Vegetarian Lentil Chilli with Black Beans, Sweetcorn and Chickpeas

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Extremely tasty vegetarian chilli packing a spicy kick and a huge flavour punch whilst also including a wealth of nutrients to sustain you. Adding more vegetables and sour cream and cheese (or vegan alternatives) when you serve, further enhances the nutritional value, delicious flavours and the variety of textures.

As I may have mentioned before, my husband is a cheese phobic carnivore with very little appetite for vegetables. Cooking vegetarian food was therefore never very high on my agenda.

Our younger daughter went off to boarding school age 16 and within a month came home and announced she was a vegetarian. I assumed it was a phase but 4 years down the track, she’s still mostly a vegetarian. Not even 5 months living in Paris during her gap year, changed her mind! I say ‘mostly’ vegetarian because she will eat some fish from time to time. Salmon features a lot in our house when she is home from university for the holidays!

The nature of feeding my carnivorous husband and vegetarian daughter at the same time has not been easy and I frequently cook 2 versions of a similar meal to keep everyone happy. (Or I just tell Emma to sort herself out!) However, truth be told, I have really enjoyed learning about and cooking vegetarian food and this is one of my most frequently made dishes. Should you also be interested in my ‘meat’ version, please see my Chilli Con Carne recipe here.

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This is a wonderfully flexible chilli, not only can it be used in a range of dishes – it uses mostly store cupboard ingredients plus a few fresh vegetables. It can be eaten on its own, with rice, accompanied by some avocado and cherry tomatoes or with salads such as guacamole and salsa. Grated cheese and/or sour cream also complement this dish very well. Notwithstanding my husband, I truly believe that the majority of meat lovers would also love this vegetarian chilli! Indeed, my elder daughter Charlotte and I will often choose to have it with Emma whilst Andrew always selects to meat version!

It would be very hard to make a mess of this recipe – it is very forgiving -even if you are not following it very precisely and changing a few ingredients around. Feel free to use different vegetables or pulses – it will still be delicious!

Vegetarian Chilli has many uses!

You can make many dishes out of Vegetarian Chilli. The easiest is to serve it simply with rice, but you can also serve it:

• with a Cornbread topping
• with Bratwurst or vegetarian sausages and bread rolls to make Chilli Dogs
• as a Chilli Dip
• as Nachos
• with fries
• as Dirty Fries with Vegetarian Chilli, Cheese, Sour Cream, Avocado, Tomatoes and Red Chilli

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Other ideas:

• Burritos
• Enchiladas
• Mexican Lasagne
• Baked Potato with Vegetarian Chilli, cheese and sour cream
• Baked Sweet Potato with Vegetarian Chilli, Cheese and Sour Cream
• Roast Peppers/Capsicum filled with Vegetarian Chilli, Rice and Cheese
• Crispy Tortilla Chilli Tartlets

How to make Vegetarian Lentil Chilli with Black Beans, Sweetcorn and Chickpeas

Although the ingredient list is quite long, you should have most of the ingredients in your cupboard and most require little or no preparation – apart from opening a tin!

Collect all your ingredients together:

• onions
• red, orange or yellow peppers
• garlic
• olive oil
• Mexican chilli spice
• red or green lentils or a mixture of pearl barley, pearl spelt, red split lentils and mung beans
• red kidney beans in chilli sauce
• chick peas
• black beans
• sweetcorn
• tomato puree
• salt and freshly ground back pepper
• vegetable stock
• passata
• honey or sugar

How to make the chilli:

Just looking at that ingredient list, makes me feel healthy – stuffed full of vegetables and pulses, this recipe is packed full of nutrients.

1. Place the roughly chopped onions, peppers and garlic in the food processor and pulse until chopped to your liking. We like ours finely chopped. You may have to scrape down the sides of the processor bowl and pulse again.
2. Heat the olive oil over a moderate heat and add the chopped vegetables.
3. Cook for around 5 minutes until the vegetables have softened and lightly caramelised. Stir from time to time.
4. Add the spice and stir to mix. Cook for a couple of minutes until aromatic.
5. Add the lentils, red kidney beans, chick peas, black beans, sweetcorn and tomato puree.
6. Half fill the kidney beans tin with water, swill and pour into the pan.
7. Add the passata.
8. Half fill the passata carton/bottle with water, swill and pour into the pan.
9. Add the vegetable stock, stir thoroughly.
10. Cook in the centre of a pre-heated oven. There will be a lot of liquid in the chilli but this will reduce as it cooks and is absorbed by the lentils.

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Cooking on the Hob

You could continue to cook the chilli on the hob. Simply cover, turn the heat to very low and gently simmer the chilli. Cook for 1 hour stirring from time to time. I personally prefer the oven as I can forget about it for an hour and not worry about it catching on the base of the pan or remembering to stir it. Your choice – both ways work well!

Cooking in a Slow Cooker

Alternatively cook your chilli in the slow cooker. Simply make as described in the recipe to the end of point 5. Transfer your mixture so far and then add the remaining ingredients to a slow cooker. Cook on high for 3 hours or on low for up to 6 hours.

Batch Cooking

Just like Chilli Con Carne, Vegetarian Chilli is ideal for batch cooking and freezing. It freezes well and can be used in a variety of different ways. When batch cooking, I freeze in small portions. I freeze the food in a silicone muffin tray and then simply pop them out when frozen, and bag. You can then defrost as many as you need depending on the dish and number of people and because they are frozen in small amounts, they defrost quickly and easily. I realise however that you might think this is a bit fiddly; it is certainly more beneficial for small families or people wanting meals for just 1 or 2. If you are regularly cooking for larger numbers, you may wish to freeze in larger quantities.

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Made this recipe?

If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodilkitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.