This Pumpkin Quinoa Chili is a flavorful vegetarian chili recipe made in a slow cooker with simple ingredients.
It seems like every year for the past few years I've been creating a new quinoa chili recipe. It's not intentional, I just love chili. Like really, really love it!
Before going plant-based chili was not my cup of tea. I've never really enjoyed ground meat dishes so the idea of a ground meat chili just totally put me off. But now that I'm all about those beans, me and chili are besties all winter long.
Since I've shared some of the classic chili recipes already, this year I'm giving you a fun and delicious spin: a pumpkin quinoa chili that's made in the slow cooker!
Why You Should Add Quinoa to Your Chili
The idea of adding quinoa to chili might seem a little unusual at first, but it works really well. It adds a great texture and blends beautifully with the other ingredients.
Quinoa expands as it cooks and helps give the chili a thicker consistency. It also has a texture that’s somewhat similar to ground meat, which many people enjoy in hearty chili recipes.
If you’re serving someone who is unsure about quinoa or vegetarian meals, this chili is a great way to introduce it.
Making Quinoa Chili in the Slow Cooker
For me, slow cookers and quinoa chili go hand in hand. While you could certainly make this on the stove (or I imagine in a pressure cooker as well), what I like about the slow cookers is this:
- You can fix it and forget
- There's no hands-on time aside from chopping on your end
- The longer it cooks the more flavor is developed
So you can make this in the morning and when you get home from work, your kitchen will be smelling incredible!
The Ultimate Pumpkin Quinoa Chili
I honestly don't know where the idea of adding pumpkin into my chili came from, but damn is it good. The pumpkin adds a lovely richness to the chili that you don't get from just using broth. It also helps thicken it a bit, which I personally love.
The other additions that make this pumpkin chili perfect?
- Fire roasted diced tomatoes which add smokey and sweet
- Black beans
- Kidney beans to change things ups
- And ALL the spices!
To me, this is the perfect chili. It checks all my chili boxes and it tastes unreal.
Not only is it vegan and vegetarian, but it's easy to make and it can absolutely serve as a replacement for your favorite meat-based chili.
Not to mention, this chili is also perfect for meal prep, freezes well and can be doubled (or tripled) to serve a large crowd! I can't wait to see your recreations ♡ I know you're going to LOVE it!
More Quinoa Chili Recipes:
- Slow Cooker White Quinoa Chili
- Sweet Potato & Black Bean Quinoa Chili
- Three Alarm Vegetarian Quinoa Chili
Slow Cooker Pumpkin Quinoa Chili
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion , diced
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 red bell pepper , chopped
- 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes (fire roasted optional)
- 1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained & rinsed
- 1 (15 oz) can red kidney beans, drained & rinsed
- 1/2 cup quinoa , uncooked
- 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree (1 3/4 cups)
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon cumin , ground
- 1 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients into a slow cooker and stir to combine. Cover and turn the slow cooker to high. Let cook 4 - 6 hours on high, 6 - 8 hours on low.
- When ready to serve, stir together, add a splash more broth if needed and top with your desired toppings.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
This is absolutely delicious . My husband is not vegan but he said the quinoa was , texture wise , like meat . He said he didn’t miss the meat . On regular rotation.
Loved it!! I added a couple of extra garlics and no salt. It was still delicious! Next time I may add wheatberries. The pumpkin added a wonderful note. Thank you very much!
What makes this dish so high in sodium? What can I alter to bring the sodium content down?
Check the sodium on the ingredients you are using and that will bring your content down. The tool that calculates the nutrition does not always grab the exact ingredient we used and instead will use the nutrition from a generic ingredient. In this case, it probably pulled the facts from canned beans and broth that have very high sodium.
Love this recipe! Really delicious! The pumpkin and quinoa were a great touch!
Five stard! So good.
Hi! I’m confused about the nutrition values included on this post. Is that for the entire recipe or per serving? 217kcal doesn’t seem possible.. what’s the nutritional value for one cup please? Thanks!
This is the nutritional value per serving. I don’t have the nutritional value for one cup, but you can log your ingredients into a nutritional calculator for a better idea of what the calories of you make will be.
If cooking it on the stove, do you leave it covered or uncovered? And do you just let it sit at a simmer?
I would leave it partially covered!
Made this tonight in my slow cooker. I added a 4oz can of mild green chiles and it is delicious!
Yum!! Love the addition!
It might be useful to mention for those who scroll past to the actual recipe that the chili powder is a mix not just “chili powder”. ????My husband and I could luckily laugh about it but THNAK GOD I didn’t use a full tablespoon in this. ????Not to mention yoghurt helped a bit. Otherwise a tasty recipe ????
