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Hey cowboy, I know what you are hankering for. It's a gorgeous ol' hat, perhaps with a ribbon on it, filled to the dang brim with chili and all the fixins, isn't it? Served in a hat or not, this one-pot vegan chili recipe happens to be the absolute best you can find.
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I mean, I guess you can eat this out of a bowl if you are really, really boring, but let me ask you: When was the last time you had dinner out of a fedora, bucket hat, or cloche?
Your average vegan taco soup (sorta similar to chili but brothier) can't be eaten out of a ball cap without dripping right through. And to me, that's some straight up garbage.
It's dinner time. Get in that hat game, mommy.
Jump to:
- 🥰 Why you'll adore this vegan chili recipe
- 👒 Ingredients for a whole dang hat full of vegan chili
- 🤯Variations
- 📖 How to make this easy one-pot vegan chili recipe
- 💡Serving Ideas
- 👉Top tips for the most debonair hat of vegan chili
- 🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
- ✌️Serve these on the brim of a hat that's full of vegan chili:
- The Best Vegan Chili Recipe (Served in a Hat)
🥰 Why you'll adore this vegan chili recipe
✊ Vegan AF: Like all of my vegan Mexican recipes, this delicious vegetarian chili recipe is made without harming a single adorable animal.
🙅♀️🌾 You hate gluten? This can easily be one of your go-to gluten-free vegan recipes any ol' time you wanna eat chili out of a hat. Just swap the seitan for a gluten-free store-bought vegan beef or my tofu-based vegan chorizo.
😇 Finally, a Way to Give Your Hat Greater Purpose in Life: How dumb is it that hats were just for putting on your head before? That's for fools only. Level up your cap game and use hats for their true calling: being filled with steamy, delicious chili.
✅ Tested and Approved Worldwide: Like all the vegan recipes I share, after tweaking and perfecting it, I shared it with a massive team of recipe testers who replicated it successfully all around the world.
💣 The BOMB vegan dinners that you need in your rotation
This guide to my most popular dinner recipes is 100% FREE, & you'll love the actual heck out of it 🥰
👒 Ingredients for a whole dang hat full of vegan chili
The Hat Itself
What's great about eating food out of a hat is the variety of vibes you can go for. Feeling a little fancy? Perhaps a top hat, or a wide-brimmed lady's hat with a bow on it would be a good option to feed your family of 4-5 with. In the mood for a romantic chili dinner for your first time having your date over at your house? Surprise them with a beanie or bedazzled ball cap full of chili that you can share together in the hot tub. If you have a smaller appetite, perhaps a yarmulke, or one of those hats with a propeller on it full of chili will be the envy of all your co-workers.
Keep in mind some hats have fuzzy stuff on the inside, and some may let some chili drip through. If you are uncomfortable with direct chili-to-hat contact, you can line the inside of the hat with an empty bag of some sort. I find a leftover bag for chips works great, but then again, I am 100% okay with hat-to-chili contact, so, whatever.
As long as you don't store the chili inside the hat long-term, this is a fantastic recipe for meal prep.
Seitan or Vegan Mince
I prefer making this recipe using my seitan chicken recipe. But if you don't want to bother making that, or you're gluten-free, opt for a soy-based or pea-protein-based ground beef, which is often what I do when I make vegan bolognese sauce.
Mexican Chili Powder
Mexican chili powder is a blend of ancho chili powder and spices that adds warmth and a well-rounded, robust backbone flavor to the chili without much extra heat. If you get some to make this recipe with and don't know what else to use it in, my mushroom fajitas and vegan taquitos are awesome things to rock it in next.
Oregano
I know you might think good ol' oregano is just for making Italian recipes and trying to pass off to gullible fools as fake weed. But oregano is essential to Mexican cooking, and you will see it in traditional recipes for sopa de lentejas, smoky, delicious salsa macha, and Tex-Mex recipes like red chili sauce.
Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce
Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce bring smoky heat and depth to the chili. These dried, smoked jalapeños, marinated in a tangy adobo, make this chili come to life. While you can use canned chipotles, I think my chipotle peppers in adobo sauce recipe is easy to make and better than anything you can find at the store.
