This easy Vegan Chili Mac comes together in just 30 minutes for a satisfying weeknight meal!
This Vegan Chili Mac is one of our favorite weeknight go-to dinners.
It combines pasta, hearty beans, and fresh veggies in a flavorful tomato sauce.
It is quick and simple to prepare with only 8 ingredients, but lots of cozy flavor.
A big pan of satisfying comfort food made healthy!
Ingredients for Vegan Chili Mac
For this recipe you will need:
- Elbow pasta: Use gluten-free if desired.
- Yellow onion
- Tomato sauce
- Kidney beans
- Sweet corn: Canned, frozen, or cooked fresh.
- Nutritional yeast: This provides a really nice savory, cheesy flavor.
- Chili powder: I use mild.
- Fresh baby spinach
This recipe is mild (if using a mild chili powder) so add smoky chipotle powder, cayenne, or hot sauce if you would like to kick it up.
For more inspiration, also browse all pasta and noodle recipes or 30 minute recipes.
Vegan Chili Mac
Ingredients
- 8 oz. elbow pasta (GF if desired)
- 1 yellow onion
- 15 oz. can tomato sauce
- 15 oz. can kidney beans (rinsed and drained)
- 1 1/2 cups sweet corn, cooked (I use frozen or canned)
- 3 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
- 3-4 tsp. mild chili powder*
- 1/3 cup water
- 3-4 oz. fresh baby spinach
- Salt to taste
- Optional: garlic, chipotle powder
Instructions
- Cook pasta, leaving al dente. Drain when finished.
- While pasta is cooking, dice onion.
- In a large pan over medium heat, sauté onion about 8 minutes or until translucent.
- When onion is soft, add pasta and all other ingredients except spinach.
- Reduce heat and cook 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add more water if it becomes too dry.
- Meanwhile, roughly chop spinach.
- Add spinach and cook 3 minutes. Salt to taste.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving (Estimate)
If you are enjoying this easy vegan chili mac, also feel free to check out:
- Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Mushroom Pasta
- BBQ Chickpea Chopped Salad with Avocado Ranch
- Avocado Veggie Sandwich
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Kari
Perfect! My family loved it and two teaspoons chili powder was just right.
Kaitlin
So great to hear you and your family enjoyed, Kari! Appreciate you giving it a try and sharing your kind feedback - thank you!
Sheila
Definitely going to try this. Plan on substituting white miso for the yeast. I hate the taste of the yeast but someone recently said it's the fortified nutritional yeast we don't like so look for non fortified. Anyone know of a brand that is non fortified?
Kaitlin McGinn
Hi Sheila! Excellent idea subbing in miso, I love that! It always adds such depth and great flavor. For non-fortified nutritional yeast, the brand "Sari Foods" makes one that I hear great things about (but I haven't personally tried it yet). Wishing you luck in finding one you enjoy! Have a lovely week! -Kaitlin
Sari Pratt
How much does this make? Family of 6 here!
Kaitlin | The Garden Grazer
Hi Sari! If you have younger kiddos, I bet you could stretch this one batch to feed all 6. Otherwise you may want to double it (or estimate a batch and a half). If you double it, you'll most likely have leftovers, but we love them heated up the next day. Hope you enjoy!
Christine Desmarais
Hi Kaitlin. I was wondering if it still works with frozen spinach as that's all I have right now. Thank you.
Kaitlin | The Garden Grazer
I've never tried it with frozen spinach but I bet that'd work great!
Red Beards Revenge
Thank you the recipe. I made your recipe two weeks ago and we loved it. I made it again today with a few additions/modifications; I used 2oz of spinach and 2 oz of collard greens. I added a birds-eye chili pepper, an orange bell pepper, and a pasilla pepper. Then I added a cajun spice blend. I suppose I had a craving for the spices today. All peppers are deseeded.
Kaitlin | The Garden Grazer
So great! Thanks for sharing your helpful feedback and wonderful additions!
kimberkins
Delicious. I've been vegan about 6 months now and this is real comfort food! It's a good thing I love it because I made a whole batch and it's just me. Sounds good for breakfast tomorrow.
Kaitlin | The Garden Grazer
Wonderful to hear! Thanks for sharing!
Terri Miller
I made this for dinner tonight and it was great. Comforting, but not too heavy. Definitely worthy of a repeat. Even the omnivore hubby had seconds.
Kaitlin | The Garden Grazer
That's so great!