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Smoky Lentil Black Bean Chili is a hearty and healthy meal. Seasoned with jalapeño and smoky paprika, a bowl of this easy lentil chili makes the perfect comfort meal on a chilly winter day! It’s a simple recipe you can make ahead of time to serve for busy weeknights.
Yes, I’m all about the healthy, but I also enjoy hearty meals that check all the boxes nutritionally while remaining satisfying enough so you don’t feel deprived. This hearty chili does exactly that and is perfect for keeping you warm on cooler nights and throughout the winter.
This vegan lentil chili is a spin-off my slow cooker vegetarian black bean chili. It’s made with zucchini in place of the lentils if you want a vegetarian chili that’s a bit different.
This black bean and lentil chili has a bit of kick so if you’re sensitive to spicy foods, I recommend you omit the jalapeño and stick with the smoky paprika.
Why I Love Black Bean Lentil Chili
- Healthy Vegetarian Lentil Chili with Black Beans. That’s actually also gluten-free, vegan, low-calorie, and dairy-free! It’s suitable for so many different diets and even a meatless chili that your most ardent meat eater will enjoy too! Need more vegetarian recipes? Try this Italian vegetarian lasagna recipe!
- Hearty and Filling One Pot Meal. This healthy lentil chili makes the perfect comforting winter meal. It’s basically an entire meal in one bowl!
- Easy to Make! Lentil black bean chili cooks in about an hour. Most of the cooking is hands-off making it perfect for meal prep or busy weeknight dinners.
Ingredients You Need
This lentil black bean chili recipe relies on a handful of store-bought ingredients to save you some time in the kitchen. The list of simple ingredients is easy to find in just about any grocery store. Be sure to check the recipe card for the full list and quantities of each.
- Veggies and aromatics: White onion, carrots, and garlic lay the foundation of flavors in this lentil chili recipe.
- Jalapeño pepper: Fresh diced jalapeño adds just a hint of spice to your chili.
- Vegetable broth: A bit of liquid to cook the lentils and thin out the chili.
- Lentils: Lentils cook quickly making them perfect to cook from dried for meals. Use green or brown lentils which hold their shape when cooked.
- Black beans: This recipe cooks quickly using canned black beans that are already cooked.
- Tomatoes: Tomato paste adds intense tomato flavor and the diced fire-roasted tomatoes will add hints of smokiness and a bit more chunkiness to the chili.
- Spices: A simple combination of dried spices including chili powder, smoked paprika, cumin, and cayenne pepper increases the complexity of flavors in this vegetarian chili recipe.
Substitutions and Variations
- Use Other Types of Beans for Chili! Canned beans work best since you don’t have to cook them. Red beans, white beans, pinto beans, and chickpeas are just a few ideas of beans you can use.
- Fire Roasted Tomatoes: This variety of canned tomatoes adds a punch of flavor so I highly recommend them but you can also use plain diced tomatoes as well.
- Less Spicy: Leave out the jalapeño or swap it for mild green chilies instead.
How to Make Black Bean Lentil Chili
This lentil black bean chili goes together in just a few simple steps. There’s a little work at the start and then the remaining time the chili cooks on its own.
- Step 1: Cook the carrots, onions, and jalapeños in oil until the onion is tender. Add the garlic and cook a few minutes longer. Add the cumin, paprika, chili powder, cayenne, and salt. Cook until the spices are fragrant.
- Step 2: Add the vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and lentils to the pot. Stir everything together and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook the chili covered at a simmer for 20 minutes.
- Step 3: Add the black beans and cook another 10 minutes.
- Step 4: Serve bowls of black bean and lentil chili with your favorite toppings.
What to Make With Chili
Not sure what to serve with your bowl of chili for dinner tonight? Here are some of my favorite recommendations.
- Add Some Toppings: Nothing makes chili better than adding yummy toppings! For a family dinner or a group, place a variety of toppings in bowls and let everyone top their own bowl. Some ideas — plain nonfat Greek yogurt, cilantro, more jalapeño slices, or baked tortilla strips.
- Other Ways to Use It: Serve it up over a bowl of cauliflower rice, baked potatoes, or tortilla chips!
- Cornbread: A classic chili side! Try my pumpkin cornbread muffins or this almond flour cornbread.
How to Store
Wondering how long is chili good for? Here are the details for storing it so it lasts the longest.
- Refrigerate: Allow the chili to cool down. Place it into an airtight container and store it in the fridge for up to four days.
- Freezer: After the chili is cooled store it in freezer-safe containers for storage. For smaller households, store it in individual or smaller-sized servings so you only need to take out the amount you need for serving. It will last in the freezer for up to three months.
- Reheat: If it’s frozen, allow it to thaw in the fridge overnight. Heat it in a saucepan over medium heat until heated through. You may need to add a bit more liquid if it thickens during storage. You can also heat individual servings in the microwave.
Expert Tips and Recipe FAQs
- Adjust the Flavors. You can adjust the spices and jalapeño to your own tastes. The jalapeño doesn’t make it overly spicy but you can leave it out if you are super sensitive to spiciness or serving children.
