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The BEST Black Bean Chili!

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Truly the best black bean chili recipe!! It ultra-quick and easy to make, naturally gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan (although you can add meat if you’d like), and SO flavorful and delicious. Instant Pot and stovetop instructions included.

The BEST Black Bean Chili Recipe

This chili recipe is everything.

Like, literally. It basically hits all the bases when it comes to everything we’re looking for in a crowd-pleasing, feel-good, ultra-cozy, irresistibly-delicious black bean chili recipe.

First off, it’s ridiculously easy to make. We’re talkin’ 8 main ingredients here that are big on flavor and ultra low-maintenance on prep time. (Just need you to chop an onion and some garlic, so less than 10 mins prep time!)  This recipe is also a breeze to cook in the Instant Pot. (Although I’ve also included stovetop and slow cooker instructions, if that’s your jam.)  And if you’re looking for easy lunches for the week ahead, it’s freezer-friendly and perfect for meal prep.

Second, it’s naturally gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan.  Which means it’s the perfect pot of soup to simmer when you have a mix of friends over for the big game or a cozy dinner night in. Or, hey, also perfect for any regular weeknight in or a simple lunch to pack for work.

Third, it’s made with healthier that you can feel great about. Lots of protein-packed black beans, lots of veggies, and lots of zesty Mexican flavors. No meat…unless you’d like to add some in. In which case, ground beef or turkey would be awesome.

But most importantly…it’s just 100% delicious. Especially so when you go big (please go big!) with all of your favorite toppings. The more the merrier here, if you ask me. Mmmm hmmmm.

Alright, time for some black bean chili!

The BEST Black Bean Chili Recipe with Avocado

Alright, so let’s talk cooking methods here for a sec. I’m a huge fan of the Instant Pot with this recipe, since it can pressure cook a batch of dry (un-soaked) black beans to tender perfection in less than an hour. But you’re also welcome to just simmer everything on the stovetop — up to you.

The BEST Black Bean Chili Recipe Ingredients

That said, the other ingredients are super simple! Just chop up an onion and some garlic. Combine them with your beans, a can of diced tomatoes (fire-roasted are my fave!), roasted red peppers, veggie stock (or water), ground cumin, chipotle chili powder (or regular chili powder), S&P.

Then the main ingredient here is a must — a jar of salsa verde. (Or you can make yours homemade.)  I’m a big fan of the zesty, tangy flavor it adds to the chili. And you can also choose a brand that’s as mild or spicy as you’d like. (<– Although if serving to a crowd, I always recommend keeping things more mild, then offering sliced jalapeño or serrano peppers as a topping. Win-win.)

Just combine everything together and cook until those beans are nice and tender. Then give everything a good stir, add more stock if you’d like a brothier soup, season with salt and pepper, and…

How To Make The BEST Black Bean Chili Recipe

…voila!

The BEST Vegetarian Black Bean Chili recipe!

A gorgeous pot of rich black bean chili will be ready to enjoy!

The BEST Vegan Black Bean Chili Recipe

Dish it up into your serving bowls. But then — I insist — sprinkle on as many of your favorite toppings as possible. In my humble opinion, chili is ALL about the toppings. So if diced avocado, or fresh cilantro, or shredded cheese (vegan, if making this dairy-free), diced red onions, sliced serranos, sour cream, etc. are your jam — pile them on high.

The BEST Black Bean Chili Recipe | Vegetarian, Vegan and Gluten-Free

And then? I sincerely hope you enjoy every last bite. ?

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The BEST Black Bean Chili!

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 46 reviews
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 40 minutes
  • Total Time: 50 minutes
  • Yield: 6 -8 servings 1x

Description

Truly the best black bean chili recipe!!  It ultra-quick and easy to make (less than 10 mins prep time), it’s naturally gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan (although you can add meat if you’d like), it only calls for 8 main ingredients, and it’s SO flavorful and delicious. 


