Vegetarian Recipes

Easy Vegetarian Chili

https://www.loveandlemons.com/vegetarian-chili-recipe/

Meet the best vegetarian chili recipe I’ve tasted! Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and fire-roasted tomatoes give it a delicious smoky kick.

Once the temperature starts dropping, I start craving comfort food. Lasagna, Mac and Cheese, Eggplant Parmesan, you name it. But while I love love love all of those things, some nights I want to get my comfort food fix with as little work as possible. That’s where this easy vegetarian chili recipe comes in.

Like any good veggie chili, it’s hearty, warming, smoky, and spicy. Made with a short list of pantry ingredients, it packs in a hefty amount of veggies, but it’s so yummy that even a meat lover will fall for it (just ask Jack!). To make it, you only need to do a few minutes of hands-on prep. Then, let it simmer away on its own – you can check back in 30 minutes later to dish up a delicious vegetarian chili dinner.

Easy and satisfying, this is a great recipe for busy weeknights, game day, or any time you’re craving something cozy. Enjoy!

Vegetarian Chili Recipe Ingredients

My vegetarian chili recipe is filled with the chili essentials: onion, garlic, red bell pepper, pinto and kidney beans, lime, olive oil, salt, and black pepper. For a colorful twist, I add in corn kernels. Fresh or frozen corn works equally well, adding pops of yellow and a little crunch.

Then, instead of stirring in regular diced tomatoes, I add fire roasted diced tomatoes. A pantry staple in my kitchen, fire roasted tomatoes are my first pick anytime I use diced tomatoes in a recipe. They have the same concentrated tomato flavor, but they also add an irresistible smokiness to whatever you’re making, which is really delicious in this chili recipe.

Finally, in lieu of chili powder, I use canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. They’re super smoky, spicy, and savory, which makes for one darn good bowl of veggie chili. If you’ve never used them before, you can find them in the Mexican section of most grocery stores. Use any leftovers in my favorite chipotle sauce, BBQ sandwiches, or vegan nachos!

Once you prep your ingredients, making this recipe is easy! Just sauté the onion, garlic, and peppers, stir in the remaining ingredients, and simmer until the chili thickens to your desired consistency. Finish it off with a big squeeze of lime, and dig in!

Store any leftovers in the fridge for up to 4 days (they get more flavorful with time!), or freeze them for even longer.

Vegetarian Chili Serving Suggestions

My favorite part of making vegetarian chili is loading it up with toppings! I especially love this recipe with a dollop of Greek yogurt to cool the heat from the smoky chipotles. I like to finish it with pickled onions, sliced chiles, and cilantro. Feel free to get creative with your toppings – shredded cheese, sour cream, pickled jalapeños, avocado, guacamole, or charred corn kernels would all be great.

Enjoy a bowl of this chili on its own, or pair it with tortilla chips, cornbread, or a baked sweet potato for a heartier meal. Or, for a fun game day snack, top it onto sweet potato wedges to make sweet potato chili fries!

Easy Vegetarian Chili Recipe Variations

I love this recipe as written, but if you’re particular about your chili, change it up to suit your preferences! Here are a few easy variations:

Use your favorite beans. I’ve been known to make this recipe with everything ranging from black beans to chickpeas, and it always comes out great. Use your favorite beans (or whatever you have in your pantry) instead of the pinto and/or kidney beans.
Add extra veggies. Do you love a veggie-heavy chili? Add a stalk of celery or carrots to the pot along with the onion.
Spice to your level. Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce can vary in spice level, so if you’re sensitive to spice, start with less than the recipe calls for. You can always add more!

How do you like your vegetarian chili? Let me know in the comments!

Easy Vegetarian Chili

Author: Jeanine Donofrio

Recipe type: Soup

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 (14-ounce) can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
1 (14-ounce) can red beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14-ounce) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup water or broth
3 chipotle peppers from canned chipotles in adobo, diced, plus 3 tablespoons sauce*
1 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen
1 tablespoon lime juice, plus wedges for serving
½ teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Avocado or Guacamole
Greek yogurt or sour cream
Jalapeño or serrano peppers, diced or sliced
Cilantro
Pickled Onions

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, a few pinches of salt and pepper, and stir. Cook until the onion is translucent, 5 minutes, then add the garlic and red pepper. Stir and cook until soft, 5 to 8 minutes, turning the heat down as needed.
Add the tomatoes, beans, water, chipotles, adobo sauce, corn, salt, and a few grinds of pepper. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chili has thickened.
Stir in the lime juice and season to taste. Serve with desired toppings.

