Few would describe me as a picky eater. But I have almost always said no to chili, specifically the meaty variety. Too heavy, too one-note, too … much. Even vegetarian chilies have become casualties of this way of thinking. I’m perpetually drowning in canned beans, but I have historically preferred to use them in salads and dips and burritos and soups — rarely, if ever, in chili. I recently reminded a friend of this aversion, to which she replied, “That’s obviously absurd.” She’s right, and she should say it.
Will 2026 be the year I finally get into chili? Place your bets now. Vegetarian chili is the means to a handful of resolutionary ends: Eat more fiber. Spend less on takeout. Cook through my pantry reserves.
There are, thankfully, a few recipes that have made me reconsider the genre entirely. The most memorable is Yasmin Fahr’s five-star harissa and white bean chili, which my friend Elissa first made for me a couple of autumns ago, serving it with a skillet cornbread and plenty of sliced avocado, cilantro and lime. It was revelatory, with a depth of flavor seemingly unachievable in only 30 minutes. And yet, with a bold chile paste like harissa, it is more than possible. The nontraditional elements — lots of baby spinach, soy sauce, a brothier base — are what won me, a chili skeptic, over.
That’s why I am also drawn to Ali Slagle’s farro and bean chili. While chili powder and fire-roasted tomatoes are more traditional, the inclusion of nubby farro — one of my favorite grains — eschews expectations. Here, its texture is reminiscent of ground meat and its starchiness gives the stew plenty of body, but heavy it is not. Use whatever bean you like, whether pinto, black or otherwise.
Lidey Heuck’s vegetarian chili with butternut squash and Moroccan spices is also a lighter take on the form, drawing me in with its use of chickpeas and cauliflower in lieu of kidney beans. I love the extra dose of cinnamon, which softens the edges of chili powder, paprika and cumin for a warmer, richer stew. Jocelyn Ramirez turns to a pinch of cinnamon to round out her black bean chili with mushrooms, and notes that a Mexican lager can stand in for about half of the vegetable broth — a great use for the case of Modelos that ended up in my apartment on New Year’s Eve ahead of what I’d hoped would be a drier January.
You can further switch things up with frozen corn and tubers, a la Sarah DiGregorio’s spicy black bean and sweet potato chili, or with eggplant, carrots and lentils, a la Kay Chun’s eggplant and bean chili. But you don’t have to! You needn’t have more than an onion, some garlic, a couple spices, and a few cans of beans and tomatoes for Melissa Clark’s vegetarian skillet chili, another recipe that has moved my cold, chili-hating heart. It is the final boss of pantry cooking: streamlined, satisfying and endlessly adaptable.
“I made this tonight (my bean choice was cannellini) and I knew it would be good because, hey, it’s Melissa,” a reader wrote, “but it was ASTONISHINGLY good. And my meat-loving husband adored it, too. I see why it’s five stars.” One of those five-star ratings? Yeah, I left it!
Spicy Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili
One More Thing!
In for 2026? Chili, obviously. But also: being a restaurant regular. “In the age of reservation apps and white-hot viral restaurants, dinner has begun to feel less like leisure than logistics: refreshing screens, climbing wait lists, setting alarms,” Carson Griffith writes in her story on the many benefits of loyalty. “As an antidote, some diners are prizing places that strike a warmer note, where the experience moves at the pace of a relationship, not a countdown. At restaurants where a host looks up and knows their names, they are perfecting the vanishing art of being a regular.”
To walking in! Thanks for reading, and see you next week.
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