- Perfect for Meal Prep. So feel free to make a large batch! It stores and reheats great.
Kidney beans are the classic bean but you can use just about any type of bean in chili including black beans, red beans, white beans, garbanzo beans, and pinto beans.
Yes, you can! If you prefer to make this into a lentil chili simply replace the canned beans with another cup of lentils and increase the liquid to six cups. Then you can adjust at the end if you want a thinner chili.
This lentil black bean chili cooks up pretty thick. If you want it to have a soupier consistency you can add some more broth towards the end of cooking to achieve the consistency you prefer. If it ends up too thin, allow the chili to cook uncovered so some of the liquid evaporates. Alternatively, you can thicken it with some flour or cornstarch mixed with water.
More Chili Recipes
If you tried this Smoky Black Bean Lentil Chili or any other recipe on my website, please please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you go in the 📝 comments below.
Smoky Black Bean Lentil Chili
Ingredients
- ½ white onion, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 1 jalapeño pepper, ribs and seed removed, diced
- 2 tablespoons garlic, minced
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup lentils
- 30 oz black beans
- 12 oz tomato paste
- 56 oz diced fire roasted tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Salt to taste
- Optional toppings: plain nonfat Greek yogurt, cilantro, more jalapeño slices
Instructions
- Heat a large pot over medium heat, add oil, carrots, onions and jalapeños.
- Cook until onion are tender about 5 minutes then add garlic allow to cook 1-2 minutes. Add cumin, paprika, chili powder, cayenne and salt
- When the spices become fragrant, add vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, tomato paste and lentils. Stir to combine then bring to a boil
- Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium low, cover and simmer 20 minutes
- Remove cover, add black beans and cook another 10 minutes. Serve immediately and add optional toppings as desired.
- Refrigerate up to one week or freeze up to 3 months.
Notes
- My Amazon shop has more products similar to those used for this recipe and that I recommend to my nutrition clients.
- Adjust the Flavors. You can adjust the spices and jalapeño to your own tastes. The jalapeño doesn’t make it overly spicy but you can leave it out if you are super sensitive to spiciness or serving children.
- Perfect for Meal Prep. So feel free to make a large batch! It stores and reheats great.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This recipe was originally published December 2015. It has been re-tested and photographed for you!
Do you drain the black beans?
Hi! Yes, it is always good to drain and rinse the beans before cooking.
Hi Megan… This looks absolutely delish! I see it serves 8, do you happen to know approximately what those 8 servings are each?
No, I portion mine evenly into plastic containers. Maybe 1 or 1 1/2 cups each.
Made this for Meatless Monday last night. It was so good! Easy to make, too! Our timing was a little longer. I think the lentils took almost 40 minutes before they were cooked. Great flavor and will definitely be repeating it! Thanks!
Yeah! It’s one of my favorites dishes. Thanks for letting me know Kelli!
Oh yum! This sounds perfect for a cold winter day! Thanks for sharing on Marvelous in my Monday 🙂
Welcome! Glad you like it.
I was JUST talking to Lucie about the need to chili. It’s cold and rainy. In San Deigo. Blech.
It’s crazy cold in Phoenix this week too. Supposed to warm up by the end of the week though. My parents were joking that it’s been colder here than in Wisconsin. Guess I should have made the trip there this year.
It sounds like you had a nice holiday! I’m excited to see those cookies too. I have a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe for the holidays made with half quinoa flour but other than that, they’re not very healthy.
This chili looks like the perfect meal to ring in a healthy new year with. It got super cold here all of sudden so this looks like heaven to me right about now! 🙂
Would you believe I didn’t write the recipe down? Now I have to make them again to be sure the ingredients are what’s in my head. I’m so bad at that!
Sounds like an awesome present for your parents and being from MN I know how serious fellow neighbors get about their Packers. 😉
The holidays here seem to be a week long to almost 2 week sometimes food feast and my body just can’t wait to get back on track. More sugar than usual, treats, and things I don’t usually consume along with the alcohol, lots of coffee, and crazy schedules I start to really really feel it. We host Christmas and usually a New Years party so there is usually a lot of leftover food that needs to get eaten. Luckily this year lots and lots of veggies and fresh fruit but there is a lot of cheese, crackers, carbs, cookies, and treats too.
Love spicy food, my tummy doesn’t handle it as well as it use to but I still try to push the limits! This looks delicious and so warm and comforting! With the snow coming down right now this may have to be on the schedule tomorrow.
I know what you mean about eating so many sweets the week of Christmas and sometimes it follows into the week of New Years too. It always good to get back to fresh and whole foods to balance things out. You can always eliminate the jalapeño in this and it would be equally delicious!
This looks so yummy! Love the bowl, too!
I seriously crave chili at this time of the year, so I’m definitely keeping this recipe in mind. And pinning it, obviously. 😉
Hey girl! It’s so cold, food is the only way to warm up other than a good workout. Hope you had a good holiday!
Wow I love using lentils in the stew. I would pick lentils over zucchini any day. I am going to have to try it.
Let me know if you do Nicole!