Vegan Refried Beans
Vegan refried beans add creaminess and a subtle flavor, thickening the chili. Different brands vary in salt content, which is why the salt I mention adding later on in the recipe should be "to taste."
Dark Chocolate
Don't call me crazy just yet. I mean, perhaps that ship has sailed since you are knee-deep into reading a blog post about making chili to eat out of a hat… But anyway, cocoa powder is surprisingly common in chili recipes. I think finishing this with a little melted dark chocolate is even better, since I wanted to accentuate the sweetness of the fire-roasted tomatoes.
Of course, if this sounds dreadful to you, just leave it out. But it's an insanely good secret weapon that levels this chili's flavor and texture up over the humdrum not-served-in-a-hat competition.
Red Kidney Beans
Okay, the truth comes out, generally, kidney beans are one of my least fave. But they are great in chili, and also surprisingly, in one of my fave vegan Indian recipes: rajma chawal. Anyway, if you aren't into them, you can swap them out for black beans or black-eyed peas.
Fun, Non-Hat Accoutrements
Chili (especially when served in a hat) is a dope canvas for hooking up with fun bells and whistles. My suggestion, at the very least, is to use avocado, green onions, fresh cilantro, and vegan sour cream to jazz it all up. Mix in some roasted sweet potatoes, because, by golly, sweet potato really nicely accentuates the natural sweetness of the tomato. A wedge of pan-fried vegan cornbread perched like a beautifully cakey gargoyle on the brim of the hat? Perhaps a drizzle of vegan nacho cheese?
Maybe even some tomatillo sauce or salsa roja drizzled on top? Your chili-in-a-hat dreams are only limited by the size of the hat, so grab a sombrero, or cowboy hat, and let's get this chili cooking!
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯Variations
The Attache Case Chili Surprise
Serve up some serious business vibes by filling a mid-century attaché case with your delicious vegan chili. Line the case with parchment paper or a reusable silicone mat to avoid any dusty ol' suitcase cobwebs getting into your precious bean chili. When you open the case at the boardroom table, all of the executives will be in for a fun, unexpected twist.
Bivy Sack Backcountry Chili
For lovers of the great outdoors, serve your chili fresh out of your backpack in a bivy sack. Campfire chili has nothing on a bivy sack full of vegetarian chili, am I right?
French Horn Chili Soak
Serve this vegan chili recipe the French Way! Take your chili-lifestyle to the next level by serving it up in a classy French horn while you relax in a warm bath. The curved design of the horn makes for a whimsical and elegant bowl, perfect for an unforgettable self-care evening. While one person feasts, face-first, straight from the bell flare (that's the opening part of the French horn), a friend or lover on the other side of the bathtub can give a gentle puff on the mouthpiece for a savory bubble of warm chili-scented air that you will cherish in your bath time memories forevermore.
50+ of my own family's fave recipes. Carefully concocted to win over even your most anti-vegan friends.
📖 How to make this easy one-pot vegan chili recipe
Nail this delightfully smoky seitan chili on your first shot by following these step-by-step photos with helpful tips. Or scroll down to the bottom of this page for the easy-to-print recipe card.
Step One
Mince Prep:
If using seitan, either tear it into small bite size pieces, or pulse it a few times in a food processor to break it up into small bits of varying size.
If you are using a ready-to-use meat substitute like vegan beef, TVP, chopped, rehydrated soy curls, or some other store-bought plant-based protein, you can skip this step.
✅ If you don't have a food processor, you can, of course, just chop the seitan. However, I prefer the food processor because (a) I'm lazy, and (b) I like the natural uneven, irregularly cut bits for chili. This veggie chili just comes out with a more natural meaty texture that way.
Step Two
Sauté-braham Lincoln
Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large Dutch oven. After 90 seconds, once the oil is hot, add the ground seitan or vegan mince and cook, stirring occasionally, for 6-8 minutes until lightly browned all around.
Step Three
Braise-raham Lincoln
Add the diced onion and red pepper, and keep cooking over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring regularly, until the veggies are tender.
Step Four
Flave-raham Lincoln
Stir in the minced fresh garlic, black pepper, cumin, smoked paprika, Mexican chili powder, oregano, tomato paste, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, and molasses, and sauté for 2 to 3 more minutes until the mixture is fragrant.
