The Original Chili with Vegetables Recipe (No Beans)

Recipe

This chili with vegetables is thick, hearty, and loaded with ground beef and veggies instead of beans. It’s an easy, flavor-packed chili recipe that has been a family and reader favorite for years.

This chili with vegetables recipe makes a thick, meaty chili loaded with veggies in every spoonful. There are no beans here, and I guarantee that you won’t miss them.

overhead view of a bowl of chili with vegetables topped with avocado, cheese, and some sour cream with a hand spooning out some

I made your chili today for my church’s chili cook-off and won 1st place! -Michelle

The Original Chili with Veggies

Laura fuentes holding a skillet of food standing in front of a blue door

This is the original chili with veggies recipe I first shared in 2014, when I was following a strict Paleo diet and needed to make great-tasting meals my family would also eat.

It got my kids to eat more vegetables, and to date, not one has complained about the lack of beans in this beef chili. The flavor is spot-on, has won blue ribbons in chili contests, and remains super popular with my readers.

Ingredients

This chili starts with ground beef and plenty of vegetables: onion, celery, carrots, garlic, and zucchini. The right mix of chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt, and cayenne makes it incredibly flavorful, and tomato puree (or crushed tomatoes) and diced tomatoes create the thick tomato base.

How to Make Chili with Vegetables

Sauté the beef and veggies.
Brown the ground beef, breaking it apart as it cooks, then transfer it to a plate. Sauté all the chopped veggies with the seasonings, adding the zucchini last so it doesn’t get too soft.
Build the chili and simmer.
Return the beef to the pot, add the tomato base, bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Make sure to stir from time to time.

Serve.
Spoon into bowls and add your favorite chili toppings such as avocado, shredded cheese, sour cream, sliced jalapeños, and bacon crumbles. I also love serving it with something crunchy, like crackers or tortilla chips.

Laura’s Tips for The Best Chili

Do I need to add liquid to this chili?

When you first combine the cooked meat and all the vegetables in the pot with the tomato base, it will look very thick. As the veggies cook down, they’ll release their moisture, which adds liquid to the base. This recipe is intentionally thick, but you can thin it out after it’s simmered, right before serving, by adding some broth or stock (one cup at a time) until you reach a chili consistency you enjoy. overhead view of cooked chili with vegetables adding broth to thin it out

What other vegetables can I put in chili?

You can swap the carrots for diced sweet potatoes or the zucchini for butternut squash. Mushrooms are also an easy add-in; sauté about 8 ounces with the other vegetables.

Storing and freezing leftovers

This meat and veggie chili tastes even better as it sits, so leftovers are great for the next few days. Refrigerate for up to 4 days, or once cooled, freeze the chili for up to 3 months.

Do vegetables instead of beans make good chili?

Absolutely. This recipe uses ground beef and plenty of chopped vegetables instead of beans, so it’s still thick, hearty, and filling. The zucchini, carrots, celery, and onions also cook down into the chili rather than making it taste like a bowl of vegetables so you won’t miss the beans, guaranteed.

Is this chili Paleo?

Yes! In fact, the original name was my all-meat-and-veggie Paleo chili because it had no beans, and I was eating grain-free and Paleo for health reasons back then. Over time, everyone started calling it the "chili with vegetables recipe," and here we are.

Can I make it in the slow cooker or Instant Pot?

Absolutely. You’ll still have to brown the beef for both. This meat and veggie chili in the crockpot can be cooked for 4 hours on HIGH or 6 hours on LOW. The InstantPot is similar but quicker, so follow the Instant Pot version of this chili.

How can I make it spicier?

Sauté ½ to 1 chopped jalapeño with the vegetables, or increase the cayenne pepper to ½ teaspoon. You can also top it with fresh jalapeño rounds.

overhead view of a dutch oven with chili with vegetables using a ladle to serve with two bowls on the table filled with chili and topped with avocado, cheese, and sour cream and crackers on the side

More Chili Recipes

If you’re into great-tasting chili recipes with lots of veggies and no beans, try my no-bean ground chicken chili, this ground turkey chili without beans, or my sweet potato Paleo chili. Or browse all my chili recipes here.

Husband-Approved Chili with Vegetables

overhead view of a dutch oven with chili with vegetables using a ladle to serve

Servings: 8

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 40

Total Time: 50

This chili with vegetables is thick, hearty, and loaded with ground beef and veggies instead of beans. It's an easy, flavor-packed chili recipe that has been a family and reader favorite for years.

5 from 244 votes

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Watch how it’s made:

Ingredients

1 ½ pounds ground beef
2 tablespoons oil
1 large onion, 1 ½ cups diced
2 stalks celery, ½ cup chopped
4 carrots, 1 ½ cups diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional
3 medium zucchinis, 4 cups diced small
15 ounce can tomato puree, or crushed tomatoes
15 ounce can diced tomatoes, with liquid

Instructions

Prep

Chop all the veggies and set aside. Measure the seasonings into a small dish and set aside.

Sauté

In a 5-quart Dutch oven or soup pot, brown the beef over medium-high heat, breaking it up as you go, for about 7 minutes, until it's cooked. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the ground meat onto a plate. Drain excess fat, if needed.
Add the oil, onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and seasonings to the pot and cook for about 5 minutes, until the onions are translucent and the veggies have softened a little. They'll finish cooking later. Add the zucchini, stir to combine it with the vegetables, and cook everything in the pot for 2 more minutes.
Add the cooked beef, pureed or crushed tomatoes, and diced tomatoes to the pot and stir to combine. At first, it'll look like there's not enough liquid, but as the vegetables simmer down and release the liquid, you'll have more. Bring the mixture to a boil while stirring.

Cook

When the chili is simmering, reduce the heat to the lowest setting that keeps the simmer, cover, and continue cooking for another 30 minutes, stirring the chili occasionally. Towards the end of cooking time, you'll see that the vegetables have released a lot of their liquid and the chili is now thick and hearty. See notes on how to thin it out.

Serve and store

Serve the chili warm, with your favorite toppings.
This chili is the type that tastes better the next day! Once cooled, transfer the leftovers to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days. Or freeze it for up to 3 months.

Notes

This chili is thick, and my family and readers have enjoyed it as is. If you add extra veggies and need to thin out the chili, add 1 cup of broth, stock, or water after it has simmered, and mix to combine.

overhead view of cooked chili with vegetables adding broth to thin it out

Swaps:

Carrots for Sweet potatoes, same amount diced.
Zucchini for Butternut squash: fresh or frozen, both work.
Ground beef for ground turkey or chicken: A leaner option, though less fatty and slightly drier.
Sliced mushrooms with the veggies for extra depth of flavor.

Make it spicier: