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My one-pot white chickpea chili is ready in just 30 minutes with mostly pantry staples! Packed with chickpeas for protein and so much of that classic white chili flavor, it’s a hearty and delicious bowl of cozy. Prep ahead freezer instructions included in recipe card notes!
Pair it with a simple Kale Salad, or go all out with some Jalapeno Poppers!
save this recipe!Of course, a classic vegetarian chili is delicious, but we love chickpeas around here. So, I’ve taken the classic flavors of white chicken chili and made it vegetarian and faster (by using canned chickpeas instead of chicken). Let’s cook!
- No Animal Protein to Cook: This might be self-explanatory, but for traditional white chili, you must cook the chicken first or break down a rotisserie chicken. This takes time and energy that chili with chickpeas doesn’t.
- Protein and Fiber: Chickpeas and navy beans are both rich in protein and fiber, and as a nutritionist, I’m always trying to sneak extra nutrients into our meals!
Reader rating
“I made this last night. It was so delicious, and easy! Wouldn’t change a thing. It’s in my cooking rotation now!” —Amy
Key ingredients
It might seem like there are a lot of ingredients in this chili, but you probably already have most of them in your kitchen. Jump down to the recipe card for exact measurements.
- Flavor Base: To start the chili, saute a yellow onion and garlic in olive oil. A white onion will work, too, but yellow onions are a bit sweeter.
- Spices: Uuse spices familiar to taco seasoning like cumin, smoked paprika, oregano, salt, and black pepper.
- Flour: To help thicken the chili. A 1:1 gluten-free flour will work, too!
- Vegetable Broth: I make my own with veggie scraps, but store-bought is a good time saver.
- Chickpeas and Navy Beans: I like navy beans because they are creamy, but any white bean will work.
- Corn & Green Chiles: I keep cans of each on hand so I can always make this chili in a pinch.
- Whole Milk: Whole milk has enough fat to help mellow out the heat while also allowing you to taste the flavor of the chiles. Milk with less fat can also curdle under the heat, so it’s important to use high-fat milk or cream.
Make it dairy-free
It’s uber important to use milk or cream with enough fat to withstand curdling during the cooking process. In this white chili with milk, you can use vegan heavy cream or vegan cream cheese (or regular if not dairy-free) in place of whole milk. You can also soak cashews, blend them, and then add them to your chili to make it creamy!
for Thicker chili
I like to simply blend some of the chili to thicken it! This releases the starches in the beans, thickening the chili without additional flour or cornstarch. You can do this with an immersion blender in the pot or take some out, blend, and then add it back to the pot.
Change it up
- Different Beans: Don’t stop at navy beans! You can use another white bean like cannellini beans or lupini beans. It’s also tasty with black beans!
- Add Extra Veggies: If you have wilting vegetables lying around – toss them in this white chili with beans! I like to use stiffer vegetables like cauliflower, kale, and carrots.
- Make It Vegan: You can keep this vegan by swapping whole milk with vegan heavy cream, blended cashews, or canned coconut milk. Coconut milk can have a strong flavor, but it’s tasty if you like coconut!
30-Minute White Chickpea Chili
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp olive oil, 15 mL
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- ⅓ cup flour
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp each smoked paprika, oregano, salt
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- 4 cups vegetable broth, 1 L
- 2 15-oz cans navy beans, or any white bean, drained, 425 g cans
- 2 15-oz cans chickpeas, drained, 425 g cans
- 1 15-oz can corn, drained, 425 g can
- 2 4-oz cans diced green chiles, I like to do 1 hot and 1 mild, 113 g cans
- 2 cups whole milk, 475 mL
- To serve: tortilla chips, shredded Monterrey jack cheese, diced avocado, cilantro
Instructions
- Flavor Base: Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large pot over medium heat, then add 1 medium yellow onion (diced), and 4 cloves garlic (minced). Cook until onion is soft, about 3 minutes.