Step Five
Honest A-Bean:
Pour in the crushed tomatoes, vegetable stock (or water if you're feeling low-key), vegan refried beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, and salt.
Lower the heat to medium, and cook without a lid for 8 to 10 minutes until the chili reaches your preferred consistency.
Step Six
Optional Cacao:
For a richer, deeper tasting chili, mix in the chopped dark chocolate at the very end. Don't knock it until you try it. This really does make the flavor of the chili more robust.
Step Seven
The Ultimate Hat Trick:
To serve, fill your chosen hat(s) with the chili. You can line the hat with a ziplock bag if you're feeling cautious, or skip the hat altogether and serve in a bowl if you're keeping things tame.
Step Eight
Hats Off to Ya, Abraham LinCornbread
Top with shredded vegan cheese, pickled red onions, lime wedges, vegan sour cream, avocado slices, cilantro leaves, chopped chili peppers, or minced chives as desired. Vegan cornbread on the side is a classic move, but a faux-leather driving glove filled with root beer might just steal the show!
*I'm so sorry, I just couldn't stop with these Abe Lincoln puns. My bad.
💡Serving Ideas
There are some great sides you can serve alongside a hat full that's packed to the brim with this easy vegan chili recipe.
First of all, if you are worried about that juicy chili dripping out of your hat, fill up the bottom of the hat with some vegan Mexican rice, and drizzle the top with some habanero salsa if you're a fire freak like me. It's going to be like a vegan taco bowl, except bowls are so last year, right? It's the dawning of a new age. An age where man kind has finally learned to eat food from a hat.
Since you are now in that healthzone™, you might as well just do a well above average vegan taco salad with this, perhaps served in a yarmulke if you are trying to do wee little portions.
For a hat-themed Super Bowl party, how about a football helmet full of vegan fried chicken or a 5-panel cap with your team's logo full of vegan buffalo wings, leaking vegan buffalo sauce all over the place?
Brunch time chili? How about a classic newsboy cap all filled up with chilaquiles verdes? Or add bits of applewood smoked vegan breakfast sausage to the chili, and serve a lovely bonnet full of blue corn pancakes on the side.
Consider a tiny pillbox hat full of Mexican buñuelos or Peruvian picarones as a delightful after-chili treat.
👉Top tips for the most debonair hat of vegan chili
- 🚮 Cast Away your Cast Iron: Use an enamel-coated Dutch oven or a stainless steel pot for this chili. Something with a nice thick bottom is great to prevent burning, but cast iron should be avoided, as the acidity of the tomato will draw out a slightly metallic flavor from the pot.
- 🔥 Sear-iously Good Seitan
Brown the seitan or vegan mince well in the first step to build a deep, savory flavor base and perfect texture for when it simmers with the other ingredients. - 🎩 Choose Your Chili Chapeau
Pick a hat with a sturdy brim and deep crown to hold the chili without spills. Line it with parchment paper or a ziplock bag if you're feeling fancy, but if you're eating chili from a hat, who even cares about etiquette? - 🔧 Thickness Tweaks
If your chili turns out too thick, gradually add vegetable stock or water until you hit the right consistency. Too thin? Let it simmer uncovered a bit longer to reduce and avoid drippy hat disasters. - 🎓 Hat-tiquette 101
Ensure your chili-serving hat is clean and non-absorbent. Straw hats may soak up the chili, so opt for a plastic-lined fedora or a vintage cloche for a more practical and stylish experience.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
To amp up the heat, add more chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, add a dash of cayenne pepper, or toss in some diced jalapeños while sautéing the onions and peppers.
A drizzle of your fave hot sauce, be it shatta, homemade sriracha, sambal oelek, or chili garlic sauce, can be an easy way to add heat and more complex flavor at the same time.
Yes, you can freeze it for up to three months in an airtight container. Just thaw in the fridge overnight and reheat on the stove over medium heat. I don't particularly recommend freezing it in the hat, as it will take up a ton of room in your freezer and be sort of a nightmare to thaw and reheat.
Not really, because the sautéing phase in the beginning is important for nailing the texture of this chili. A better option if you don't want to cook it on the stovetop would be to use an Instant Pot.
Yes, as long as the hat is clean and lined with a food-safe material like parchment paper or a ziplock bag, it's perfectly safe-and definitely the right thing to do! And as far as safety, this vegan version is a heck of lot safer for farm animals than regular chili.