*Chipotle peppers vary in spice level. If you’re sensitive to spice, start with less. If you love spice, add more to taste. If your chili is too spicy, add more lime juice and a bit of olive oil to tone it down.

3.4.3177

Vegetarian Recipes

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Scones

I recently posted my recipe for sourdough starter here on the blog, so I couldn’t leave y’all hanging! Once you get the hang of maintaining your starter, you can start getting into super easy sourdough discard recipes—like this one! I find it hard to let any of my discard go to waste, considering how much time and effort I put into caring for it and feeding it. It’s a needy ingredient, but it’s worth the extra effort, as you’ll see when you taste these fluffy, subtly sweet Sourdough Chocolate Chip Scones! Don’t have any discard? I’ve also shared how to make these delicious scones without it.

Overhead view of homemade chocolate chip sourdough scones on a parchment lined wire rack.

Easy Recipe for Sourdough Discard Chocolate Chip Scones

Even if you don’t really think of yourself as a baker, I promise you might surprise yourself with these sourdough chocolate chunk scones. They’re honestly so simple and so, so good. The discard from your sourdough starter gives them a super tender texture and just a little tang that plays really well with those melty chocolate chunks. My trick for tall, bakery-style fluffy scones is using cold butter (don’t let it soften!) and giving the dough time to rise before baking. This recipe is seriously an easy win and such a satisfying way to use up that discard you’ve been saving.

Print
Add to Collection Go to Collections

Chocolate Chip Sourdough Scones

These tender Sourdough Chocolate Chip Scones are the perfect way to use up your leftover sourdough discard. Includes a no-discard option, too!

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine $0.04, American

Total Cost $5.91 recipe / $0.98 serving

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 15

Proof Time 1

Total Time 1 30

Servings scones

Calories 537kcal

Author Jess Rice

Equipment

Mixing Bowls
Parchment Paper
Baking Sheet

Ingredients

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour + extra if needed $0.23
2 tsp baking powder $0.08
3 Tbsp granulated sugar $0.06
½ tsp salt $0.01
6 Tbsp cold butter* $0.66
1 cup chocolate chunks** $2.97
¼ cup sourdough discard*** $0.00
¼ cup milk + 1 Tbsp, divided (1 Tbsp reserved for icing) $0.06
2 eggs $0.82
1 tsp vanilla extract $0.47
1 cup powdered sugar $0.55

Instructions

Gather ingredients and preheat the oven to 425ºF.
Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt, in a large bowl. Stir until they are very well combined.
Grate the butter into the flour mixture and stir until the butter is well incorporated and no large lumps remain.
Add the chocolate chunks to the flour mixture and stir to combine.
Whisk together the sourdough discard, milk, eggs, and vanilla extract in a separate bowl.
Pour the wet discard mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture and chocolate chunks. Stir everything together until it forms a cohesive ball of dough, with no dry flour remaining on the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too dry to come together into a single ball of dough, add a splash more milk (1 Tbsp or so) until it comes together.
Form a dough ball at the bottom of your mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow your scone dough to proof for 1-3 hours, until your dough ball noticeably grows in size, at least by a quarter the volume, ideally the volume will double. (Yes, this step takes a little extra patience, but the fluffy texture from the sourdough makes these scones a little extra special! You could also bake this right away, they just won’t be as fluffy and will be more like a classic scone.)
Press the dough out into an 8-inch diameter circle on a piece of parchment paper. Cut the circle into 6 wedges. (To stretch this recipe further, you could cut into 8 wedges.) Place the cut scones on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake the scones in the preheated 425ºF oven for 15-17 minutes, or until they are golden brown. Transfer the baked scones to a wire rack to cool.
While the scones are cooling, combine powdered sugar with 1 Tbsp milk until it forms a thick glaze. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled scones, then enjoy!

See how we calculate recipe costs here.

Notes

*I put a stick of butter into the freezer 5-10 minutes before I start baking to make it easier to grate. You want it to be cold and stiff, not frozen solid; otherwise, it’ll be too hard to grate.

**You could use chocolate chips, but I find scones to be too bready without the larger pockets of chocolate created by using chunks.