- Season: Stir in ⅓ cup flour, 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp each smoked paprika, oregano, salt, and ½ tsp ground black pepper.
- Soup-ify: Stir in 4 cups vegetable broth, 2 15-oz cans navy beans (drained), 2 15-oz cans chickpeas (drained), 1 15-oz can corn (drained), and 2 4-oz cans diced green chiles (not drained). Cover and let simmer for at least 5 minutes, up to 30 minutes.
- Serve: Remove from heat. Optionally blend a little bit of the chili to create a thicker texture (either right in the pot with a handheld immersion blender, or by ladling about 2 cups into a countertop blender).Stir in 2 cups whole milk then serve with toppings like crushed tortilla chips, shredded Monterrey jack cheese, diced avocado, and cilantro!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information calculated by Sarah Bond, degreed nutritionist.
did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag @liveeatlearn on social media! I love seeing what you’ve made!Dump & Freeze
To make the meal prep-able dump and freeze version of this chili as described in the recipe notes, watch the video below!
I want to try this recipe, except for the garlic. People think I’m weird, but I detest it. Can’t stand the taste at all. What can I use instead? Any advice on eliminating or replacing it in this recipe, and others
P. S. I ordered the cookbook last week. Really looking forward to it!!!
So excited for you to try some recipes from the book! If you don’t like garlic in this recipe, I’d just omit it 🙂
I replace fresh garlic with minced celery and keep on hand a mixture of equal parts onion powder and ground celery seed that I substitute 1:1 for garlic powder
Quick and easy to make! It was a perfect winter meal. It makes a large amount, which is great. I can store some in the fridge for a couple of leftover meals and freeze some. I’ll definitely be making it again 🙂
Made this. It is delicious and so easy to freeze leftovers.
I would love to make this but living in Scotland it is very difficult to source tins of chills unless you buy them at prohibitive price online. Can you suggest an alternative thank you very much
Carolyn
HI Carolyn! You can swap canned green chilies with fresh roasted green peppers (like poblano or Anaheim), or even a bit of jalapeño if you like more heat. If you’re in a pinch, a small can of mild salsa verde or chopped bell peppers with a dash of hot sauce also works great.
I’d love to try this recipe! Quick question – to make it completely vegan, what would I substitute the whole milk with? Would unsweetened plain almond milk work? Or perhaps coconut milk? Thank you for all your awesome recipes! We love them in our little 2-person household 🙂
I would go with coconut milk or perhaps a cashew cream to make it nice and creamy. I’m so happy to hear that you’re loving the recipes. Happy eating!
I made this for my vegan pal using the following substitutions and it was INCREDIBLE. Absolutely going into the rotation:
1) use the fattiest plant milk I could find (oat milk in this case)
2) I was also nervous about how thin it was looking so I threw in a small amount of cornstarch slurry
3) tripled the spices (we like it spicy here)
Phenomenal recipe.
Yay! Thank you so much for letting us know how it went, especially with those substitutions. Happy eating!
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I have made this many times now. Absolutely delicious! I like to use fire roasted corn and also add hominy because I like more texture. This time I also added lentils and butter beans as I only had half the chickpeas the recipe called for. Always better the next day. Thank you!
Happy you enjoyed it, thanks for cooking with us Margo!
My family loved this! We put a dollop of Greek yogurt in each bowl, and it was so good.
so glad your family enjoyed it Christine, thanks for sharing!
This recipe is such a hit in our house, we have it once a week! It’s such an easy weeknight dinner and tastes SO GOOD!
Thrilled you loved it Kennedy, thanks for the review!
Excellent prepared as directed. Thanks!
My family loved this!
I’m so thrilled to hear it Sue! Happy eating!
We love this recipe!! We made a couple
changes. Chickpea flour and no milk but add a cup of vegan yogurt to make it more creamy. We eat this almost every two weeks. Thanks so much for the recipe.