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This chili was amazing! I had never made a vegetarian chili before, so I was skeptical, but I’m sold now 🙂
Hellooo friends! Soup season is in full swing here at our house, and the studio, and in my food heart. Here it is – the chili recipe I’ve been talking up on my Instagram stories.
And being that we’re in the middle of our series, it’s Instant Pot Chili! Whee!
Also hey forgot to mention that it’s Pumpkin Walnut Chili! Wheee!
I know. Go ahead and get your lols out. Are you kind of having a hard time believing you *actually* might let me convince you to make a chili that is loaded with – that’s right – pumpkin and walnuts? Here’s the ingredient line-up. Give me five seconds to see if I can get you on board.
- Tomatoes
- Red lentils
- Bulgur again – I’m on a kick
- Black beans
- Pumpkin
- Walnuts
- Chipotle peppers, poblano peppers, bell peppers… kinda whatever peppers you want
- Chili powder, garlic, onion
- Avocado and cilantro and maybe some green onions for topping – you know, the usual suspects.
How To Make Our Instant Pot Chili:
Walnut in chili isn’t exactly a super obvious choice, but we DID make that cauliflower walnut taco meat a few months ago, and it WAS really good, so when I made a pumpkin chili that needed a little something extra? Walnuts resurfaced.
Here’s the weird thing. You’re going to want to chop up the walnuts nice and small so they kind of resemble the texture of ground meat, and when you cook them in the Instant Pot (affiliate link) with the other chili ingredients, they get really texturally amazing – somewhere between straight crunchy and totally soft. I love love love the texture of these walnuts. I also love the taste. I tried a version that added them at the end but I didn’t like it as much. Raw walnut flavor wasn’t what I was going for here. Buy a big bag of walnuts, hold your breath, and pop em in the Instant Pot with your chili. Please report back because I think you’ll love it.
Which reminds me: the pumpkin in this recipe is almost, almost, optional. I really do love the pumpkin texture and flavor, plus, hello, FALL, but if you were to be totally weirded out by such chili foolery, you could hypothetically leave it out and it would still be super delicious.
So, PS. What’s going on with you guys this fall? Are you busy? Loving fall? Stressed? Is October feeling… well, what is it feeling?
For me, it’s feeling a lot of things, whiiich is probably best saved for another post. But on a serious-cheesy note, I want you to know that when I develop these recipes, even in the fog of all the feelings (good + bad) of the month of October, I am doing it for you, and your kids, and your friends, and your families, and your dogs and kitties who eat the scraps, because I want you to make and love these recipes, too. I am doing it to bring you a lil October joy. (AND ME TOO because I’m clearly addicted to this chili.)
When you leave comments and let me know that you tried my chocolate chip cookies, or when you send me an Instagram story of your green curry, or when you tag me in a photo of your cashew coffee? That is the full POY Joy Circle.
I hope I will be seeing a lot of this pumpkin walnut chili coming from your kitchens in the near future – I mean, we’re basically all hipsters now, so let’s at least hit up the gram with this.
XO to you, and your coziest bowl of Instant Pot chili! I just think you guys (and pumpkin and walnuts) are the best.
More Chili Love
- Queso Chicken Chili (just so so good)
- Vegetarian Chili (another fav chili made with WALNUTS)
- Sunday Chili (a good ol’ classic)
Instant Pot Pumpkin Walnut Chili
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 12 cups (!!!) half-batches are good, too. 1x
Description
Yummy vegan instant pot chili featuring red lentils, fire-roasted tomatoes, walnuts, black beans, pumpkin, chipotles, and all the good toppings. I LOVE THIS ONE.
Ingredients
Pumpkin Chili Ingredients:
- 1 28-ounce can fire-roasted tomatoes
- half an onion, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 poblano peppers, chopped
- 2–3 chipotle peppers, chopped
- 2 cups walnuts, chopped
- 1 cup red lentils
- 1 cup bulgur
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 tablespoons smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 6 cups water or broth (refill the tomato can about 2x)
Add at the end:
- 1 14-ounce can pumpkin puree
- 2 or 3 14-ounce cans black beans, rinsed and drained
Instructions
- To Start: Place all the chili ingredients in the Instant Pot (affiliate link) and set to soup mode (30 minutes).
- To Finish: Release the steam, stir in the pumpkin and black beans, and season with more salt, more spice, etc. Serve with avocado, lime wedges, cilantro, tortilla chips, rice, cornbread… whatever you like with your chili! If it’s too thick, you can always thin it out with additional water or broth.
Notes
Stovetop: Saute the onions and garlic and peppers and spices. Simmer the broth and tomatoes with the lentils and bulgur and walnuts until lentils are cooked and walnuts are a little bit soft. Add the pumpkin and black beans last.
Slow Cooker: Same as Instant Pot directions, except low heat for 6-8 hours. If it’s not thickening, keep it in a little longer. You’ll know it’s done when the lentils have softened and absorbed.
Peppers: What peppers you choose kind of depends on what you want to happen with the flavor. Red and green bell peppers would add some mild flavor and sweetness, while adding a few jalapeños, roasted poblanos, chipotles, etc. would give you heat and a more smoky flavor.
Beans: 2-3 cans of black beans is up to you – just depends on how bean-y you want the chili. Other beans (like chili beans) would work, too.
Leftovers: Half batch would be a good idea if you are a one or two person household. Making the FULL batch and freezing half might be even better. 🙂 You will need to add water to your leftovers because it gets super thick!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: instant pot chili, instant pot vegan chili, pumpkin walnut chili
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of best healthy soups. Check it out!
