In the third class of a free, grant-funded, healthy cooking program I co-teach in Boston, my colleague and I focus on satisfying soups and side dishes. In the class, we prepare a fabulous vegan vegetable bean chili that is super nutritious, affordable and filling. It has 231 calories per serving, 115 mg of calcium, 4 mg of iron and lots of dietary fiber.
Unlike a meat chili, it doesn’t contain any cholesterol. (Plants don’t contain cholesterol). And it costs $1.43 per serving to prepare. To supplement the lessons we teach in the class, I made a YouTube video showing the preparation of the chili. I often hear from cooks that they find it help to have a visual guide in the kitchen with them. That’s where a cooking video like this comes in.
Do you find it helpful? I’d love to hear from you. Thank you to my colleague, Annie Bernhard of Plant-Based for Life, for providing permission to post this recipe that she developed.
Here it is:

Chunky Veggie-Bean Chili
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion, diced (about 2 cups)
- 3 medium bell peppers, seeded and diced any color (about 3 cups)
- 3 ribs celery, chopped (about 1 cup)
- 1 medium sweet potato, diced small (about 1.5 cups)
- 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes with juice
- 1 15 oz can oil-free tomato sauce
- 1 cup vegetable broth or water
- 1 15 oz can black beans drained and rinsed
- 1 15 oz can pinto beans drained and rinsed
- 1 15 oz can corn drained and rinsed, or 1.5 cups raw or frozen
- 1 tbs chili powder
- 1 tbs dried oregano
- 1 tsp Garlic powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- cayenne pepper to taste (optional)
- 4 cups baby spinach or baby kale or 1 cup frozen or minced steamed greens
Instructions
- Heat a few tablespoons of water in a soup pot over medium-high heat. When the water begins to sputter, add the onion, bell peppers, celery and sweet potato, and cook, stirring for five minutes, adding a little water as needed.
- Stir in the tomatoes, broth or water, beans, corn, chili powder, oregano, garlic and cumin. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for 25 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
- Stir in the greens. Serve as is or garnished with chopped cilantro, hot sauce, scallions and/or avocado.