I actually do use full chili powder 🙂 I think the product linked is wrong! haha
I don’t know what I did wrong as I followed the recipe (wasn’t able to get the fire roasted tomatoes so went with regular ones), and it really did not go down well. I added more of the spices, sugar and a bit of lemon juice just to make it palatable. Not sure why but it tasted like it had mustard in it 🙁 Real shame as I had frozen portions of this as easy dinner for the week. Will not be trying this one again!
Hmmm I have no clue! I can’t imagine why it would have tasted like mustard…! Did you maybe mix up your spices by chance?
New household favorite!! Thank you so.kuch for sharing! My only adjustment is to eliminate the onions for an allergy. This is so good!
I’m so glad you all enjoyed it!!!
can this chili be frozen?
Absolutely!
Hi as I live in U K I don’t know what weight is in a “cup” can you tell me please as I want to make this chilli asap ? Thanks Beverley
Which ingredient are you referring to? The broth? If so, it’s 24 oz. Everything else is in weight measurements 🙂
I made this today and it was so easy!! It came out delicious! My fiancé even went back for seconds!
Awesome!!! xoxo
Hi, Alyssa,
What size slow cooker or IP would this work with. I have a 4qt slow cooker and 3qt and 6qt IP. Have the ingredients and am ready to go!
I think it would work in the 4qt and 6qt 🙂
I need a new slow cooker! Do you have a favorite?
The one in my shop!
Thank you!
Hey Alyssa!
In the youtube video for this you mentioned you could make this recipe in the instant pot- how long would you put it on for? I want to try to make it with soaked beans instead of canned beans…do you think the cook time for those beans would be enough? or would you cook the beans separately?
thanks s much!
Hi! I would definitely suggest cooking the beans separately since they will take longer than the rest of the ingredients in the chili. The chili should be about 12 mins!
What is the serving size? I know it says 6 servings (I feel like I have way more than 6). Is 1 cup a serving for this or more? Thank you!
I usually do about 1.5 cups 🙂
Hi,
I have a slow cooker but one of those I can only put in the oven or on stove, can I use a glass lid in the oven?
You should be able to!
Would it be good if I stuff this chilli in roasted bell peppers (or to roast the stuffed peppers altogether) ?
I think so! But you might want to add less liquid (or cook it with the top off) so that it ends up super thick!
This was sooooo good!!!! I, true to form, ran out of time and had to put it on top of the stove, but it was a HIT!!! I’m a vegan, but my husband and parents who are not gobbled this up and kept saying how good it was. Y’all should make this! Thanks so much for posting the recipe!!!!
YESSS! Makes me so happy 🙂 thanks, Kat! xox
To be honest, this had to grow on me. I followed the recipe exactly. I tried it after about five hours in the slow cooker, and it was bland. I added a tbsp or so of brown sugar and cayenne pepper to boost the flavor. It was ok.. The next day, it was better. The next day, it was even better… and so on. I’m not sure if the flavors had to meld or maybe it just grew on me… but now I can honestly say I love it.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!! Sometimes I find that chilis take a little while to build up flavor too 🙂
Pumpkin chili is the best ever indeed! I love this fall/winter vegetable so much that I enjoy it during any other season. My favorite way to integrate pumpkin is by adding them to oats, making pumpkin curry, or roasting kabocha squash and enjoying it plain. This is a really cool way to incorporate pumpkin in a savory dish but still using the puree! I bet it tastes wondrous!
It really is!! SO good 🙂
Love this recipe! I’m making it for the second time tonight 🙂
Thank you!! Can’t wait to try this recipe! I am trying to eat less canned food. How can I adjust liquid and cooking time if using uncooked beans and pumpkin? Do I need to first cook all beans separately and then cook per the recipe?
Hi Maria! You will need to pre-cook all of those things in order for this to work I think 🙂
I have made other recipes with uncooked black beans in the slow cooker, also with three cups of vegetable broth, and they came out great. after cooking six hours on high.
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hey, how are you today? 1st thank you so much for so many yummy recipes!!!! I have a cuestion how do you know how much to put per serving?
It should be about a 1 1/2 cups 🙂 enjoy!
Could I use water instead of vegetable broth?
Sure 🙂
This looks amazing! Can’t wait to try it! Will be making this for sure. Just need clarification on the amount of vegetable broth please. The video on YouTube says 2 cups of vegetable broth and the recipe here says 3 cups. Thanks so much for all of your awesome recipes!
I start with 2 cups, but the longer it cooks (so if you cook it for more than 4 hours), you might need to add some more 🙂
What weight is in a cup please?
Hi Alyssa!
This recipe looks amazing and I think I will make this today. My daughter doesn not have a slow cooker though so how would you adjust the recipe to make it on the stove top?
Thank you!
I would cook it for an hour or two on the stove 🙂
Could you cook it in the oven on low?
I haven’t tested that, but I think you could cook it on the stove if that’s easier 🙂