This is now my go-to vegetarian chili recipe. What I love: the texture and how easy it is to adjust spices after everything is cooked! This is the first vegetarian chili that I’ve made that actually would have fooled me if I didn’t know what was in it to create the texture. A few things I did differently in the ingredients include using 4 cups of a boxed, organic, vegetable stock + 2 cups filtered water and 2 tsp reduced sodium Better than Bouillon vegetable base. I omitted the salt until after cooking the main ingredients and then adjusted by adding slightly less than a tablespoon. Other seasonings I adjusted after cooking include adding 2 Tbsp of McCormick hot chili seasoning mix and one Tbsp of ground cumin. I’m used to hot chili with cumin. I love the flavor and am looking forward to tasting it after it has been in the freezer for a few weeks and the spices have gotten to know each other even better. Thank you for a great recipe. And, wow, that nutritional profile!
I did this in the instant pot and it took about 30 min to heat up, but then the burn alert came on. So it never built up pressure. It was pretty much cooked anyways, so just added the rest and still really like it. Anyone else have issues with the burn alert coming on?
All-time fave chili recipe! I’ve made this for many years using a half-bulgur, half-quinoa mix and it’s perfection!!
Thank you for this! My family had it tonight. I shopped my pantry and used some pecans and TVP that I had on hand instead of walnuts and bulgur. Also I accidentally added in the pumpkin then cooked at high pressure for 7 minutes because I was in a rush to get dinner on the table. It worked! Great recipe.
I have made this several times. I substitute pecans when I make it for people allergic to walnuts. I also use sweet potato instead of pumpkin! Delicious, just very thick!
This chili is so tasty! I was questioning how all these ingredients would come together, but it’s perfect!
Made this – DELICIOUS. I skipped the bulgur as other posters have done. I used leftover dried chili sauce (I think it was from guajillo peppers?) and added some cumin and a tsp. of cocoa. I did not end up using the pumpkin because I used so much of the chili sauce, but will try it next time. The walnuts are delicious! I will chop them smaller next time though, I left many of them as halves and bits.
This was really good! I went to a Syrian grocery store to get the bulgar and wasn’t sure which kind to use, ground or whole, so I went with ground. I also made a half batch and used 1 jalapeno pepper which gave it a mild spicy flavour. Really impressed!
We had a super bowl chili cook-off today and I entered this chili as the only vegetarian entry. It won first place in a landslide victory! It’s so good!
My favorite chili. full stop.
What a fantastic chili! I’m vegetarian and my husband is an omnivore, and we loved it equally. I love how I could just dump all of the ingredients into the Instant Pot and press a button in a single step. I would recommend stirring all of the ingredients except for the tomatoes, then adding the tomatoes to the top and not stir (tomatoes can sometimes cause a burn error if they touch the side of the IP). This is a great vegan option for a holiday meal that will please everyone from vegan to carnivore!
I am not a fan of chili, but my family loves it. I made this when a friend recommended it; knowing I don’t like traditional chili. This is really really tasty. My dinner guests loved it along with my family. Only thing I had to change was the walnuts, because of a food allergy. I used pecans and it turned out excellent!
This came out SO good. So simply and packed with nutrition and flavor. Thank you!!
The depth of flavor in this chili was amazing! I will be making this a lot this fall & winter. (I had food allergy, so used pecans instead of walnuts)
Pecans would be a great sub here. Thanks for sharing, Heidi!
My chili turned out very thick and did not have the texture I expect of a chili. I’m really sensitive to food textures and could not eat this off a spoon, but it was delicious once I replaced my spoon with tortilla chips!
Thanks for sharing, Macia!
Fantastic chili and so darn easy to make – will be a staple for winters to come!
How long do you think this would be good in the freezer?
It should last for a couple months, maybe 3!
Could I add dry black beans to this recipe in the instant pot? Would I need to change the time or setting?
We haven’t tested this recipe using dried black beans. I’m assuming you would need to extend the cook time!
I followed the Slow Cooker directions and it turned to a big pot of thick mush. Gross
So sorry to hear that! We appreciate the feedback.
Loved this Chili. We used Quinoa instead of Bulgur and it worked great. We chopped the walnuts too small, will chop them rougher next time. Also used Halloween pumpkin roasted in the oven instead of canned purée.
I can’t wait to try this and make extra for a friend who was in an accident. One question…do you recommend dry chipotle peppers (soaked in water and chopped up) or canned in adobo sauce? Thanks so much!
We use the canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce! Thanks for the question!
Ok, maybe it’s just me, but that is ONE 14 oz can of pumpkin, right? Not a 114 oz can?
I won’t tell you how long I looked for this size in the store…I blame pandemic brain.
Yes, you got it! 1 can (14 ounces) of pumpkin!
Love this recipe! If I want to do a half batch in the Instapot, does that change the cook time?
We’d keep the same cook time!
Hi Lindsay. Thank you for the this tasty filling recipe! I have made it a couple times already in the Instapot. I’m newer to the Instapot though – so if I make a half batch next time, do I just half the Instapot cook time to 15 mins? Thank you!
Hi Emily! 15 minutes seems a little short. We’d suggest cooking for at least 20 minutes.
This looks so yummy!! what adjustments would i need to do if i was using fresh pumpkin and pre-soaked black beans? I’m using 8qt size instant pot. Thanks!
We’d use 2 cups of pumpkin and about 3 cups of cooked black beans. These two ingredients will be added in after the chili cooks. Enjoy!