Vegan cranberry chili with cinnamon and cocoa recipe! A warming, cozy fall or winter dinner the whole family will love.
OK. I know this may be like, the WEIRDEST chili you've ever seen. Right?
Buuuut, I've got a wee obsession with cranberries. Far and away my fave fall produce. So tart, so tangy, so festive, and quite a bit more versatile than most people realize.
Ummm.... I promise this isn't an ad for cranberries. I just love love love them. Have you tried adding them to savory dishes? Or eating them without all that added sugar? YOU SHOULD! You could add them to fall roasted squash or toss them in a smoothie.
Check out this list of the ten best vegetarian chili recipes!
If you watched my Instagram stories, you know that this chili was a total experiment that ended up awesome. I based it off of the orange chili that I made last winter. I had no idea if cranberries would work in chili, and ended up going a little cray and tossing in a bunch of cinnamon and cocoa powder. I was thinking sort of like mole. That makes sense, right? ?
But it works! The cranberries totally balance out all those rich beans and the cinnamon and cocoa powder make a sweet and spicy bowl of comfort! Don't worry, there aren't enough cranberries in here for it to be super cranberry-y. Just enough to get a bit of tartness mixed with sweetness mixed with spiciness. YUMYUMYUMYUM!
Here's our list of the best cranberry recipes that aren't cranberry sauce!
Recipe
Cranberry chili with cinnamon and cocoa
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 medium poblano peppers, diced
- 1 medium serrano pepper, diced remove seeds for less heat
- 1 medium red bell pepper, diced
- 1 medium hatch chile, diced
- 4 teaspoon chile powder
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ cup dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 1 15oz can crushed tomatoes
- 2 15oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 15oz can great northern beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
- 2 cups water
- salt and pepper
- For serving: fresh cilantro, sliced radish
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a medium sized dutch oven or soup pot over medium to medium-high heat. Add the onion and saute until starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute until frangrant, about 1 minute. Add all the peppers and saute until fragrant, about another minute. Add the next 4 ingredients, through cocoa and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in the brown sugar and tomato paste until combined. Add the crushed tomatoes, all the beans, the cranberries, and the water. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and simmer uncovered for 20-30 minutes, or until cranberries have burst.
- Remove from heat and let cool for a couple of minutes. The chili will thicken a bit. Serve with fresh cilantro and sliced radish. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Alright. What do you think? Will you make this?
Trish
P.S. Want to see what I’m cooking up this week? Check out my Instagram stories!
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PINNABLE IMAGES:
Lydia
I just made this and the flavors are all great! I'll be cutting the sugar in at least half when I make it for a neighborhood get together. It's quite sweet, and though I don't dislike it I think it might be too sweet for some people. Looking at other cranberry chili recipes they call for only 1 or 2 tablespoons of dark brown sugar. Also, after the cranberries burst I gathered them all with a bit of the liquid and put them in the blender so you get the cranberry flavor without the surprise of an actual cranberry. Again, just trying to make it more of a typical chili 🙂 You really don't get forward flavors of chocolate or cinnamon, but I think they deepen everything!
Eylul
Thank you for the recipe! Do you think we can substitute fresh cranberries with dried ones? Fresh ones are not so easy to find as dried ones here.
Thank you!
Trish Bozeman
I haven't tested the recipe that way, but it should work! Be sure to choose unsweetened cranberries.
Anne
I made this tonight... and it is SO good!!
When I was making it, I was skeptical. Cocoa powder.. cranberries.. tomatoes.. cilantro.. it just didn’t go together. But it works!!
We added Beyond Meat Ground plant-based meat (still vegan) and its delicious! Makes it even heartier.
Highly recommend 🙂
Katie
Made this few years ago and I was so good!! I noticed the flavor really picked up when you ate it with cilantro. Thanks for the recipe!
Trish Bozeman
Oh thank you! So glad you liked it, Katie!