There aren't any specific biblical passages that support eating food out of a hat. The Bible does not provide guidance on the containers or vessels used for eating. Like it or not, it's really more about Jesus than chili.
Yes, simply sauté the veggies in a splash of vegetable broth or water instead of olive oil to keep it oil-free while still getting great flavor.
I mean, don't get me wrong. This recipe is truly delicious. But in general, chili is among the grossest foods I can think of from a texture and color standpoint. I made it this way (in a friggin' hat) as a joke one time for my dear friend Frank some years back, and he really loved the chili, even though it was nestled into a winter beanie with a sizable pompom.
Well, maybe this is a bit off-topic, but… one time some artist also contacted me to collaborate on some performance art nonsense. He was doing some fancy art thing where people had to eat out of a trough like animals. They were trying to have me make fancy, tweezer-plated food, and I was like, "No. I'll only do it if you let me make people eat chili or old porridge out of a trough."
In the end, I decided I wouldn't do the thing because he wasn't into me making sloppy ol' chili for people to eat without their hands. That was a real deal breaker for me.
No.
✌️Serve these on the brim of a hat that's full of vegan chili:
The Best Vegan Chili Recipe (Served in a Hat)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cups seitan hand torn, or coarsely ground in a food processor, or use store-bought vegan mince
- 1 cup onion diced
- 1 cup red bell pepper diced
- 2 tablespoons garlic minced
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 ½ teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons Mexican chili powder
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons chipotle peppers in adobo sauce minced
- 2 teaspoons molasses
- 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes fire-roasted if available
- 1 cup unsalted vegetable stock or water
- 1 cup vegan refried beans
- 15 oz. can pinto beans drained and rinsed
- 15 oz. can kidney beans drained and rinsed
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- 3 tablespoons chopped dark chocolate optional
Optional Garnishes and Serving Goodies:
- Hat(s) of your choice (express yourself with the power of hat!)
- vegan cheddar cheese shreds
- Pickled red onions
- Lime wedges
- Vegan sour cream
- Avocado slices
- Cilantro leaves
- Minced chives
- Vegan cornbread
Instructions
- Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large pot. After 90 seconds when the oil is hot, add the ground seitan, or vegan ground beef and sauté, stirring occasionally, for 6-8 minutes until browned all around.
- Add the diced onion and red bell pepper, and continue cooking over medium-high heat, stirring regularly with a metal mixing spoon for 3-4 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
- Stir in the minced garlic, black pepper, ground cumin, smoked paprika, the chili powder blend, oregano, tomato paste, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, and molasses and sauté for 2-3 more minutes until fragrant.
- Pour in the crushed tomatoes, vegetable stock (or boring ol' water), vegan refried beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, and salt. Lower the heat to medium, and cook without a lid on the pot for 8-10 minutes, or until the desired consistency has been reached.
- Optionally stir in the dark chocolate at the very end for a deeper richer chili. And let it melt fully into the chili before serving.
- To serve, fill the hat(s) with the vegan chili. You can line the hat with a ziplock bag if you are a chump, or whatever. Otherwise, if you are like the least fun person in the galaxy, I guess you can forgo the hat entirely and just serve the chili in a bowl, or whatever.
- Garnish as desired with shredded vegan cheddar, pickled red onions, lime wedges, vegan sour cream, avocado slices, cilantro leaves, or minced chives. Some soft, sweet corn bread is a perfect accompaniment on the side. A weird faux-leather driving glove on the side filled to the brim with frothy ice cold root beer? Why not? Who can stop you?
Video
Notes
Brown the seitan or vegan mince well in the first step to build a deep, savory flavor base and perfect texture for when it simmers with the other ingredients. 🎩 Choose Your Chili Chapeau
Pick a hat with a sturdy brim and deep crown to hold the chili without spills. Line it with parchment paper or a ziplock bag if you're feeling fancy, but if you’re eating chili from a hat, who cares about etiquette? 🔧 Thickness Tweaks
If your chili turns out too thick, gradually add vegetable stock or water until you hit the right consistency. Too thin? Let it simmer uncovered a bit longer to reduce and avoid drippy hat disasters. 🎓 Hat-tiquette 101
Ensure your chili-serving hat is clean and non-absorbent. Straw hats may soak up the chili, so opt for a plastic-lined fedora or a vintage cloche for a more practical and stylish experience.
