We sampled eight brands of vegetarian canned chili. here’s our favorite

Chili peppers are comforting and versatile. During the fall and winter, a big bowl of chili with cornbread and whipped honey butter is a frequent dinner in my household. I make different versions depending on what I have on hand. If you have beef shoulder in the freezer, take the time to make Texas-style chili con carne. If you have chicken, choose chile verde or white chile. If you have a bag of dry beans to use up from your Rancho Gordo subscription, make a hearty vegetarian chili. Making chili peppers isn’t difficult, but it can be time-consuming. If you’ve always wanted to eat something but didn’t have the time or energy to make it, you’ve probably reached for canned food.

As a follow-up to my meaty canned chili taste test, I decided to sample vegetarian canned chili to see which brands were worth buying. Our editors sampled eight brands you’re likely to find at your local grocery store or online. I heated each chili pepper according to package directions and sampled them at random, not knowing which one was which. After eating spoonfuls of chili over and over again, we tallied up the results and came up with an overall winner and one worthy candidate who we’d be happy to lend a helping hand to in a pinch.

standard

Vegetarian chili should be hearty and have a deep, round chili flavor with spicy, smoky, and fruity notes. It should be soft but not mushy and filled with well-seasoned beans. As former Serious Eats editor Kenji writes in his recipe for the best vegetarian bean chili, “a wonderfully balanced bowl of chili” should have “a complex flavor profile that’s both high and low, mild and hot.” Maybe I’m expecting too much from canned chili…but you can dream, right?

overall winner

Trader Joe’s Organic Vegetarian Chili

Most of our editors agreed that this chili pepper had a lot of potential, but needed some help to overcome its bland (some would say “bland”) flavor profile. “It’s great gobbling it up with cilantro, sour cream, and hot sauce,” says Lila, assistant food editor. Similarly, Editorial Director Daniel writes, “Needs some salt, but you can add it. Overall, it’s not bad.” Our associate editorial director Megan thought it was “decent, very mild, but tastes like chili” and found the fake meat pieces “very convincing, which is both good and disconcerting at the same time.” Our Associate Visual Director, Amanda, praised its balanced flavor profile.

runner-up

Heyday Pinto & Black Bean Mole Chili

Kelly, our former senior social media editor, was a big fan of this chili pepper. “It has a rich, deep flavor, like real dried chili peppers,” she wrote. Almost all tasters noted the sweetness of the chili and the chocolate aroma. “I like sweetness, but there’s a limit to how sweet it can be,” Amanda said. Both Daniel and Laila were blown away by the chocolate. “Some spices don’t look like chili peppers,” Megan wrote. That said, it tastes good. The editors were divided on the taste of this chili pepper, but all agreed that the rich texture of the chili pepper was enjoyable.

Contenders

• Amy’s Vegan Medium Chili
• Gardein Vegetable Chili and Beans
• Heyday Bean Mall Chili
• Hormel Vegetarian Chili and Beans
• Pacific Foods Organic Harvest Black Bean Chili
• PlantStrong Organic Engine 2 Firehouse Chili
• Trader Joe’s Organic Vegetarian Chili
• With unmeat chili beans

Key points and conclusions

Most canned vegetarian chili consists of similar ingredients. Some form of textured vegetable protein (TVP, a common meat substitute). Onions. water or vegetable soup. Spices and seasonings such as smoked paprika, cumin, chili powder, and oregano. And tomatoes. Many products also contain thickeners or stabilizers (usually corn starch, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, etc.) along with yeast extract, caramel coloring, and citric acid. Yeast extract is often used to give products more complexity and depth of flavor. Caramel dye is used for coloring. Citric acid provides acidity and helps preserve color.

Of all the canned chilis we sampled, our winner, Trader Joe’s Organic Vegetarian Chili, has the shortest ingredient list. Contains no sugar, yeast extract, caramel color, citric acid, or xanthan gum. Meanwhile, the runner-up Heyday Bean Mole Chili contains both yeast extract and citric acid. The sweetness our tasters detected can be attributed to the combination of coconut sugar, prune puree, and prune powder. These ingredients are not found in regular chili peppers. Another unexpected ingredient? Tahini may have been incorporated to give the chili pepper a rich nutty flavor and depth.

Canned vegetarian chili is definitely convenient, and in a pinch I’ll always reach for one of these brands. But for truly complex and deep chili peppers, it’s best to make your own.

How we test

All taste tests are conducted with the brand completely hidden and without discussion. Tasters taste samples in random order. For example, taster A tastes sample 1 first and taster B tastes sample 6 first. This is to prevent taste fatigue from unfairly favoring one sample. Tasters are asked to fill out a tasting sheet and rank the samples according to a variety of criteria. All data is tabulated and results are calculated without editorial input to ensure the fairest possible representation of actual results.