Vegetarian chili with orange and cinnamon

Bright and cozy vegetarian chili recipe! You will love the unexpected flavor of this hearty bean chili with orange and cinnamon.

Course dinner, Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword chilli, gluten free, vegan, vegetarian

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 30

Total Time 40

Servings servings

Calories 415kcal

1 large navel orange
3 Tablespoons olive oil or avocado oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
5 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 medium poblano peppers, diced
1 medium serrano pepper, minced
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
4 teaspoons chile powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ cup tomato paste
1 15 oz can crushed tomatoes
2 15 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups water
For serving: fresh cilantro, orange slices or additional orange zest, sliced radish

Zest and juice the entire orange, keeping the zest and juice separate. You should have about ⅓ cup of orange juice. Set aside.
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 fragrant, about 1 minute. Add all the peppers and saute until fragrant, about another minute. Add the next 4 spices, through oregano and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Stir in the tomato paste until combined. Add the crushed tomatoes, all the beans, the water, one teaspoon of the orange zest, and all of the orange juice. Reduce heat to simmer and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and let cool for a couple of minutes. The chili will thicken a bit as it cools. Taste and season to your liking with salt and pepper. Add more orange zest if desired.
Serve with fresh cilantro, sliced radish, the remaining orange zest and/or orange slices. (optional)

The black beans and kidney beans can be swapped for almost any type of bean. Try pinto beans, white beans, or even chickpeas if that's what you have.
If you want to cook dry beans, you'll need 1 ½ cups for each can. So for this recipe, swap the two cans of black beans for 3 cups of cooked beans. Swap the can of kidney beans for 1 ½ cups of cooked beans.
You should yield about ⅓ cup of orange juice from one navel orange. You can use unsweetened bottled orange juice if needed but a lot of the flavor comes from the orange zest.
Omit the serrano for a less spicy chili. Or swap the serrano for a jalapeno for a slightly less spicy chili.
I use mild chile powder in this recipe, but feel to free to use whatever chile powder you like. Ancho chile powder would be amazing!
If you can't find poblano peppers, swap those out for anaheim peppers (hatch chiles) or green peppers.