What's most comforting than a warm bowl of Chili Beans? When the weather starts getting cold this Easy Vegan Chili Sin Carne is one of our staple recipes.
What is Chili Sin Carne?
Chili Sin Carne is the plant-based version of the popular Tex-Mex dish, Chili Con Carne, which translates to Chili with meat. This stew-like meal consists of a rich tomato sauce cooked with spices, different vegetables, a mixture of beans, and traditionally, minced meat.
Our one-pot Chili Sin Carne recipe is vegan and gluten-free and family-friendly. This is a quick and simple recipe that uses mostly pantry ingredients and the best part is that it tastes delicious!
Is Chili Sin Carne healthy?
Our Chili Sin Carne is healthy and nutritious. This vegan one-pot meal is packed full of plant-based protein and fiber from the beans and vitamins from the fresh tomatoes and peppers.
You can as well, add more veggies to this recipe to make it even more complete. We love cooking Chili Sin Carne for the whole family as it is a great way for our kids and ourselves to eat beans. We like serving this meal with some cubed avocado, which is packed with healthy fats and with tortilla chips (the healthy kind) so Luca thinks he is getting a treat!
Our Chili Sin Carne is:
- Vegan
- Gluten-free
- Protein-high
- One-pot meal
- Main dish
- Comforting
- Mildly spicy
- Healthy
How to make the best Chili Sin Carne
Ingredients
Our ingredient list for this recipe is simple and easy to have already on hand, which makes this one-pot meal a great choice for a busy weekday night.
Beans. For this recipe, we use a mixture of cannelloni beans and kidney beans. Feel free to use any other type of beans, even garbanzo beans if that is what you have on hand. We love using a mixture of beans that we already have at home when we make Chili Sin Carne, as it makes the dish more colorful and tasty.
Bell peppers. Red bell peppers are the ones we use when making this one-pot meal. Green and yellow peppers are a great option as well.
Tinned Tomatoes. You can use plum tinned tomatoes, chopped or passata. We prefer using chopped tomatoes as we think they give a greater texture to your Vegan Chili. You can as well, mix chopped tomatoes and passata as we do for our Vegan Lasagna Soup.
Sweetcorn. We like adding corn to our chili sin carne. It adds sweetness and color and our kiddo loves corn, so it's a win-win! For this recipe, we use frozen sweetcorn.
Spice mix. To make our Chili Sin Carne, we use cumin, oregano, sweet paprika, black pepper, and salt. If you like spicy food, feel free to change the sweet paprika to smoked paprika. We use sweet paprika so the whole family can enjoy the meal. Towards the end, we add chili flakes for spice lovers. You can as well, get an already made Chili spice mix so is ready to add to your pot.
Onion and Garlic. As in most of our recipes, onion and garlic are the base of the dish.
Fresh Coriander. To finish our one-pot Chili Sin Carne we add chopped fresh cilantro or coriander.
Step by Step Method
To prepare this simple one-pot recipe, we like using our cast iron pot. We leave the chili sin carne simmering at least for 20 minutes, but you can leave it slow cooking for longer to get a richer sauce.
- Heat some olive oil in a pan and add finely chopped onion. When it starts to soften add pressed or finely chopped garlic, cumin, oregano, sweet paprika, and chopped red pepper. Stir and leave cooking for 5-6 minutes.
- Add the tin tomatoes and the sweetcorn. Stir and bring to simmer. We use frozen corn for this recipe, but you can use tinned sweetcorn.
- When it starts to simmer, add the beans. Partially cover the pan and leave cooking for about 20 minutes. Adjust with salt and pepper to taste.
Serving and Storing Suggestions
To serve the meal, we add some different toppings to give the meal some different textures, colors and tastes in each bite. Our one-pot meal can be served with steamed rice on the side or tortilla chips. We personally prefer tortilla chips as it brings an extra crunch to the meal.
Vegan Toppings for Chili sin Carne
- Freshly Chopped Cilantro
- Coconut or other Plant-based Yoghurt
- Avocado
- Lime
- Shredded Vegan Cheese
- Vegan Cheese and Sweetcorn Scones
How to make ahead and store
One-pot meals normally taste better the day after. All the flavors have combined and every spoonful is even tastier. This meal is no different. You can make this meal ahead and store it before you add toppings.
If you keep it in an air-tight container, it will last for 4-5 days in the fridge, and for months in the freezer. If you are planning to freeze the meal, do not add frozen corn while cooking it, you can add it when reheating the meal the day you want to enjoy this chili meal.
To reheat the meal, you can use a microwave or on the stovetop.
Our Chili Sin Carne for Toddlers and Kids
Our Vegan Chili Sin Carne is packed full of flavor from the fresh tomatoes and peppers. This can be a perfect meal to get your toddler or kids to eat more veggies and pulses. Our Chili sin Carne is made with sweet paprika instead of smoked paprika to make it family-friendly.
Luca, our kid, loves this meal. We serve his chili sin carne with sliced avocado and a few tortilla chips (the healthy kind) on the top.
When we cook this meal for the whole family, we keep the chili flakes out until the very end. We prepare our toddler's bowl first, and then add the chili flakes into the pan.
To give it a smoother consistency, before serving, you can partially or totally blend it. If your baby or toddler is still not eating solids, or you have a fussy eater and home, you may want to blend the whole portion. Same way, you don’t need to blend it if you think that the consistency is good.
FAQ and Tips
- Adjust the texture of the Chili Sin Carne. Our recipe as it is doesn't involve any blending, as we enjoy the dish as it is. If you want a thicker-creamier sauce, you can partially blend the chili. Add two ladles of chili to a blender jug and blend. Then add the blended chili into the pot with the rest of the ingredients and mix. This may be a good thing to do as well for toddlers or kids.
- Make the chili spicier. You can easily make this recipe spicier by adding smoked paprika instead of sweet paprika and chili flakes. Another great option is to add a few drops of tabasco before serving.
- Can I freeze Chili Sin Carne? Yes! This meal is perfect to make ahead and store the leftovers in the fridge or freezer.
Chili Sin Carne
Ingredients
- 1 onion chopped
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 2 bell peppers (any type) chopped
- ½ teaspoon cayenne or chili flakes
- 2 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 100 g sweetcorn
- 400 g tinned cannelloni beans
- 400 g tinned kidney beans
- 2 400 g chopped tin tomatoes
Instructions
- Heat some oil in a pan and add the onion finely chopped. When it starts to soften add pressed or finely chopped garlic and stir.
- Add the spice mix (leave the chili flakes for the very end if you are making this for kids as well), stir for 2 minutes and add the red pepper finely chopped. Stir and cook for 3-4 minutes.
- Add the tin tomatoes and the corn. If the tomatoes are quite acidic, you can add some sugar, but if you use sweeter tomatoes you shouldn't need to add any sugar. Stir and bring to simmer.
- Add the beans and partially cover the pan. Leave cooking for at least 20 minutes.
- Serve with your favourite toppings.
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| If you tried our recipe, please leave a comment or tag us on Instagram @Sixhungryfeet. We are always happy to see your creations! |
Terry ?️ says
This recipe looks good, will give this a go. May just break my cardinal rule and use a avocado, I always prefer sustainable ingredients-never easy, I like the aspect it being vegan and healthy, also simple to make for a light snack. Thanks for sharing this.
Chandice Probst says
Yum what a great meal that’s filling and flavorful!
Laura says
thank you Chandice!