls. Top them with avocado, vegan sour cream and sprinkle them with chopped parsley. Serve brown rice on a side.
