Its a cold autumn day here in Melbourne but a beautiful one- you know those ones where the sky is blue and the sun is shining, but boy has the air has got a crisp bite to it. Hot tea has been my staple for the day, the fire is roaring and my slippers haven’t left my feet. All I’m craving is a big ol’ bowl of something comforting for lunch- I can hear our vegan smokey chilli beans calling my name, and you know what, I couldn’t be more excited I’ve had some stashed away in the freezer for an occasion just like this.
WHY WE LOVE OUR VEGAN SMOKEY CHILLI BEANS SO MUCH
- Ready from start to finish in under 40 minutes
- Naturally gluten and grain free, paleo friendly and refined sugar free
- Hearty and filling
- Nutritious
- Versatile
- Cheap
- Easy to make extras for tomorrow or the freezer
- Comforting
- Packed full of flavour
HERES WHAT YOULL NEED
- Red onion
- Capsicum
- Carrot
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Ground paprika, cumin, turmeric, dry oregano and chilli flakes
- Garlic
- Cherry tomatoes or tinned tomatoes
- Canned beans (or precooked beans)
- Tomato paste
- Kale
- Optional toppings- cashew sour cream, lime and coriander.
For the cashew sour cream
- Cashews
- Apple cider vinegar
- Lime
- Soy milk
- Salt
HERES HOW TO MAKE OUR VEGAN SMOKEY CHILLI BEANS
- DICE up your veggies and throw them in a pan with oil
- COMBINE your your spices, add to the pan with garlic
- ADD in your remaining ingredients
- COOK for 25 minutes
- PREPARE your cashew cream
- BLEND a small portion to create the best texture
- SERVE up your vegan chilli and enjoy!
See the recipe below for full details!
A FEW OTHER RECIPES YOU MIGHT LIKE TO TRY
- 20 minute cauliflower curry
- Vegan pasta bake. Spinach and feta shells
- Crispy sage pumpkin-cashew pasta
We hope you like our Vegan smokey chilli beans as much as we do, and therefor would love to give us a some feedback below. If you try this recipe please leave a review or a comment at the bottom of the page. Have a great day.

Homemade vegan smokey chilli beans
- Prep Time: 10 minutes (plus 2 hours soaking time)
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Mains
- Method: Cooked
- Cuisine: American
Description
Comforting vegan smokey chilli beans served with cashew sour cream. A nutritious, flavour packed, filling, gluten and grain free, paleo friendly, refined sugar free meal the whole fam will be sure to love.
Ingredients
- 2 red onions, finely diced
- 1 red capsicum, finely diced
- 2 medium carrots, diced
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tsp smoked paprkia
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1–2 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 3 cans of beans, drained (we use a mixture of black beans, kidney beans and white kidney beans) and rinsed well
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes tomatoes * (see notes)
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 2 cups water
- 1/2 bunch kale, stems removed and sliced
- To serve: rice, quinoa, bread or corn chips, sour cream, lime and coriander (highly recommend)
Sour cream
- 1 cup cashews, soaked for 2 hours
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 lime, juiced
- 1/4 cup almond milk*
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- CHILLI BEANS; Heat a large skillet over a medium flame. Once hot add oil and heat for 30 seconds, now adding onion and salt and sautéed for 3 mins or until the onion is tender. Next, add in capsicum and carrot and continue to cook for 5 minutes.
- Pour in spices and crushed garlic and cook for 1 minute- this helps to brown off the spices and improve flavour.
- Add drained beans, tomatoes, tomato paste and water and cook on low-medium for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. If at any stage you need to add a splash of water do so (you want the chilli to have a nice amount of sauce, it should not be dry).
- SOUR CREAM; While your chilli is cooking prepare the sour cream. Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and blend for 1 minute, or until completely smooth* (see notes)
- Finally, after the chilli beans have cooked for 20 minutes add in the kale and cook a further 5 minutes. At this point, we recommend blending around a 1/2 cup of the mixture to create the best texture. This is easiest to do with a stick blender- just use the stick blender to blend a few patches, and mix it all together. Alternatively, remove around 1/2 cup of the chilli beans and blitz in a blender. Pour the blended mix back into the skillet and mix through.
- Top with sour cream, extra lime juice and fresh coriander. Serve immediately with grain of choice, bread or corn chips.
Notes
*we used between 1/4-1/3 cup milk in this recipe, it just depends how you want the end consistency to be. Almond milk creates the best flavour, but you can sub for oat, rice or soy milk.
If you do not have cherry tomatoes, you can use 3-4 large ones, chopped or 2 cans of tinned tomatoes.
Loved these dish- was super quick to throw together and so tasty. Made it with sweet potato and spinach, as that is what I had.
Yum, what great ingredient subs. I love that you can use whatever veggies you have in this recipe.