We love chili, but our daughter is vegetarian. And since we don’t want to exclude her from our meals, I looked for a good, filling, flavorful vegetarian quinoa chili recipe.
Meatless Doesn’t Mean Tasteless: 30 Mouth-Watering Vegetarian Chili Recipes That Are Soy, Soy Good
Filled with lots of good fiber and protein, you’ll never miss the meat in this delicious recipe! You’ll just enjoy the warm comfort and pure goodness of it.
Top it off with a few pieces of fresh avocado, and you’ll wonder why you haven’t tried this before.
Or, open up a a bag of corn chips, pour it into a bowl and add your chili to it: YUM!
And if you have leftovers, use it on top of your hotdogs, or with spaghetti. So many options!
Vegetarian Quinoa Chili Recipe
You’ll never miss the meat in this delicious recipe: just the warm comfort and pure goodness of it.
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked quinoa
- 1 tbsp olive oil (extra virgin )
- 1 large yellow onion (diced (1 3/4 cup))
- 4 cloves garlic (minced)
- 2 cans cans diced tomatoes (14.5 oz/can)
- 1 can tomato sauce (15 oz )
- 1.5 – 2 cups water (you can use chicken broth if not making vegetarian)
- 7 oz canned diced green chilies
- 2.5 tbsp chili powder
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1.5 tsp paprika
- .5 tsp granulated sugar
- 2 tsp cocoa powder
- .5 tsp ground coriander
- cayenne pepper (to taste, optional)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste )
- 2 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed (15 oz; (I used one dark red, one light red))
- 1 can black beans (15 oz , drained and rinsed)
- 1.5 cups corn (fresh or frozen )
- 1.5 cips cilantro (chopped)
- Juice of 1 lime
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large enameled cast iron pot over medium-high heat. Once oil is hot add onion and saute until tender, about 4 minutes, adding in garlic during last 30 seconds of sauteing.
- Add in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, cooked quinoa, water (start with 1 1/2 cups then add more later if desired), green chilies, chili powder, cumin, cocoa, paprika, sugar, coriander, cayenne pepper and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Bring mixture just to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, cover pot and allow to simmer 30 minutes.
- Add in all beans, corn, cilantro and lime and cook until heated through.
- Serve warm with optional toppings and sides (cheddar, sour cream, diced avocados, saltine crackers or tortilla chips).
Want more vegetarian recipes with quinoa? Try these quinoa stuffed bell peppers.
Chili ingredients you might need
McCormick Dark Chili Powder, 20 ozThe Vegetarian Chili Cookbook: 80 Deliciously Different One-Dish MealsHatch Mild Diced Green Chilies, 4 oz
Delicious! We used vegetable broth to add some flavor instead of water. Makes A LOT of food, so would probably cut the recipe in half next time but overall it was super flavorful and a big hit with everyone. Thanks for posting!
I omitted the cilantro and lime since I didn’t have them on hand and I added yellow and red pepper because I needed to use them up. MAN was it good! This is the best chili I’ve made in a long time. Delicious! Thank you!
This came out delicious! ~ Thanks
How would you prepare this in a crockpot? Would you put it in the quinoa later or all together? Thanks!
Any idea what the nutritional value are per serving and what is a serving size?
Sandy, I’m sorry, but I don’t know. I’m sure there are sites where you can enter the ingredients and find out.
Hey Harold!
Sorry we missed your comment earlier! Our notifications seem to be sporadic lately.
Our grill pan is definitely a favorite kitchen “gadget”. We also looked into the Forman grill and also the toaster combo, but it didn’t get good reviews, so we went with the cast iron grill pan and it’s so simple and makes great food!
LOL on ketchup for moisture (and flavor)! Yep… the grill pan will take care of that for you. Please let us know if you use it and feel free to post your food photo/s. We love to see them.
Cheers!
LeAura