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 pound dry black beans, rinsed and picked over
  • 1 medium white onion, peeled and diced
  • 6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 68 cups vegetable stock (or water*)
  • 2 cups (16 ounces) salsa verde, homemade or store-bought
  • 1 (15-ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
  • 1 (12-ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained and diced
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 2 teaspoons chipotle chili powder**
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • toppings: diced avocado, chopped fresh cilantro, diced red onion, shredded cheese, sliced jalapeños or serranos

Instructions

Instant Pot (Pressure Cooker) Directions:

  1. Add black beans (no need to pre-soak), onion, garlic, 6 cups stock, salsa verde, diced tomatoes, roasted red peppers, cumin, chili powder, and a pinch of salt and pepper to the bowl of your Instant Pot.  Stir to combine.
  2. Close lid securely and set vent to “Sealing”.
  3. Press “Manual”, then press “Pressure” until the light on “High Pressure” lights up, then adjust the +/- buttons until time reads 38 minutes.  Cook.  Then very carefully, turn the vent to “Venting” for quick release, and wait until all of the steam has released and the valve has dropped.  Remove the lid, and give the soup a good stir.
  4. Then, if you would like a brothier soup, feel free to add in 1-2 extra cups of vegetable stock.  (If not, leave the soup as-is.)  Taste, and season with extra salt and pepper as needed.
  5. Serve immediately, garnished with lots of your favorite toppings.  Or transfer to sealed containers and refrigerate for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Stovetop Directions:

  1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil (extra ingredient for stovetop version) in a large stockpot over medium-high heat.  Add onion and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until translucent.  Add garlic and sauté for 1-2 more minutes, stirring occasionally, until fragrant.
  2. Add in beans (pre-soaked overnight***) 6 cups stock, salsa verde, diced tomatoes, roasted red peppers, cumin, chili powder, and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Stir to combine.
  3. Continue cooking until the soup reaches a simmer.  Then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 45 minutes, or until the beans are completely tender, stirring occasionally.
  4. If you would like a brothier soup, feel free to add in 1-2 extra cups of vegetable stock.  (If not, leave the soup as-is.)  Taste, and season with extra salt and pepper as needed.
  5. Serve immediately, garnished with lots of your favorite toppings.  Or transfer to sealed containers and refrigerate for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Notes

*Veggie stock will add a little extra flavor here.  But water totally works too.

**I really love using chipotle chili powder.  But traditional (American) chili powder will also work too.  Or you’re welcome to add in a chopped chipotle chili in adobo sauce.

***If making this soup on the stovetop, you’ll need to soak your beans in water overnight.  OR, for a much faster version, you can sub in 4 (15-ounce) cans of rinsed and drained black beans, which will only require about 10 minutes to cook in the soup (instead of 45).

Cook time included above is for the Instant Pot version.  

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80 comments on “The BEST Black Bean Chili!”

  1. It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d certainly donate to this superb blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will share this website with my Facebook group. Talk soon!

  2. Thank You a bunch!

  3. I find salsa verde to be salty…too salty. Any suggestions?

  4. I tried the stovetop version and it was a disaster. Adding 6 cups of stock to drained and rinsed beans, with the liquid from the salsa verde, left me with a very watery thin black bean soup. So, I removed 2 1/2 cups of liquid, strained it and put the solids back into the chili. And instead of adding the liquid with the fire-roasted tomatoes, I strained out the tomatoes and then added them back in. I was considering trying to remove some black beans and liquifying them as you would do to thicken black bean soup, but ended up adding a small can of tomato paste for thickening. I then brought it to the boil and left it for ten minutes to reduce. I ended up with an okay sort of thicker black bean soup, but in no way was it the consistency of chili.

    I’m just going back to my all-time favorite chili recipe from my ancient copy of Jane Brody’s Good Food Book and substitute black beans for the kidney beans (which is what I should have done in the first place).

    • I tried this recipe today, adding about 7.5 cps chicken broth. I soaked the beans overnight and drained them. I had a cup of homemade salsa, a green pepper and a red one diced. I added a pound of ground beef to it. The end flavor was good but too much like soup. I decided to take a chance and added a can of Chipotle peppers in Adobe sause. I added uncooked rice to it, maybe a 1/2 cup and it came out perfect! Is this still chili? Great with cheddar on top.

  5. Spicy & perfect! I did not have the jarred red pepper so I subbed in a diced sweet potato.






  6. Oh my gosh! I had a hankering for black bean chili, so I did a Google search and found this recipe. I had two 15 ounce cans of black beans, an 8 ounce jar of salsa verde that I bought at a farmer’s market that expired in 2019 (I’m embarrassed to say that I forgot about it ) and a can of diced tomatoes, so I decided to half the recipe and chose the stovetop version due to lack of time (I was huuuungry). I didn’t have red peppers, but I don’t care for them anyway. I forgot to half the can of tomatoes and put the whole can in (I was wondering why I didnt need to add more water to make it brothier, and then it dawned on me). I topped it with sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese. I had to add more salt to my taste, but I am posting this because I am so satisfied. It was DELICIOUS! (and at the time of posting, I am not sick from the expired salsa verde ?) Having the 3 cooking options along with dried or canned black bean options, was a much needed bonus. Thank you so much!