***I use the discard from my 100% hydration starter. If you do not have any sourdough discard, you can make this scone recipe with 2 cups of flour instead, skipping the discard ingredient, and there’s no need to proof the dough for 1-3 hours.

Nutrition

how to make Sourdough Chocolate Chip Scones step-by-step photos

The ingredients for making homemade sourdough chocolate chip scones.

Gather all of your ingredients together and preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Flour, baking powder, sugar. and salt in a white mixing bowl.

Mix the dry ingredients: Add 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 3 Tbsp sugar, and ½ tsp salt to a large bowl. Mix until well combined.

Butter being grated into a mixing bowl of flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

Cut in the butter: Remove your butter from the freezer and grate 6 Tbsp of butter into the flour mixture. Stir until the butter is fully incorporated into the flour. There shouldn’t be any large lumps.

Chocolate chunks added to a four and butter mixture in a white mixing bowl.

Add the chocolate: Stir 1 cup chocolate chunks (or chocolate chips) into the butter and flour mix.

Sourdough discard, eggs, and milk in a mixing bowl.

Combine the remaining wet ingredients: In a different bowl, mix together ¼ cup sourdough discard, ¼ cup milk, 2 eggs, and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

The wet and dry ingredients for sourdough chocolate chip scones being combined in a bowl.

Make the dough: Pour the wet sourdough mixture into the bowl with the flour and chocolate chunks. Stir everything together until it forms a cohesive ball of dough. There should be no dry flour remaining on the bottom of the bowl. If the dough seems too dry to come together into a single ball of dough, add a splash more milk (1 Tbsp or so) until it forms into a ball.

Chocolate chip sourdough scone dough in a mixing bowl, being covered with plastic wrap.

Proof the dough: Place the dough ball into your mixing bowl and cover it with a sheet of plastic wrap. Leave your bowl in a warm location and let it proof for 1-3 hours until the dough ball has grown in size (by at least a quarter of the volume, but ideally, it will have doubled). You could bake the scones right away without proofing…but I highly recommend letting it proof so the texture of your sourdough chocolate chip scones will be extra special and fluffy.

Sourdough scone dough on a piece of parchment paper.

Form the dough: Lay a piece of parchment paper on your work surface. Lay the proofed dough ball onto the parchment and press it out into an 8-inch diameter circle.

Sourdough chocolate chunk scone dough divided into 6 pieces.

Slice the dough into 6 equal wedges (or 8 wedges if you want to make smaller scones).

Six shaped sourdough chocolate chip scones on a parchment lined baking sheet ready to be baked.

Place the cutout dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. If you have any leftover chocolate chunks, feel free to press some into the top of the dough before baking (as I did here).

Freshly baked sourdough chocolate chip scones on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake: Place the baking tray into your preheated oven and bake for 15-17 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer the scones to a wire rack to cool completely.

Powdered sugar and milk in a mixing bowl, being mixed with a spoon to make a glaze.

Make the glaze: As you wait for your delicious sourdough scones to cool, you can make the simple glaze. Add 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 Tbsp milk to a bowl and combine until a thick glaze forms. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled scones, then enjoy!

Hands breaking a sourdough chocolate chip scone in half.

Just look how fluffy that crumb is…and don’t even get me started on the pockets of ooey gooey chocolate!

Use cold butter. I pop a stick of butter in the freezer for 5–10 minutes before baking. It should be cold and firm but not rock-hard. Cold butter creates steam pockets as the scones bake, which makes them rise beautifully and gives you that tender, flaky texture.
Grate the butter. Grating makes it super easy to mix the butter into the flour so it’s evenly distributed throughout the dough. No pastry cutter needed!
Don’t skip the rise (unless you really want to!). Letting the dough rest and rise for 1–3 hours gives the sourdough discard time to work its magic. It helps the scones puff up and turn out extra fluffy. You can bake them without letting the dough rise, but they’ll turn out much flatter.
Don’t overmix the dough. I combine the wet and dry ingredients just until the dough comes together. Overmixing can make the scones tough instead of tender.

Storage Instructions

Keep your homemade chocolate chip sourdough scones in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. You can also freeze them for up to 3 months. Let them thaw at room temperature and reheat (if desired) in the microwave or in a low oven.

You can also try freezing the unbaked, shaped dough by placing the wedges on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freezing until solid. Transfer the frozen dough to a freezer-safe bag and then bake from frozen, adding a few extra minutes to the bake time.