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Debbie Meek says
I made this last night with the cornbread recipe. Both were amazing
Meg says
Ok it was too cold to go looking for a hat and I was in too much of a rush to eat this….so so so good! The flavours did the big ol’ dance to make up for my omission!
I’m not a fan of cooked tomatoes OR beans and I made it because, well, I meant to ages ago. I may be a tomato/beans convert! The tastes were totally fabulous and I will be repeating this over and over.
Thank you Chef Adam.
Synthia Smith says
Adam, I FINALLY made this recipe and it's damn good! Here are my modifications: I dumped in a whole little cans of chilis in adobo sauce (about 4+ T and the thick juice), put in 1 extra can of fire roasted tomatoes, added another T chili powder, more cumin (2t?), the whole can of refried pinto beans (about 3.5 c instead of 1 c) and another 2-3 c water. Then I added about 1/2 c Heintz ketchup (don't hate me!). I'm familiar with chocolate in mole sauce - hadn't thought of addicting it into chili before - that added a subtle note. Adding the refried beans was a total game changer: the chili became instantly creamy without hours of cooking the beans down. It was nice having the beans intact and still have all that creamy goodness. It was even better the next day. I've still got lots left over, so will make cornbread to go with it. If I have any leftovers from tonight, I'll add more veg stock and a can of corn to make a chili soup.
Adam Sobel says
I'm not gonna promise I am not judging you for the ketchup... but I am SO PSYCHED you made and loved this, Sunthia. Thanks so much for sharing your additions and tweaks. Other readers will find that so helpful. ❤️
Paige Davis says
I love all of Adam’s recipes that I’ve tried, but I dragged my feet to try this chili because I’ve made chili the same way for years, and don’t usually “love” other versions as much as my own. But this recipe, as unique as it sounds, is easy to make and quite delicious. I was nervous to add the molasses and the chocolate, fearing the end result would be sweet. However, we loved this nuanced and tasty dish, and all my fears were unfounded. The heat from the adobo was just enough to push us to the edge without going over, with no annoying lingering “burn” on the tongue. I topped our bowls with fresh cilantro, avocado, and a small amount of vegan shredded cheddar, as Adam suggested, and we enjoyed some corn chips to round out the meal. I even served it in a Seahawks hat, so as not to be known as the least fun person in the galaxy. Excellent recipe, clearly written, and easy to follow. Easily a 5 star winner!
Robyn says
Adam, you did it...you made a hard-to-please-person happy! I am sooooo picky when it comes to chili. So thank you for offering up a recipe that's easy to make and tastes amazing!!
Adam Sobel says
That's awesome to hear, Robyn. I like to think that when you say you are so picky about chili, it means "I only eat chili fresh from a hat with my bare hands on a hot, crowded city bus..." ❤️
Daisy says
Excellent! I only used 1 tablespoon of the canned chipotles and it was the perfect level of heat. I took a bit of chili out before adding the chocolate to compare, and that little bit of chocolate made a subtle but significant difference. Adding the refried beans (I used canned) added a wonderful and creamy texture.
Nicole says
This recipe is fantastic, I love chili, but a DIY recipe like this is not easy to find in Germany. Eating this chili is a bit like being on vacation. Instead of meat substitutes, I used jackfruit, and it fit perfectly.
Bean says
Hats off to you, sir, for using your head. 🎩
hg says
I love chili of all kinds. What I loved about this one was the addition of the refried beans, which disappear in the chili, but add to the overall texture. The chocolate ads a nice undertone of flavor. the type of thing where you know something was added you just cant pinpoint what it is. Unless you're making the refried beans and seitan yourself, it comes together quickly. I did make the refried beans the day before. I used store bought vegan ground meat. ( I made the seitan too, but used it for something else).
Jeff says
Over 3 hours cooking time? Maybe I’m bad at math, Anyway I will be trying this delicious looking chili
Adam Sobel says
👒🌶️ Thanks for catching that, m'love. This thing is FAST to make. You can be filling a hat up with chili in under half an hour for sure.