  7. Great recipe, we used the crockpot and it went together perfectly, my only concern, is cooking on high for 6-8 hours, did you mean 6-8 hours on low heat, I checked the Chili after 4 hours on high & it was done perfect, thinking 6-8 hours would have overcooked. Thanks Terry Wynter

  8. This recipe is amazing! I’ve made it a dozen times and I recommend it to anyone who will listen. I must confess I make a non-vegan version with chicken stock and ground chicken. I don’t say this to offend the author or readers, but merely to share that it is a versatile recipe. When we gave up red meat, my husband and I thought we’d never enjoy a bowl of chili again. This is better than any chili we had in the old days! Thank you for posting.






  9. Such a yum recipe. My husband has said, “restaurant quality,” “could eat this every night,” “best chili ever.” Since I agree with all of that, I don’t think he’s just blowing smoke. This is going to gross out purists, but I add some ketchup to thicken and it is so fine!

  10. I have used your recipe for years even before switching to Whole Food Plant Based diet. I have shared it with many people and even prepared it and brought it to someone who was sick. It’s easy to make and tastes great. I make it in the crockpot, but I prefer to soak my beans overnight as black beans are hard.






  11. The flavors were spot on, but the cooking time for stovetop needs to be increased. At an hour, some of my beans were stiff. I used chicken broth and added browned, ground turkey, and adobo chili powder.

  12. Uh-oh. The recipe title says “Black Bean Chili” and then proceeds to call it a “soup”. I hope I don’t have to cook it down to a mush to get chili consistency. Chili Soup and Chili are two different things.

  13. I have tripled this recipe on at least eight or nine occasions for meal prep, it’s so incredibly versatile and healthy. Love the flavor and truly appreciate all the work you’ve put into these recipes. I’m not on Instagram but wanted you to know how appreciated you are.






  14. I tried the recipe today in the instant pot, having soaked dry black beans overnight. The batch came out far too wartery, and I only added six cups of water, out of the 6-8 cups recommended. I’m soaking some kidney beans to cook with the soup tomorrow with the hope of making the mixture into chili. We’ll see how it turns out.

  15. This was great! In the instant pot, subbed some black eyed peas for some of the beans since I didn’t have enough black beans. No biggie, worked great. I served it over potatoes so I reduced it a bit and added diced carrots for some additional vegetables. So yummy! Hit with hubbie and the kids.

    Thanks!

  16. Good god. What a delicious recipe! I am not a vegetarian or a vegan but this is probably one of the best chilies I’ve ever had in my life. I followed the recipe exact except added a little more garlic and some cayenne and adobo chipotle peppers. After the cooking time I pull the Insta pot to the stove and let it reduce to my desired liking. I put sliced jalapeños cilantro green onions on top.
    I have never had a recipe fail on this website, and I’ve made about 20 of them.
    Thank you so much for this!






  17. Love love love this recipe! Fav black bean chili ever! A recommendation to add to the notes, if you are using canned beans in the crockpot you need at least 2-3 cups less water/broth. It’s much too soupy with canned beans and the standard cups of water listed. Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe!

  18. NEVER NEVER EVER PUT DRY BEANS IN A CROCK POT…FOOD POISONING!
    READ UP PHA
    MY BE SIAKED OVERNIGHT THEN COOKED TO 212 DEGREES FOR 30 MINUTES

  19. I have been using this recipe for a few years now. It is always a hit! I just noticed that you no longer list the instructions for cooking this in a crockpot/slow cooker. I have always followed that way of cooking this recipe, on high for 8 hours using 6 cups of liquid. and have great results.






  20. Followed the instant pot directions precisely. Love the flavor. But yes, definitely more of a soup than the thickness I expect from a chili. And, mine looked nothing like the photos. It was far more pale and watery. I ended up adding a can of beans and letting it cook down a little more. The family enjoyed it. Though, it was almost too spicy. Perhaps my chipotle chili powder is a stronger one. I will try it again with a couple of tweaks. Thanks!






  21. Won 2nd place in a church chili cook-off competition with this yummy recipe! I think 8oz of the salsa verde could be enough. I added 2 tablespoons of brown sugar at the end to counteract the sourness the 16 oz seemed to produce.






  22. Tastes great- smoky, hot and satisfying. Best veggie chili I’ve ever made. Course it’s all about the Salsa. Making another batch tomorrow and trying it with red chipotle salsa.